July 10 - July 20, 2010 - Prague, Czech Republic
Courses
Workshop 1: Institutional Structure of EU After the Lisbon Treaty
The workshop aims at EU institutions and decision-making processes in the European Union with a special focus on changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. EU institutions are in constant evolution and recent reforms are not yet fully implemented. It is therefore quite interesting to observe the current dynamics accompanying making of the post-Lisbon set-up. Students are required to have basic knowledge about the EU and its institutions. The workshop will also consist of intensive work with the text of Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (consolidate version according to the Treaty of Lisbon). Students should thus be familiar with them.
Workshop 2: The Economy of Central Europe
The aim of the workshop is to analyse the current economic situation of Central European EU member states. It follows the development of these economies from their transition from central planning to free market economies, as well as their membership in the European Union. The focus of the workshop is on the economic structure of these countries, similarities and differences with older market economies. The issue of euro adoption is also discussed, as is the impact of the current global financial and economic crisis. A discussion follows about the comparison with Southern European crisis economies such as Greece and Spain.
Workshop 3: Democracy assistance and promotion worldwide
Democracy assistance at the beginning of the 21st century faces a number of challenges, both in justifying the motivations behind democracy promotion policies in the face of a "backlash" against democracy promotion from some quarters, and in assessing the most effective and appropriate models of democracy assistance for different conditions and different historical experience. While the European Union has provided more financial assistance than the United States towards institution-building in central and eastern Europe's emerging democracies, the US has a track record of providing more direct support for democracy activists. This course will look at current trends and practices in democracy assistance, in particular comparing US and EU approaches, and will examine differences between support to civil society and technical assistance to emerging democratic institutions. The course will examine the increasing contribution of the new member-states of the European Union as new donors and the extent to which they can draw on the comparative advantage of their own recent experience of the transition to democracy. Looking at cases such as democracy assistance activities in Cuba, Belarus and elsewhere, the course will look at different mechanisms of support to civil society activists and campaigners for human rights and democracy in closed societies and in societies where the transition to democracy has either slowed or been halted.
The European Union after the Lisbon Treaty - towards an ever larger Union?
The Lisbon Treaty was meant to ensure the operational capacity of the EU and thus to remove what many pundits as well as policymakers viewed as a serious obstacle to the continuing expansion of the Union. But the reality on the ground seems to be very different. We are witnessing the stalemate of the accession process, with bilateral disputes between the candidate countries and selected EU member states gaining more importance than ever before. The public opinion across the EU (including some Central European countries) is growing ever more sceptical, which is further fuelled by the negative impact of the economic crisis. Some EU leaders, notably Sarkozy and Merkel, are again raising the issue of "privileged partnership" with Turkey rather than the full-fledged membership. Likewise, there is a backlash in some of the accession countries with declining zeal for the reforms necessary to embark on the EU boat. Does this mean that the enlargement process will take very different turns leaving South-Eastern Europe and Turkey at even greater turmoil? Looking beyond those countries in the EU waiting room, the picture gets even more blurry. The EU is not ready to give any membership promises beyond what's been promised already, and is instead contemplating new policies such as "Union for the Mediterranean" for its southern neighbours and "Eastern partnership" for the Eastern European countries. But can these policies deliver the same results as the enlargement policy, when the well known sticks and carrots are arguably missing? Is there a risk that these countries would gravitate towards other models of governance and democracy? And how much of a risk for the EU does such a scenario represent? Can Central Europe play any positive role in tackling the enlargement fatigue and lack of vision towards the neighbours without membership perspectives?
Workshop 5: External security and defence policy
In this Workshop, the participants will study the security situation in Europe after the end of the Cold War and the way in which the perception of threats and risks has changed. With the experience of the war in Yugoslavia and the crisis in Kosovo, European Union has entered sphere of defence policy very dramatically in the new century. The European Security and Defence Policy attempts to show that the EU is not a political dwarf as everybody has been declaring. In the framework of the ESDP, European military, police and judiciary has been active in many regions, including the Balkans, Africa or even Afghanistan. European Security Strategy has been the first attempt to define a unique European view of the international relations. But is there any European view? To what extent has the ESDP helped to solve problems and to what extent it causes new ones? Does the ESDP evolution mean that there is no role for NATO to play anymore? Do all European states welcome the European defence policy? What about the US? And what is the position of Central European countries? Even if the participants will not be able to solve all transatlantic security dilemmas after the Workshop, they will understand why it is so difficult to find the answers.
Workshop 6: Energy security and climate change
This workshop will address political, economic and environmental implications of soaring energy prices. How to meet our future energy demands, which would be affordable, technologically safe and environmentally sustainable(future scenarios)? What are the security implications of the fact that most of oil and gas supply comes from unstable regions (Middle East, Russia)? How to manage serious environmental challenges posed by increasing energy demands in developing world? How to achieve a politically feasible mix of boosting supply and managing demand? Policy solutions (package of EU regulations and directives) will be discussed against the backdrop of "bottom up" approach to security and environmental challenges at local level and "top-down" (supply-side) approach to management of centralized systems of energy infrastructure.