B7609 - Sem. Fiscal Sovereignty and European Integration

Learning outcomes

The seminar is part of the educational activities of the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration” and complies with the objectives of the Jean Monnet Action promoted by the EU. It aims to summarize the current framework of relations between national financial systems and European systems, in the process of progressive integration that characterizes them, adopting the notion of fiscal sovereignty in the contemporary age as a reconstructive perspective. This concept, central to the tradition of political and legal studies of the state, will be examined in relation to the fundamental components of public finance: taxation, debt, and currency. The progressive formation of a genuine European fiscal capacity, which is complementing and integrating with that of the states, in a more complex framework of global economic and geopolitical dynamics, requires us to question and rethink the traditional category of financial sovereignty and to seek to understand its contradictory processes of erosion, revival, and transformation over the last decade. The seminar is methodologically informed by the criteria of legal analysis and, in particular, public finance and tax law, but will be interdisciplinary in nature, promoting comparison with other legal areas and scientific fields (economics, politics). There are two main objectives: on the one hand, to stimulate students to engage in critical, broad, and reasoned reflection on how all powers of public budget financing (taxation, borrowing, money creation) are subject to a process of restructuring and reallocation within an increasingly multi-level system of relations between (national and international) legal orders; on the other hand, to promote understanding of how this constitutes a fundamental challenge and a necessary turning point for the construction of a European legal, economic, and social system that can be truly cohesive, resilient, fair, and sustainable.

Course contents

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore topics in public finance law, tax law, EU law and public law, with particular reference to current political and institutional developments. In particular, it will address topics relating to the effects that the process of European economic integration, within the broader context of international political and economic dynamics, has had and is having on the nature of state sovereignty. This will focus, in particular, on certain traditional attributes typical of the sovereign: the levying of taxes, the issuance and management of currency, and the unlimited capacity to issue so-called sovereign debt.

During the seminars, some of the macro-themes listed below will be addressed; these will be selected and explored in detail primarily in the light of current political, economic and institutional events and issues. The lectures are tentatively scheduled to take place from March 2027 until the end of the teaching term in May 2027.

• The categories of financial power and fiscal power and their critical re-examination: sovereignty, government, governance
• National fiscal sovereignty in the context of European economic integration and international economic relations: the processes of tax coordination and tax harmonisation
• Fiscal sovereignty and international trade: customs duties and the European Customs Union

Sovereignty in matters of public expenditure and tax expenditure, and the impact of prohibitions and conditions laid down by EU law

Sovereign debt, the European Union’s public debt and their sustainability

The path towards European fiscal sovereignty: an overview of the European Union’s budget planning and management

The detailed and comprehensive timetable of sessions, specifying lecture theatres and times, will be published in the section of virtuale.unibo.it dedicated to the seminar and on the dedicated website for the Jean Monnet Chair in ‘Public Finance Law and European Integration’ [https://site.unibo.it/pubfine/it]

Readings/Bibliography

The texts and bibliographies will be divided into ‘general materials’ (covering broad topics) and ‘in-depth materials’ (for each seminar session, based on the specific topic and title of the session). All materials will be published in the virtuale.unibo.it section for the course in the current academic year.

The study materials will be differentiated between students attending and those not attending the seminar (see the following section on “teaching methods”).

The study materials will include, amongst other things, certain chapters from the volume edited by A. Mondini, “Lezioni di Diritto della finanza pubblica europea”, Wolters-Kluwer CEDAM, 2025. The book can be accessed via the “La Mia Biblioteca WKI” database, available on the University Library service website sba.unibo.it. The chapters of the book to be studied and other texts specified for each individual seminar (slides, lecture notes, articles) will differ for attending and non-attending students and will be listed or made available in the seminar section on virtuale.unibo.it.

On virtuale.unibo.it, the compulsory reading for both attending and non-attending students will be listed for each seminar. A number of optional further reading materials will also be listed.

Teaching methods

The seminar consists of a variable number of lectures (from 6 to 8) for a total of 16 hours, from March to May 2027.

Classes will be held in person with attendance recorded, and attendance at all seminar meetings is recommended. Attendance will be recorded by collecting signatures. Attendance status is acquired by participating in at least 90% of the lesson hours (14 hours). Only physical presence in the classroom will be taken into consideration, even if some seminars will be held in a mixed mode on the Microsoft Teams platform of Unibo. All meetings will be audio-video recorded and will be accessible upon request by interested students for a limited period of time after the seminar.

