Jean Monnet Open Online Course of European Integration: The EU and its Policies
Why is the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) so controversial? Who is Brazil's first trading partner? How will Brexit affect India and Nigeria? Should Ukraine join the EU? What is trade diversion? What are the costs and benefits of the euro? Why do euro banknotes have pictures of fictional bridges? Why does EU regional policy have so many objectives? What is the role of the EU in Ukraine or Moldova? How does the EU make decisions? This open online course aims to provide an introduction to European integration and is specially suitable for students that are not generally exposed to EU studies in their degrees, either because of the topic of their studies (e.g. engineering, architecture) or their country of origin (e.g. EU Neighbourhood countries).
1. What is the European Union? 2. The idea of Europe: democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights, and social cohesion. 3. The evolution of the EU. 4. The European institutions and the policy process. 5. The EU and its citizens: public opinion, elections and lobbying. 6. The EU policy process. 7. Economic integration I: the single market. 8. Economic integration II: Economic and Monetary Union. 9. Efficiency policies: competition, environment, transport. 10. Redistributive policies: regional, social, agriculture. 11. Home affairs: immigration, asylum, Schengen. 12. Foreign affairs: trade policy, development policy, CFSP. 13. European Neighbourhood Policy. 14. Revision - exam preparation.
Essential reading: El-Agraa, A. (2015) The European Union Illuminated: Its Nature, Importance and Future. Palgrave Macmillan; McCormick, J. (2014). Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. Further reading: Cini, M., & Solórzano Borragán, N. P. (2016). European Union politics. Oxford University Press; Hix, Simon and Hoyland, Bjorn (2011) The political system of the European Union. 3rd ed., Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK.