The European Union institution is a creation of the state and increasingly resembles it. However, the determination of the type of organization implemented by the European Union has been and remains highly ambiguous, both for science and politics.

This ambiguity is compounded by the fact that today's European Union structure includes nearly all existing and accepted forms of political organization (federation, confederation, etc.), with the central feature being the famous "community method," whose core characteristics establish the unique nature of the European Union in relation to both the state and traditional international organizations.

Thus, a new complex form of organization emerges, which possesses the main features of, as Hix accurately formulates, a "political system, but not a state," which, while transcending the boundaries of a centralized and territorially defined state, coexists in its development with the political systems of the member countries that comprise it.

In other words, the process of European integration constitutes the ever-evolving framework within which the state as a political organization is transformed, shaping the political system of the European Union—and vice versa.

From this perspective, the present collective volume, structured in two parts, aims to introduce students to the political system of the European Union. After two introductory texts on the history and theories of integration, Part A analyzes the Union’s Political System in all its dimensions, with ten texts covering institutions, decision-making and implementation processes, elements of Union law—competences, legal acts, Court of Justice of the Union—Fundamental Rights, Economic and Monetary Union, Union administration, interest groups, and political parties.

Part B features sixteen contributions analyzing the Union’s main policies, structured according to Th. Lowi's typology of public policies—regulatory, distributive/re-distributive, and constitutive.

This scholarly and teaching manual involves young researchers, Greek Public Administration officials, and university professors from Greek institutions—Panteion University, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Peloponnese, University of Western Macedonia—and European universities—Hasselt, Erasmus Rotterdam, Warwick.