The lessons will have an interdisciplinary and strictly seminar-based approach: they will all be held or attended by the course lecturer, and speakers (professors, scholars, and experts) from other scientific disciplines, both legal (EU law, constitutional law, public law, administrative law, tax law, etc.) and economic and political sciences, from the University of Bologna or other universities/research centers, will be invited to participate. Some meetings will take the form of conferences/conventions open to the external public. etc.) and economics and political science, from the University of Bologna or other universities/research centers. Some meetings will take the form of conferences/conventions open to the public. Discussion and debate with students will be encouraged.

Assessment methods

Oral examination

To pass the seminar, students must sit an oral examination. Following the examination, candidates are assessed as either ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ based on their performance.

During the interview, candidates will be asked questions (usually three) based on the concepts and knowledge acquired through attendance at lectures and critical reading of the study texts and teaching materials. The questions in the oral interview will focus on the topics indicated in the “Program and contents” section. To prepare for the exam, students are required to study the materials, texts, and readings indicated in the “Texts/Bibliography” section and consult the main legislation referred to in the texts and during the lessons.

The questions aim to verify, among other things, whether the student has learned the concepts related to the legal institutions studied, whether they are able to explain the main issues concerning the topics studied through correct legal reasoning, whether they have acquired the necessary argumentation skills for interpreting the rules and for analyzing and solving legal problems, and whether they are able to critically apply the knowledge acquired, also referring to the content of the rules, case law, and doctrine. 

Special and facilitated examination methods.

Special and facilitated forms of assessment (at the student's discretion) are available as part of the overall activities of the Jean Monnet Chair in Public Finance Law and European Integration.

1. A single oral examination for the seminar and the Public Finance Law exam, with a question on a topic of the candidate’s choice. Students who have attended both the Public Finance Law course and the seminar B7609 - SEM. FISCAL SOVEREIGNTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION in the academic year 2026/2027 may take the seminar assessment together with the Public Finance Law course exam in a single interview (approximately 5 questions in total). During the part of the interview relating to the seminar (two questions), one of the questions asked to the student may concern a topic chosen by the student. In order to be admitted to this facilitated examination procedure, students must attend at least 75% of the seminar hours, i.e., 12 hours out of 16 (the difference between the study materials required for students with 90% attendance and for other students who do not attend remains unchanged).

2. Mixed exam format (written paper + oral discussion of the paper) for students who attend 100% of the seminar plus attendance/exam in Public Finance Law. Students who attend both the Publica Finance Law course in the academic year 2026/2027 (or who have already taken the Public Finance Law exam in previous academic years) and all the meetings of seminar B7609 - SEM. FISCAL SOVEREIGNTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION (100% attendance), in addition to being able to take the exam together with the Public Finance Law course (see previous point), may submit a written paper for the seminar portion of the exam. The paper must be at least 40,000 characters (including spaces) and must deal with and explore, with the support of adequate bibliographic research, a topic agreed upon in advance with the instructor. The topic must be agreed upon in advance, with sufficient time before the exam date on which the student intends to register, no less than 25 days in advance: this option is therefore not available for the first exam session in May 2027). The topic of the paper must relate to some of the topics covered during the seminar. The paper must be submitted to the professor no later than seven days before the exam date. If the student chooses this assessment method, they will discuss the paper with the professor during the oral exam related to the seminar. In this case, the professor may also ask the student questions on relevant topics related to the topic covered in the paper and discussed during the seminar.

3. Joint examination with questions on topics of the student’s choice, provided the student is also enrolled in and attending another of the 1 ECTS credit seminars offered by the Jean Monnet Chair in ‘Public Finance Law and European Integration’ -  (B7609 SEM. FISCAL SOVEREIGNTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION + C9653 SEM. EUROPEAN PUBLIC FINANCE AND THE PROTECTION OF RIGHTS or + C9654 SEM. EURO AND PUBLIC FINANCE). Students who, in the 2026/2027 academic year, include in their study plan and attend not only seminar B7609 but also one of the other seminars offered by the Jean Monnet Chair as indicated, will be able to sit the relevant examinations in a single oral examination (approximately 3–4 questions in total), with one question on a topic of their choice for each of the two seminars. The minimum attendance requirement for this arrangement is 70 per cent of the total teaching hours for both seminars combined (17 hours out of a total of 24 [16+8]). These same students will also be eligible for the concessions set out in points 1 and 2 above, provided the relevant requirements and conditions are met (in the case of 100 per cent attendance at both seminars, only one paper may be submitted for one of the two seminars, whilst the examination for the other must be taken in the form of an oral examination).

Teaching tools

Any slides used during the seminar by the lecturers will be published on virtuale.unibo.it, along with brief handouts, texts and materials, and links to databases on European public finance.

Students with learning disabilities or temporary or permanent disabilities are invited to contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it) in advance. The office will propose any adjustments, which must be submitted 15 days in advance for approval by the lecturer, who will assess their suitability in relation to the course objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Mondini