Interactive Syllabus

Lecturer:

Petr Kaniok, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of International Relations and European Studies

Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno

Phone: 549 493 571

Email: kaniok@fss.muni.cz

Office hours: Office hours (Spring 2025): Monday 9.00 - 10.00 (room 446), Wednesday 9.00 - 10.00 (room 446). 

 Course Objectives and Description

This course aims to give students detailed knowledge and understanding of the European Union (EU) decision-making system. The most essential part of this course is devoted to the lecturers who introduce the most important EU institutions, such as the European Council, the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice. Apart from this, several lectures focus on cross-cutting topics related to the EU institutions, for example, the interplay between domestic and EU levels of the decision-making process or the functioning of the most used and most important EU decision-making procedures. Students are also encouraged to follow and monitor the real life of the most important EU institutions and analyze them regarding EU democracy.

During this term, the course will be taught in a flipped format. For each week (weeks 2 – 10), students will have pre-recorded video .ppt presentations covering a particular topic available in the interactive outline (is.muni.cz). It is recommended to watch the video before class for a particular topic.  The contact meetings will be used for students´ questions on a particular topic and to discuss EU institutions' weekly news (see below). Each meeting will start at 12.00 and last approximately 45-60 minutes, depending on the number of questions and topics for discussion.

In the case of seminars (classes 11 and 12), the contact meetings will last a standard 90 minutes (as there will not be any pre-recorded lecture), starting at 12.00 and ending at 13.30. There will be no pre-recorded lectures for these two weeks. 

 Assignments and Grading

The grading is based on the following assignments:

Institutional monitor: Students will choose one of three major EU institutions (the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Council) to monitor its actual activities during the term. For each week (from week 2 until week 10 included), each student will be required to submit 400 words lasting report on:

a)       what particular institution did in the previous week,

b)      what can be considered as the most important event related to this institution during this week

Each submission will be graded on an F/P basis with 2 points. Each submission must be uploaded by Saturday at 12.00 before the forthcoming class. Delays in submissions will be graded as failed with 0 points. Students discussing their weekly reports will get 1 bonus point for each presentation during classes.  The overall value is up to 18 points + 9 bonus points for activity during class discussions.

Students are encouraged to use the official websites of the institutions as well as sources such as politico.eu, euractiv.com, eurobserver.com or news agencies such as reuters.com.

Seminar papers: Students must submit two seminar papers in classes 11 and 12. Each paper should be around 1000 words long (references excluded, footnotes included) and should cope with the assigned task. Each paper must be uploaded by Saturday 12.00 before the seminar – delayed submissions won´t be accepted. Each paper will be graded from 0-5 points, with an overall value of up to 10 points.

Final exam: The exam will consist of six questions per 5 points. The questions will focus on topics in the assigned readings/class sessions. Overall value up to 30 points. 

Students can achieve 58 points (+ 9 bonus points). The grading scale is as follows: F 0-30, E 31-36, D 37-41, C 42-46, B 47-52, A 53-58.