Marilena Koppa, PhD, is Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of European, International and Area Studies of Panteion University and author of several articles on Balkan Politics, minority issues, democratization, nationalism and European Security and Defence. She is an Athens Law school graduate. She obtained her Ph.D on Comparative Politics at Paris–X Nanterre University (1991). For years she worked as a special adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues pertaining to European integration and enlargement. She has been a member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2014. She was the Coordinator of the S&D Group at the Subcommittee on Security and Defense and also Vice-chairperson of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.. She has published three books on South-eastern Europe: “A Fragile Democracy: The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia between the past and the future” (Papazisis, Athens, 1994), «The minorities in the post-communist Balkans” (Nea Synora-Livanis, Athens, 1997), «The creation of states in the Balkans» (Nea Synora-Livanis, Athens, 1997). Ιn 2017 she published “CSDP: the history, the institutions, the strategies” (Patakis, Athens). Her latest books are “The Evolution of the Common Security and Defence Policy. Critical Junctures and the quest for the EU’s Strategic Autonomy” (Palgrave McMillan, St Anthony Series, London, 2022), “The Europeanization of the Balkans” (with N. Tzifakis), (Kallipos publishers, 2024 [in Greek]).