With the "Thyssen Lectures" the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is continuing a tradition that is initiated beginning in Germany in 1979 and followed by venues at a series of universitites 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 (CIELL), and is dedicated to the framework topic of "the EU as a community of European law and values".

A NEW MODEL OF DEMOCRACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?

Although the principle of democracy serves - at least de iure - as the foundation for the exercise of state power throughout the world, the threats being posed to democratic governance are apparent. This is not only the case with regard to the growing concentration of power in systems that are already chracterised as "authorian" like Russia, China and Turkey. But even consolidated democracies see themselves confronted with major challenges, however.

The internationalisation of decision-making, for example, while originally perceived as progress, is running up against mounting criticism as "undemocratic", while reservations exist when it comes to basing decision-making purely on expert knowledge, nor is it easy to counter populist tendencies. All this raises the question as to what extent new principles need to be elaborated for democratic governance in the 21st century.