The European Union (EU) is a powerful and increasingly contested political arena and policy-maker—in EU member states and in the wider world. In this course, we analyse the EU’s institutions, decision-making, and core policies, and we discuss key political and legal challenges.
The course approaches European governance from three angles. First, the class introduces the EU’s institutions and their competences, from agenda-setting over legislation to compliance. We explain why the EU’s institutions hold particular competences and how their roles have evolved over time. Second, the course analyses core policy-areas, including climate change, global regulation, and fiscal and economic governance. We aim to understand the decisions that have shaped—and still shape—the reach and remit of these policies. Third, the course looks at key issues of European governance, including the rule of law, politicisation, and legitimacy. The final part helps participants to comprehend these challenges, and to debate how these could be addressed in an increasingly polarised EU.
Teaching mixes interactive lecture elements with student-led discussions, small group work, research exercises, and a case study on how to influence EU law-making, as a business or an NGO. Across sessions, participants will 1) gain in-depth knowledge of the EU’s institutions, politics, and challenges; 2) learn to develop arguments and critically assess empirical evidence; 3) learn about and exercise the use of relevant databases and documents from EU policy-making; 4) develop and train transferable skills for the analysis of and potential experience in 'Brussels'; 5) train to write for and persuade policy-makers.