EU Governance in an International Context

Course Objective

Learning outcomes:

A. Knowledge and understanding – The student has acquired knowledge and
understanding of:
(1) the history of European integration and the main theories trying to
understand and explain the process of European unification;
(2) the institutional structure of and politics within European Union
and how it interacts with member states;
(3) key aspects of EU policy making in the internal and external arena.

B. Skills – The student has acquired the skills to:
(4) recognise the key historical milestones of European integration and
the current challenges the EU faces currently when it comes to its
institutional and political make-up;
(5) apply a variety of theoretical approaches to understand and explain
past and current developments.

C. Attitudes – The student displays:
(6) critical reflection upon the European integration process, the EU's
institutions and policies as well as the way democracy functions at the
EU level.

Course Content

This course familiarizes students to the way the EU operates, its
institutional architecture, its history, and its modes of
decision-making. The course highlights how EU decision-making affects
domestic politics, whilst at the same time is situated in a broader,
international context. It will introduce students to the key theoretical
debates about the European integration process (neo-functionalism,
liberal intergouvernmentalism, etc.), and it will pay special attention
to the main characteristics of EU decision-making. The theoretical and
practical insights will then be applied in a number of selected policy
domains involve both policy making within the EU (e.g. monetary
integration, regulation of the single market, making of common foreign
and security policy) and outside the EU, that is to say the EU's
engagement in the global realm (e.g. enlargement, trade,
security).

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Lectures.

Method of Assessment

Final exam.

Literature

Cini M. & Perez-Solorzano Borragan, N. (2022). European Union Politics,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Additional articles to be announced in the course manual (see CANVAS).

Additional Information Target Audience

Second year’s Bachelor students in Political Science (all tracks and/or
specializations)
Second year’s Bachelor students in Bestuurs- en
Organisatieswetenschappen, specialization Besturen