European governance

Course goals

Content

Over time, the European Union (EU) has evolved into a key arena for politics and policy-making in Europe. Having started as a relatively narrow cooperation scheme focusing on internal trade and economic cooperation, over time the EU has come to deal with a range of issues, including environmental protection, migration and refugees, health, crime, monetary policy and foreign affairs. As a result, the EU increasingly affects the daily operations of national administrations, firms, civil society organizations and citizens. Conversely, these same actors have become active at the EU-level in order to have their voices heard and affect the shape of EU policies.
In this course, we will study how processes of governance and policy-making work in the EU. For this, an understanding of the EU’s formal set-up and decision-making procedures is indispensable but not sufficient. We will therefore focus in particular on the shape EU governance and policy-making take in practice, the way in which the political game is played in and around Brussels, and the impact this has within the EU member states. In doing so, the course will use theoretical perspectives from public administration and political science and link these to real-life examples and cases of EU governance and policy-making.

Note for exchange students
Resits may be scheduled after the end of the teaching period. Please consider this when planning your departure from the Netherlands. If in doubt, please ask the course coordinator when the resit is scheduled.