Opening session + Ideas of the united Europe and integrating attempts in the first half of the 20th century (February 20, Kuchyňková)
The opening session will introduce the whole course with the lecture focused on the the fundamentals of European studies. This includes the specifics of the EU as an organization, terminology and a brief description of the first integrating attempts in Europe before the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. The lecture will present ideas and projects of Richard Nicolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi, Aristide Briand or Winston Churchill. The influence of e.g. Marshall Plan or The Congress of Europe in The Hague (1948) and establishment of the Council of Europe on the further development of European integration process will be mentioned as well. Basic concepts will be introduced (e.g. supranational/intergovernmental dichotomy, concepts like multi-level governance, europeanisation etc.) as well as the key integration theories and paradigms.
Readings:
Lelieveldt, H. and Princen, S. (2015): “Analysing the EU” (Ch. 2).” The Politics of the European Union. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press, pp. 27 – 46. (19 pages)
McCormick, J. (1996): “Introduction to regional integration (Ch. 1).” The European Union. Politics and Policies. Westview Press, pp. 9-23. (15 pages)
Villanueva, D., C. (2005): "Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's "Pan-Europa" as the Elusive "Object of Longing". Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 59, No. 2 (2005), pp. 67-80 (13 pages)
Recommended "daily" sources on the EU news and comments:
http://www.euractiv.com/ (Euractiv)
Documents:
Winston Churchill, Speech in Zurich, September 1946