Prospectus

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EU Lobbying

Course
2014-2015

Admission requirements

Admission to the Master International Relations, track European Union Studies.

Description

With the broadening and deepening of EU competences (most recently a.o.: Lisbon Treaty, debates on the fiscal, financial and energy crises, creation of EU foreign service), a growing number and variety of interest groups try to have an impact on EU policies and their implementation: business, non-governmental organisations, professional interests, parastatal institutions, regional interests, etc. In addition to, and interplay with these institutional outsiders, intra-institutional lobbying equally takes place between and inside the Commission, Parliament and Council, advisory bodies etc.

The course will deal with a broad variety of aspects of EU lobbying, including:

  • General aspects of (EU) lobbying, in context of formal decision making procedures and real life processes

  • Lobbying by economic stakeholders

  • Various forms of citizens’ input into EU decision making

  • Lobbying in practice

  • Scientific approaches to EU lobbying

  • EU lobbying regulations, transparency, ethics, relation with democratic principles

Course objectives

Students will, through the common handbook and additional articles, and by presenting and writing their own paper, learn to recognise, understand and reflect on real life phenomena and developments, in relation to the current state of academic research and theorising on the process of EU lobbying.

Timetable

See the website.

Mode of instruction

Interactive seminar.

Course Load

Total course load for the course: 5 EC is 140 hours.

  • Hours spent on attending lectures: 4 hours per week x 6 weeks = 24 hours

  • Time for studying the compulsory literature and preparation for the lectures: 6 hours per week x 6 = 36 hours

  • Preparation for the paper: 80 hours

Assessment method

Participation 30%; Paper 70%.

Retake paper: resubmit three weeks after the grade has been made known. In order to be eligible for the retake paper, students have to have submitted the first paper and have to have failed the course.

Reading list

Common handbook, to be acquired by all participants before the start of the course: J. Greenwood, Interest Representation in the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 (3rd ed.). Additional compulsory reading material and suggestions for the paper will be announced and distributed by lecturer during the course.
h3. Registration

Via uSis

Contact information

dhr. P. Sluiter