Level of studies: Postgraduate, 2nd semester, M.A. in Governance and Public Policies
Type of course: Compulsory
Place in project: Taught on the 2nd (months 7-12), 4th (months 19-24) & 6th semester (months 31-36)
ECTS: 6 (student workload includes 24 teaching hours: 12 weeks X 2 hours)
Teaching methods: Lectures & Problem-Based Learning
Prerequisite: None, Language of instruction: Greek
Description: The policy of enlargement has been considered as the most effective component of EU foreign policy that has successfully guided and motivated the political and economic transformation of Central and Eastern European countries. Not surprisingly, it has also been progressively employed in the Western Balkans since June 1999 to foster attempts towards peacebuilding, democratization and economic development. However, Croatia remains till our days the sole country from the region that has completed the accession path and acquired EU membership. The course will examine the implementation of EU enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans and will assess the progress that has been attained so far. In addition, the course will reflect on the subsequent revisions to EU enlargement policy to get it finetuned to the region’s particular challenges. Very importantly, it will also problematize the causes of policy failure to transform the Western Balkans. The course will be divided into three parts. The first part will examine EC/EU enlargement from a historical, institutional and theoretical perspective. The second part will focus on the Western Balkans and it will highlight the challenges that each individual country faces in its EU accession path. Finally, the students are expected to present in the course’s third part their group project essays that will lay the ground for a debate on what has gone wrong in terms of policy-making and the way ahead.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course students are expected to have fully grasped in both theoretical and institutional terms the way EU enlargement policy works and its transformative impact upon the Union itself as well as on the interested applicant countries. Moreover, they would be fully acquainted with the application of this policy in the Western Balkans and the main challenges/issues that have emerged in the case of each country from the region. Students will also be equipped with the analytical concepts and necessary contextual knowledge to analyze and critically assess the impact of the relevant EU decisions and actions. Finally, they will be able to evaluate potential scenarios and make policy prescriptions.
Assessment Method:
- Individual Written Essays: 60% of grade. It concerns academic essays of around 3,000 words that examine at greater depths an aspect (e.g. a specific issue) of the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries. Essays should fully observe academic rules of writing (e.g., structure, documentation) and should take note of the relevant scholarly literature.
- In-class presentation of group project: 20% of grade. A 30’ group presentation (with the projection of a powerpoint file) of an assigned project (as a problem-based exercise).
- Group project essays: 20% of grade. It concerns the collective project output of around 3,000 words of the assigned problem-based exercise that has been presented earlier in class. Essays should fully observe academic rules of writing (e.g., structure, documentation).
Course Layout (by week)*
Part A: EU Enlargement in historical/institutional perspective
Week 1: EC/EU Enlargement in historical perspective
Week 2: Actors, procedures, and instruments of EU enlargement policy
Week 3: Theoretical Approaches to EU Enlargement: Accession Conditionality and Social learning
Part B: The EU accession of Western Balkan countries
Week 4: The EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans: Milestones, processes, policy revisions
Week 5: Montenegro
Week 6: Serbia
Week 7: North Macedonia
Week 8: Albania
Week 9: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Week 10: Kosovo
Part C: Student Group Project Presentations
Week 11: Is the EU interested in the Western Balkans’ integration or stabilization?
Week 12: Is there a Western Balkan exceptionalism in EU accession compliance?
Detailed lists of suggested readings per week/theme are in the course’s handbook.
