The European Union’s existence and development impacts the German political system considerably and therefore raises many empirical and theoretical questions. The objective of this class is to explain the evolution of the EU institutions, to gain a deeper theoretical and first-hand practical understanding of what the EU is and does, to investigate the relationship between the different EU institutions and its member states, and to examine how studying the EU can contribute to the study of political systems and governance structures more generally and the political system of Germany in particular.
In an interactive classroom setting we will try to understand and asses the most important institutions and processes in EU politics. To do so, we will read, discuss and critique the latest academic findings in the field of EU governance (EU institutions, Euroscepticism, European elections 2019, Future of Europe, Conference on the Future of Europe etc.).
At the end of this course you will have gained an overview of the current public, scholarly and normative debates about European Union politics and a solid understanding of how EU institutions work and how to work with them in practice. |
