Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

Taught In English

This class is open to all students participating in the program.

This course aims to "open a critical window" to the future of this common project from the current situation, covering much more than just grasping the history of the historical events, the working of the political institutions or the economic integration.
The first part traces the shared European feeling and the different integrating projects up to now. We will analyze the institutions through their functioning, the European economy and the impact of the single currency.
The second part uses the historical, economical and political knowledge to discuss critically the enlargement process towards Eastern Europe. It will also focus on the relationship with other global actors, and also with other countries and cultures.

UNIT 1 Nationalism and the notion of Europe. Concept and history of the European integration from the past to the enlargement. Nacionalismo y la idea de Europa.

UNIT 2 Who takes the decisions and which ones? Roles of the European Parliament, Council, Commission, Court of Justice and Court of Auditors.

UNIT 3 Economic integration I. From the CECA to the enlargement. Different types of Europe. The Community Budget. Internal and external trade.

SECOND PART

UNIT 4 Economic integration II. Common Policies: Common Commercial Politics, Common Agricultural Policy, Politics of Regional Development, the Economic and Monetary Union.

UNIT 5 Enlargement towards the Eastern Europe. The end of the cold war and different process of democratization and adaptation to the free market. The case of Turkey. A critical vision to the enlargement.

UNIT 6 Europe and the world. A great Europe or many little countries? A comparative approach within the triad. Foreign policy under review.

UNIT 7 Business and society. Social policy. 35-hour work week. Women in business. The price of a green Europe.

UNIT 8 The European Constitution: economical agreement or political union?

GRADING:
30% midterm examination
40% final examination
30% class attitude, participation, oral presentation (in small groups and 20 minutes long), homework and a final research work (3 pages Times New Roman 12 - double space).

ABSENCES Attendance is compulsory (being allowed only 2 unjustified absences)

Throughout the course continuous references will be made to the following books, however there is not such a text book. Relevant literature will be issued at the beginning of each unit.
-Tony Judt Postwar. A History of Europe since 1945, Penguin Press, 2005.
-Simon Mercado, Richard Welford and Kate Prescott. European Business. Fourth Edition by Pearson Education Limited (Finantial Times, Prentice Hall), 2001. Harlow, England (U.K.).
-Jeremy Rifkin, The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2004.
-Enrique Barón, Europa: Pasión y Razón, Biblioteca Nueva, S.L. 2005.
-Ulrick Beck and Edgar Grande, Cosmopolitan Europe, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007.
-Jorge Semprún, Pensar en Europa, Tusquets, Barcelona, 2006.
-Zygmunt Bauman, Europe: an Unfinished Adventure, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2004.