The EU's Economic Defense Instruments: Ensuring economic security and strategic autonomy in a shifting geopolitical context

ongoing

The proposed Module entitled ‘The EU’s Economic Defense Instruments: Ensuring economic security and strategic autonomy in a shifting geopolitical context’ is a higher education programme aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the EU’s legal instruments restricting unfair trade and investments in the EU’s market where necessary to ensure the EU’s economic security and strategic autonomy. The Module will be offered by the Department of EU Studies of the Faculty of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It will comprise the following activities, running on an annual basis: 1) a Specialised Seminar offered as an optional module to the Faculty of Law’s undergraduate students; 2) a Specialised LL.M Module offered to the Faculty’s students reading for the LL.M.s in International and European Studies and 3) a Short Intensive Course, focusing, in particular, on the EU’s newly-adopted ‘investment defence instruments’, namely the legislative instruments restricting foreign investments in the EU, which will be addressed to a wider audience, ranging from students to practitioners, public officials, policymakers and judges. The primary objective of the Module is to promote and advance the knowledge and awareness of a recently developed field in EU studies, that of the EU’s legislative instruments restricting unfair trade and investments that may affect the EU’s economic security and strategic autonomy, while explaining its synergies with the EU and the Member States’ international obligations based on international agreements that they (together or individually) have concluded with third countries. The proposed Module has increased added value not only for students at Greek Universities, but also for a wider range of EU and non-EU actors and stakeholders active in the fields of trade and investment. The members of the teaching staff are distinguished and early career academics, as well as experienced professionals in the field of EU and international economic law.