Syllabus
Rules and schedule of the seminar
1) Students will form campus-specific party family groups.
2) Each campus specific party family group will prepare a program logically associate with their party family & their region. The regions will be: South West Europe (Paris), Northern Europe (Gothenburg), Central Eastern Europe (Prague). We will thus have a Northern socialist position, CEE socialist position etc.
3) The political family groups will negotiate a common Europe-wide program (the different socialists need to agree a common platform etc.)
4) The cross-campus family groups will seek to coalesce and form a majority (containing at least 50% of all students), and formulate a (short) common program
5) Those groups that do not enter the majority will formulate minority dissenting positions (explaining why they disagree with the majority). Here are the key dates. Effectively we need to: A) Carry out cross-campus family negotiations in the week of Oct 22 B) Start searching for a majority in the week of Nov 5, and complete a majority program before Nov 19 Schedule: October 2 Introduction to the problem, division to groups, division of research tasks October 9 European Parliament and Political Groups in Europe. Exchange on past Rebuilding Europe Proposals October 16 Presentation of group programs – preparation for cross-campus family negotiation October 23 Formulation of negotiation points, presentation of group positions October 30 Preparation of common position November 6 Presentation of cross-campus family platform November 13 Review of all group programs / search for majority November 27 Presentation of majority program December 11 Discussion of Minority dissenting views, final review session December 18 Simulation of a session of European Council
Annotation
This course is a special cross-campus partnership, joining students and professors from three European universities: the University of Gothenburg, Charles University in Prague, and Sciences Po, Paris. Each year, students from the three universities work together to develop a common proposal to address challenges facing contemporary European governance.
This year, the project focuses on the upcoming European parliamentary elections in 2019. Students will be assigned to small groups and asked to prepare electoral programs of particular political families.
Once the party family positions are completed, students will negotiate cross-campus party family platforms. Finally, the students will attempt to form a parliamentary majority and define a common program.
In doing this, students will be encouraged to consider and engage with previous work of “Rebuilding Europe", which has focused on three issues central to today’s Europe – 1) EU economic governance and fiscal coordination, 2) migration, 3) external security and the near abroad.