Department of European Studies & Modern Languages, Unit Catalogue 2006/07

EU50436 European union policies & policy-making

Credits: 6

Level: Masters

Semester: 1

Assessment: EX100

Requisites:

Aims: The aim of this unit is twofold. The first aim is to offer an analysis of the framework in which policy-making in the EU is set. All governments in the contemporary world have to contend with numerous constraints, which limit their margin of manoeuvre and their realistic policy options, for instance, the forces of local cultural resistance and the logic of subsidiarity. This is even more true of the EU in that it has few of the attributes of government as traditionally understood, has to accommodate an enormously wide variety of national political cultures and is involved in a process of redefining both its major external relations (with the USA in particular) and its internal identity and composition (enlargement). The second aim of the unit is to assess some of the major policy issues that confront the EU as it enters the 21st century. Time constraints limit these to the most crucial issues of the moment, including the future of the Euro, the social policy consequences of integration, migratory flows and attempts to control them and the embryonic security and defence policy. The unit will not deal with the basic institutional processes of EU policy-making, with which it is assumed that students are already broadly familiar.
Learning Outcomes:
A student who completes this unit successfully will be able to demonstrate a good understanding of:
* Relations between EU member states and between the EU and other international actors;
* Political debate within the EU over the main policies being developed by the EU;
* Current dilemmas facing the EU as it embarks on the dual processes of widening and deepening;
* Future dilemmas facing the EU as European integration progresses.
Skills:
Skills in critical analysis, conceptual thinking, precision in the use of written and spoken language, exercise of independent judgment, reasoned argument, teamwork and the planning/conduct/reporting of non-quantitative research are taught and assessed in this unit. Skills in effective learning are developed in this unit.
Content:
The first set of lectures examines external influences on European integration. Lectures in this part of the course include: The United States and a uniting Europe; the EU and East/Central Europe; the EU and world politics.The second part of the Unit examines a number of key EU policies including the Common Foreign and Security Policy; the Common European Security and Defence Policy; Social Policy; Economic and Monetary Union. Part Three of the Unit examines future challenges to European integration including lectures on Euroscepticism; Towards a EU Constitution.

University | Catalogues for 2006/07