ABSTRACT
Without doubt, the European Union has become, as a result of 50 years of political, economical and legal integration, a landmark achievement in world history. The European Union is a major economic player in the world and a unique political system. In contrast to (historically) earlier multilingual and multicultural polities, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Russian Empire, it has been constructed through relatively peaceful means by a gradual transformation and reconstruction of the European nation-state. To be steered, larger and increasingly interdependent units require the administrative and political innovations that the European Union abounds with. These include a unique ‘federation of states’, a variety of institutional arrangements that combine intergovernmental and supranational elements, a currency and a common trade policy for its member states, institutions such as the European Ombudsman that link ordinary citizens to supranational institutions, new institutional groups such as European Commissioners and European Parliamentarians that combine regional, national and supranational social roles, and a European legal system that has enforced its superiority over national law. Moreover, the rise of the EU has triggered the development of a series of other experts specialised in European affairs. Finally, in the latest incarnation of the European treaty — the Lisbon Treaty — Europe institutionalises its international role with the office of a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Certainly, understanding this myriad of formal and informal institutions and policy-fields requires a research strategy which cuts across the imposing institutional facade and instead tackles some of the underlying questions of the process at large.
