ABOUT THE PROJECT
The main research question of this project: What future is there for the EU and how to bring it about? is thus of a huge theoretical and practical importance. Theoretically, it takes up the most important research challenge facing the scholars of European integration. In practical terms, this challenge sits at the heart of national and supranational political debates and has, necessarily, also trickled down to the common people. Essentially, this is the political question of the EU. It concerns the very viability of the integration process, now and in the future. Political answers are directed to practices, eg to affect actual institutional changes. However, they can only do so successfully, subject to other constraints of the process of social construction of reality, if they are informed by coherent theories.
RESEARCH GROUP
The project group is composed of the research group of the Faculty of Government and European Studies at the New University. The project load is 3193 hours per annum.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The research within the framework of this project benefits from an intense international cooperation. The researcher team of the New University will be assisted by an international Academic Advisory Board as well as by the Network of EU Constitutional Experts who will take part in the academic events of the project as guest lecturers and/or researchers.
GOALS OF THE PROJECT
FIRST STAGE will last from 0 – 9 months and will consist of mapping out very precisely the conceptual substance and borders of the three visions of the EU and of the three disparate theories of the EU they have been informed with. The goal of this stage is to elucidate the underlying, background theories, informing the different approaches to the question of the object and purpose of the EU and the modalities of its existence in the future. Essentially, this amounts to testing the hypothesis No 1.
