LFU:online

The year 2020 marks the 10^th anniversary of the “Alpeuregio Summer School”, succeeded by next year’s celebration of the formal foundation of the European Region “Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino” as the 21^st “European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation” (EGTC) in 2011. The previous nine editions of the Summer School have all been realised within the premises of the European Region’s representation in Brussels. Considering the special circumstances related to the current health crisis, together with long-term efforts to connect the concept of the school more closely to both – academia and civil society – this course is the result of a newly established cooperation between various actors from the whole European Region and its Universities in Innsbruck, Bolzano and Trento. As a result, the recently renamed “Alpeuregio Brussels School” will for the first time be associated to the pool of “interdisciplinary courses” of the University of Innsbruck. In order to include students from all three regions and various study programmes, we highly welcome also the registration of Erasmus students and students from the “Free University of Bozen-Bolzano” and the “University of Trento”.

 Students will learn about the functioning of the European Union, starting from those EU-institutions and bodies that claim general and specific leadership-, agenda-setting, and -steering competences. They understand historic and legal patterns that led to the institutional framework of the political system of the contemporary EU. More specifically, they can explain the distribution of power amongst several institutional actors regarding their influence on the political agenda of the EU and various preselected member states. After introducing the basic features of the EU's political system, the seminar examines the opportunities of various institutional actors to set and (co-)shape long-term developments and short-term legislative agendas.

The seminar will provide insights into the political system of the EU based on case-specific workshops. In the first three sessions, an introduction to some basic patterns and concepts of European politics will make students familiar with the driving forces of EU integration. Subsequently, the Directors of the European Region’s representation in Brussels will officially introduce to the “Alpeuregio Brussels School”, which plays an integral part in the programming of the course. By giving a short overview on their work in Brussels, the (inter-)regional dimension of European integration will be highlighted. Each interactive virtual session will then be devoted to another European institution setting and (co-)shaping concrete policies as well as the long-term strategies of the EU. High-ranked officials of the EU-Commission, the Parliament, the media and other stakeholders will give first-hand information on how to operate efficiently in a highly complex system of “multi-level-governance”.

Regular and active (virtual) participation in the seminar, reading preparations and written work (details at the beginning of the course).

-          Cini/Pérez-Solórzano Borragán (2016 or 2019): European Union Politics, Oxford University Press.

-          Hodson/Peterson (2017): The Institutions of the European Union, Oxford University Press.

-          Maurer/Wolf (2020): The European Parliament’s right of initiative. Study requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO)

Details on the literature will be announced at the beginning of the course.

A short-term limitation of participants might be necessary.