| Kommentar |
Being „European“ is a concept that has almost exclusively been understood as connected to EU Membership. To achieve that, (potential) candidate countries need to adopt “European values”, framed as the upholding of liberal and democratic values. The journey to accomplish that comes with reforms and amendments, that influence the candidate country’s political system, judiciary, minority rights, clash between national and "European" identity, and more. We will observe the mechanisms that EU institutions apply to negotiate with (potential) candidate countries, as well the negotiation process (top- down, bottom- up or a symbiotic relationship) while also applying concrete examples, with each week taking a case study of a candidate and potential candidate country. We will delve into topics such as: state capture, national identity, judicial
transparency and corruption, minority rights, geopolitical factors, and more, whilst at the same time aiming to reframe and even contest the concept of „being a European“ from a legal, political and socio-cultural lens.
The first block of the seminar will be dedicated to discussing the main Europeanisation literature, followed by the second block that will focus on the main European debates surrounding enlargement and membership, accompanied by case studies of current candidate and potential candidate members. In the final block we will briefly engage with current debates and trends of how the future of EU enlargement and membership can look like.
The seminar is oriented to students of all disciplines, with no need of prior knowledge, who are interested in current legal, political, socio-cultural EU debates surrounding the future membership of Western Balkan countries and Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. |
