Samenvatting The European Union - European Politics (S0A48a)

The European Union:
Politics and Policies
1. Course-information
 There will be queastions asked about current European affairs
 Goals of this course (Zie ppt)
 Schedule
o 9 sessions in total (including 4 guest-lectures) devided in 3 parts
 1) What is the EU?  important & intriguing question
 2) Institutions and decision making
 3) policies (4 guest lectures)
 Klaus Welle, Lins Helvers, Saïd El Khadraoui and Gesine Weber

 no recordings of guest lectures 

 Course material
o Same book as last time
o Slides of sessions
o Additional material
 Voluntary readings
 Websites of EU institutions

 EU official websites
o European commission: (policy documents, original documents)
o Website European Parliament
o Also, the website “what Europe does for me

 Media sources
o Euractive (series the capitals)  not free
o podcast: today in the EU (It isn’t great according to the professor)
o EU confidential from politico (slightly better)

 Dutch speaking podcasts
o Waarom Europa van Hecke
o Europa draait door

 Newspapers, social media, etc.

o Recordings will be provided if you have an valid reason for not
attending
 You’ll have to show a note from the doctor
 Contact Esther D’haeninck
 Recordings will also appear during exam period




 The exam
o Exam of european politics & integration at the same time
o This exam will be multiple choice (Hecke is open questions)
 That means the types of questions will be limited
 BUT: not a pure knowledge exam
 Also a few inside-quastions (understanding the EU)
 Questions will be in English (Dutch speakers can bring dictionary)

,o He can ask:
 (Verry dry) knowledge questions
 Who is the current president of…
 Imagine, you’re a member of the European Parliament and you are in a
certain situation, witch steps / decisions should you not take

o Professor thinks the Exam has Gis-correction (he has to look it up)

 Introduction to the topic

,H0: Introduction
The EU has been prized and criticized since its beginning.
 It has been prized because:  It has been criticized because;

o Revitalized European o There is unemployment.
marketplace o Problems with productivity.
o Its changing definition of o Labour market restrictions.
Europe. o A declining and ageing
o altering global balance of population.
power o Undermining sovereignty of
o European experiment brought states.
peace. o Sullying the quality of European
democracy.

0. Introduction to the course topics
 Questions:
o Last year:
 How many MS does the Eu have?  27 (UK left)
 Who meets within EC  Heads of state & government of EU MS
 Switzerland is no EU MS
 How many people live in EU  C.A. 450 million
 How many official languages does the EU have  24
 Current president of European Commission  Ursula Von der
Leyen

o This year
 Euro Area currently consists of 20 MS  Yes
 The members of the EP are directly elected by citicens of MS 
yes
 Switzerland is a member of the EU?  NO

1. What is the EU & what do European know & think
about it
 different levels of knowledge
o Graphs from Eurobarometer
 “I understand how the EU-works”
 83% of Luxemburg thinks they understand how the EU will
 2/3 of Belgium’s think they understand how the EU works
 France (one of founding members)  very little knowledge about
EU
 EU average = +/- 63 %

 Why so little knowledge
o EU = Various actors (Makes it very difficult)
 The EU = a set of verry divergent actors with sometimes overlapping
jurisdictions
 Council of the EU, European council, European commission, European
Parliament, European environment Agency ,ECB, Etc..

, o Europe ≠ European Union ≠ council of Europe
 There are some European countries that aren’t EU MS
 Like Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, Greece, Western Balkans,
“Russia”…

 Council of Europe  More MS
 Also other organisations and associations (Schengen, Euro-countries,
…)
 Not every MS within EU uses the Euro €
 Not all Schengen-countries are within the EU


2. Different views about the EU and its policies
 Graph about feeling yourself a citizen of the EU
o An increasing amount of Europeans feel like being an EU-citizen along the
years
o Majority of people actually do consider themselves an EU-citizen

 Graph about the fact that people consider being part of EU is a good
thing
o Almost ½ feel like being part of EU is a good thing

 Graph about how attached people feel about institutions / political
systems / country
 Graph about how positive people think about the EU / being
European
o Poland, Lithuania, Spain and Ireland feel very strongly attached to the EU
o Finland & Sweden don’t seem very attached to the EU but they do with
Europe

The point: Among countries, a lot of people disagree about what the EU
should be doing


3. Different views on EU policy & democracy
 Graph about the fact if people think their vote counts in the EU
o Since 1979  There are European Elections being organized
 Again, a lot of differences between countries
 Northern Europe strongly feel like they are being heard
 Southern Europe doesn’t

 minus 50% of European people actually vote in European
Elections

Conclusions of lesson 1
 EU = distinct political arrangement that defies easy categorization
o Talking about EU requires nuance
 Meanings can be quite different (because a lot of institutions)
 EU means different thing for different people