European Union Politics (2)

The course is aimed at studying the European Union institutions and policy-making, such as the Commission, the Council, the European Parliament and others, their formation, functions and powers are to be analyzed. European legal acts, formation of the single market, particular EU policies, budget, structural funds, Lithuanian integration processes are to be studied.

Acquiring abilities to understand supranational and intergovernmental nature of the European Union, main actors and institutions.

History of the European integration process The past and future of EU enlargement Founding treaties of Europen Union and their past and future amendments European Union legislation procedures and legal acts. The EU judicial system and judicial review. Different EU policies: trade policy, agriculture policy, regional policy and cohesion, common defence and security policy Formation and regulation of the Single Market. Bodies and institutions of the European Union: European Parliament, European Commision, consultative institutions, auditing institutions. Europeanization of national bodies and institutions. European Union institutions in comparative perspective: legislature, executive, judiciary, interest groups. The transformation of the nation state from Westphalian system to EU system The imitation of EU model: regional integration and EU realtions with other regional blocks.

Correct understanding of two dimensions of the European integration, enlargement and deepening. Overview of main forces behind the EU integration. Reasons behind the historical EU integration and deepening processes. Ability to recognize compulsory EU legal acts and recommendations, their implementation processes and sanctions’ mechanism. Knowledge of types of European legal acts, such as Treaties and secondary acts, correct methods of distinguishing between them. Ability to recognize and explain the characteristics of the four freedoms of the Single Market, conceptualizing main areas of the European Union policy and their understanding. A student is able to define EU supranational, intergovernmental, regulative and other policy types and to connect them to the EU financing perspectives. Correct description of formation of roles and functions of specific European Union institutions (the Commission, the Council, the Parliament, and other institutions), knowledge of their power and influence within legislation procedures. Ability to see similarities and differences between European Union political system and national political systems Ability to see European Union political system in historical perspective