Titular Professors
Professors
This course aims to assist students in:
- Understanding the fundamental dynamics that guides European integration.
- Identifying and assessing the responsibilities and powers of decision-making institutions of the EU.
- Understanding the interactions between the decision-making institutions of the European Union.
- Understanding the complexity of the monetary policy in the Eurozone.
- Identifying the root causes of the recession in the Eurozone.
- Developing an awareness of the regional economic disparities in Europe and understand their consequences.
- Assessing the efficacy of the policy responses to these disparities.
- Understanding tasks and historical development of the role of OECD.
- Assessing OECD's digital agenda.
On the completion of this course, students should have a basic understanding of:
- Key moments in European integration
- Role and powers of EU in economic governance
- Tasks of EU's decision making institutions
- Democratic Deficit in the EU
- Regional disparities in the EU
- History of the euro and the nature and challenges of monetary policy in the euro area
- Role and structure of OECD
- OECD's digital Agenda
Topic 1 - Introduction to the Governance and International Organizations.
Topic 2 - History of European Integration I.
Topic 3 - History of European Integration II.
Topic 4 - EU Budget and Spending | EU Spending 1: CAP | EU Spending 2: Economic disparities and the EU.
Topic 5 - Institutions of the European Union I | Institutions of the European Union: Commission.
Topic 6 - Institutions of the European Union: European Parliament | Institutions of the European Union: The Council.
Topic 7 - European Central Bank and Monetary Policy in the Eurozone | Recession in the Eurozone.
Topic 8 - European Investment Bank | ECJ
Topic 9 - Evolution of Environmental Policy at the EU and European Green Deal: Green and Digital transformation of the EU?
Topic 10 - Preparation for the Study Tour & Current issues in the EU: presentations.
This course will have three components:
First component will be the lectures based on assigned readings. Students are expected to read the assigned material in a timely fashion and participate actively in the class discussions.
Secondly, students will form groups to focus on one international organization and will conduct a team research to:
a. Understand how their assigned institution works.
b. Critically reflect on the problems that the institution faces and on how it deals with them.
They will present their findings on two separate occasions.
Finally, students will be able to put their theoretical knowledge in practice during the study tour to the institutions that they have learned about.
Participation 15%
Mid-term Exam 20%
Comportment and engagement during the study tour 20%
Presentation & Paper 25%
Final Exam 20%
Lectures will be based on selections from:
Bache, Ian et al. Politics in the European Union, 3rd Edition. Oxford: Oxford UP., 2011
McCormick, John. Understanding the European Union, London: Palgrave, 1999.
Wallace, Helen, William Wallace, and Mark Pollack. Policy-Making in the European Union, 6th edition. Oxford: Oxford UP., 2010.
History and current organizational structure of the international institutions can be obtained from their respective web pages:
European Parliament: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal
European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm
Committee of Regions: http://cor.europa.eu/en/Pages/home.aspx
European Central Bank; https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html
Eurogroup: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/eurogroup/
OECD: https://www.oecd.org/
There are some online news sources that are useful to receive information about international institutions in Europe:
EU Observer: https://euobserver.com/ focuses on EU news almost exclusively.
Euroactiv: http://www.euractiv.com/ is mostly on the EU but also provides important information from member states. Special Reports and Linkdossiers of the site are a great way to learn about the basic facts of the subject covered.
EU business http://www.eubusiness.com/ brings economy and business related news from the EU.
The following sources provide commentary on the ongoing policy debates:
VoxEu http://voxeu.org/ It is the policy portal for Centre for Economic Policy Research. It provides daily analysis of important economic and political issues, some of which are very relevant and important for the institutions we will study.
Social Europe https://www.socialeurope.eu/ is a left-wing policy analysis portal reflection on social dimensions of economic policy in the EU as well as in European states.
Open Europe http://openeurope.org.uk/ is the portal for a libertarian think tank opposed to the concentration of power in Brussels. It provides a good alternative perspective to the ones we will learn about the EU.
European Politics and Policy blog http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/ of the London School of Economics provide a platform to keep in touch with the latest research on EU politics and economy.