LFU:online

Students will learn about the functioning of the European Union considering supranational and intergovernmental patterns of thought related to actors on EU and member state level. They can comprehend the European integration process, taking into account the legally sanctioned and politically motivated preferences of different collective and individual actors, and classify them along historical developmental paths and scientific theories.

After introducing the basic structural and procedural determinants of the EU’s political system, the seminar examines the preferences, political and legal frameworks, as well as the rationales of action of various collective and individual actors of the EU's political system. The aim is to evaluate the room for action of these actors regarding the process of legislation, but also with a view to the longer-term general prospects of the EU. The respective control and co-ordination capacity will herby be discussed and assessed with reference of legal and political sciences.

First, a few introductory sessions are supposed to make students familiar with the forces and counter-forces of European integration. After that, specific workshops will focus on those collective and individual actors, which are enabled, due to their legally enshrined authority or their politically claimed functions, to shape the structure of the EU - in the sense of long-term systemic development and regarding their functional scope in terms of shaping secondary law. Based on respective and highly up to date literature, the seminar provides a profound overview on the ability of a whole range of preselected actors regarding coordination and agenda-setting in the EU. Central research objects are the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice, the Council of Ministers, inter-ministerial coordination in the Member States, but also individual Commission and Council presidents. Moreover, geographically or functionally aligned groups of states will be reviewed in this regard (i.e. the Eurogroup, Structured Cooperation in ESDP, Committees of enhanced cooperation in Secondary Law, the German-French Tandem, the BENELUX, the Visegrad 4, the macroregions, etc.)

Regular participation in the seminar, active cooperation as well as reading homework and presentations.

Hayward, Jack Ernest Shalom (Hg.) (2008): Leaderless Europe. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Journal of European Integration (2017): Special issue: Political leadership in the EU, Vol. 39 (2).

Zahariadis, Nikolaos (Hg.) (2016): Handbook of public policy agenda setting. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ranking of Registrations: Incoming students are preferred.