Great Expectations
Full course description
The main aim of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the European Union: its development, its institutional framework and current problems. First, this course introduces the European integration process since the early 1950s. Using the current debate on the future of the Union as our point of departure, this course goes back to the early years of the European Communities and subsequently traces all the major developments in the EU up to the present. Secondly, we investigate the institutions of the European Union, their tasks and the main decision-making mechanisms. Finally, current political challenges of European integration are put up for debate. Throughout the whole course, students, additionally, get familiarized with the main European integration theories.
Course objectives
To provide insight into the historical development, the EU institutions, decision-making processes and current issues of the EU, and to get familiar with integration theories.
Recommended reading
Nugent, N. (2010). The government and politics of the European Union. (7th ed.). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.