EU Politics and Policies

This course explores how the EU is governed and how policies are made in the EU. For students of EU Studies, it is fundamental to understand the nature of the EU as a unique political system and how the EU functions in the first place. This course hence seeks to uncover the ‘black box’ of EU politics and policy-making, which often appear complicated to people interested. The central question in this course is: how does the EU work?

This entirely new course has been elaborated as a result of Dr. Yan’s participation in the second EURASIA training round held in Krakow, Poland on January 20th – February 2nd, 2019. He also had the opportunity to discuss its content and delivery with Bulgarian academics during the short-training round held on 1st -5th July, 2019 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

After piloting it successfully, the course is now part of the MA in European Studies Programme.

Learning Objectives Learning OutcomesEnvisaged methods and techniquesAccreditation Status

1. To familiarize students with the main institutions and actors of the European Union
2. To introduce to students to how the EU institutions interact to shape EU politics and policy making
3. To deepen students’ understanding of the complexity of the EU as a unique political system.

Students will be able to understand the nature of the EU as unique political system and how the EU functions.

• Lectures
• Class discussions
• Oral presentations in class
• Writing a course paper

Accredited

EU Politics and Policies / EU politics and decision-making