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Spyros Stamoulis
The formation of the European Higher Education Area: the case of the greek Technological Educational Institutes (TEI)
The first question of the PhD thesis was about the evolution of the integration process in the field of educational policy. However this process does not take place separated from the member states as the European Union (EU) reserves for them a central place in the Union building. This is the reason why the research also raised a question about policies which concern the Greek Tertiary Education. More specifically the formation of the agenda and the reforms undertaken in the Greek Higher Education in the light of the participation of Greece in the EU and Bologna Process, were investigated having chosen as a case study the TEIs.
The factual material from interviews with former Greek Ministers of Education and Officials and policy analysis proved that at the European level, education policy has been developed historically through the promotional role of the European Court of Justice and the European Commission over time. On the other hand, the study proved that of EU policies on education and training policy revealed the weaknesses of TEIs and created pressures for change and renovation of this type of institution, which ultimately, among others, led to their integration in the Greek Higher Education. This however, has not resulted in the change of the way that policies are performed. The Greek state still fails to understand the effects and functions of the EU institutional and political system in all its dimensions. Hence the Greek state produces policies in a reactive manner without having consulted sufficiently with the academic community and its representatives. At the same time, it appears to be a weak state, failing to impose its will on organized interests and to implement its policies in practice through the daily functioning of institutions.
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Evangelia Katakalou
The European Research & Technology Area: the case of Social Sciences and the Humanities (ongoing)
This PhD thesis addresses the creation of a real "European Research Area" (ERA) focusing on the research field of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). In this respect, it applies an eclectic approach to the analysis of EU research policy combining the theoretical and methodological tools of two subfields in political science; comparative politics and public policy. It traces the epistemological and methodological characteristics of SSH, explores the current status in SSH studies -both in the context of the ERA but also globally- and sheds light on the reasons why SSH research is considered to be lagging behind in comparison to the natural/positive sciences. Finally, it introduces a deontological approach suggesting a new role for EU-funded SSH research, namely as an input in the various stages of EU policy process, in accordance to the "evidence-based policy-making" paradigm.
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Katerina Lymperopoulou
The European asylum policy and the role of NGOs (ongoing)
In order to strengthen its democratic legitimacy, the European Union seeks to engage in a dialogue with actors of the civil society. Several non-governmental organizations act both at national and supranational level, trying to influence the policy process. More specifically, the recent years, with regard to the asylum policy, the European Commission is seeking cooperation with international organizations, as well as NGOs, which are the final recipients of its financial assistance, in order to tackle the refugee crisis. In my research, I will try to map civil society actors working in the field of asylum, explore the influence they receive from the EU as well as its effects. Regarding my theoretical approach, I will use the theory of Europeanisation in order to identify the extent of the EU's influence on NGOs, taking as a starting point both the EU and its institutions, as well as domestic NGOs, which attempt to exploit “opportunities” provided to them. At the same time, I will use the tools provided by policy analysis, as well as social theory, in order to analyze civil society and the dynamics that develop within it.
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Evlampia Petraki
EU governance new modes and methods: their impact on the evolution of the European Commission in the realm of polity and policy design (ongoing)
The goal of this dissertation is two-fold: First, it identifies the gradual transformation of the Commission into the nucleus of an emergent European executive order, by verifying clear hypothesis/dependent variables. Secondly, it substantiates that new EU governance modes/methods and relevant dynamics (independent variable) favour the institutional and functional empowerment of the Commission (dependent/intervening variable). Another intervening variable is the disruption of the EU institutional balance on the pretext of a multi-faceted crisis that altered the relationship between principals and agents in European institutional architecture. The EU polity deficit stands as the antecedent variable of the research.
A main question which is posed is the accretion of latent political/administrative power to the Commission (supported by a fragmented but still discernible multi-tiered administration, composed of mushrooming EU-level and national-level agencies/committees) within the EU institutional framework or even by bypassing it, as it is the case in EU economic governance or BREXIT pre-negotiations. The researcher has a long-standing interest in the precedence of economic interests over politics, as confirmed by the drift of the EU/Commission towards an opaque, non-purely intergovernmental "directorate", based on power brokers and expressed through national and supranational "Sherpas".
The research is performed within more than one disciplines as multidisciplinarity (or even interdisciplinarity) is inherent in the understanding of the EU polity/political system: EU institutional law, legislative studies, comparative politics. The effects of comparative constitutional law (organisational design) and historical institutionalism (that studies European integration as a political process which unfolds over time) are clear. In the context of this research, Governance is perceived as a meta-legal analytical framework that reveals the (institutional) change/evolution rather than a normative concept that addresses legitimacy-led issues. As far as the methodology is concerned, the approach is deductive, based on in-depth primary and secondary qualitative research and on explanatory reasoning.
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Eftychia Theodosiou
European Union and Aviation: the example of the Single European Sky (ongoing)
In the European Union is growing a hegemony of the stronger european member states, tending to its transformation into a political arrangement without political and social base guarantees. This european construction deregulates internal european relations and reduces state sovereignty of the less powerful member states. Thus, the most powerful european member states apply a kind of denationalisation of the European Union, according to the basic principles of their national aspirations. It is a form of a european globalization referred to as european integration. This strategy appears also as a predominant practice on transport issues.
Transport is a highly specialized sector, connected with economic growth, technological progress and the european perspective of free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, the four fundamental freedoms of the european construction created by the Founding Treaty of Rome (1957) . The gradual liberalization of transport started with the Maastricht Treaty (1992). Describing the european transport policy one could say that is complex, uneven, fragmentary and deeply dependent on the international environment and national interests of the powerful european member states so as they have been formed historically, according to their geopolitical-geostrategic position. It seems that the european elite, due to various and mostly internal reasons, appears unable to formulate and implement a common and clear european aviation policy / strategy, with durability and stability. The progress achieved, slowly and gradually, is the result of a complex and multidimensionalprocess.
The subject of this study is the european policy on air transport, which is a factor of the european development policy, cohesion and employment policy. It is a sector with special characteristics and attracts the attention with the creation of the Single European Sky, a new aviation organization model and management of european airspace. This exercise goes beyond the limits of national member states and has been questioned by member states for its political and managerial integration.
This study tends to demonstrate that european aviation policy is nothing more than the offset of the aviation policies of the european member states and that in terms of design does not follow the theory of networks where the whole is stronger than the parts that compose it.
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Spyros Stamoulis
The formation of the European Higher Education Area: the case of the greek Technological Educational Institutes (TEI)
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Evangelia Katakalou
The European Research & Technology Area: the case of Social Sciences and the Humanities (ongoing)
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Katerina Lymperopoulou
The European asylum policy and the role of NGOs (ongoing)
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Evlampia Petraki
EU governance new modes and methods: their impact on the evolution of the European Commission in the realm of polity and policy design (ongoing)
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Eftychia Theodosiou
European Union and Aviation: the example of the Single European Sky (ongoing)
