With the "Thyssen Lectures" the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is continuing a tradition that it initiated in Germany in 1979 and followed by venues at a series of universities in the Czech Republic, Israel, the Russian Republic and, most recently, in Turkey. The series in Greece is being organised for a period of four years under the leadership of Prof. Vassilios Skouris, former President of the European Court of Justice and current Director of the Centre of International and European Economic Law (CIEEL), and is dedicated to the framework topic of "the EU as a community of European law and values. The European Union as a Democratic Federation The description of the European Union as a "federation" not only provides a suitable conceptfor its political form, but also allows a comparative perspective between its current problems and the history of other federations, especially the United States of America. Conflicts of competence and political valuesd as we see them within the current EU are typical problems with many historical examples. Yet experiences also teach us that there are hardy any purely legal means to solve them politically . An institutional problem without historical precedence is the absence of a European government. i.e.a body that bears the central political responsibility and provides with political leadership. Governmental functions within the EU are still scattered around different institutions and powerful member states.