ShapingEU

The project will address the challenges that confront the European Union as a consequence of the war in Ukraine and the increased tensions with Russia. These developments have fundamentally changed the conditions of operation in Europe. Over the course of this military conflict, as well as its various impacts, the competition with China also becomes more relevant and the EU is aiming to redefine its position in its external relations to meet these challenges. Due to these developments, there is an increased focus on the EU’s neighbourhood in the Western Balkans where China and Russia are making political and economic investments, and due to Moldova’s and Ukraine’s application for EU membership. These external processes have implications for the internal set-up of the EU and its capacity to absorb new member states. Hence, both external and internal changes are on the table and the EU needs to address both issues properly in order to maintain its functionality and not to lose trust among the citizens of member and applicant states.

The Chair project ShapingEU therefore aims to investigate more closely the nature of these internal and external challenges and the responses provided so far by EU institutions. This will be achieved by teaching students and by fostering the dialogue with non-academic partners and wider audiences. Especially the enlargement debate shows very precisely what the EU stands for, a more political and an economic union, and this has to be debated across Europe, with outside partners and beyond the university structures. More specifically, the themes to be focused on include intra- and inter-institutional reforms, such as the decision-making procedures in the European Council, a different approach regarding the number of European Commissioners and a change of the operational modes of the European Parliament. They will all create dynamics for the co-decision process in law-making, i.e. it will become necessary to look more closely into the discussion about the amendment of the Lisbon Treaty and the results of the Conference on the Future of Europe that ended in December 2022. The Chair project also seeks to understand how the changed methodology of enlargement for the Western Balkan region corresponds with the debates inside the EU and how this again influences the progress of enlargement after Ukraine and Moldova received candidate status in June 2022. The study of these issues will allow to better assess the shape of the European Union. Various formats, such as simulations, case study research, public discussions and publications will enable students, experts and society to understand how the EU is engaging to address the changing conditions in Europe in a functional way and what gaps remain to be worked on. It is the objective of the Chair project to provide a more informed debate and by doing this to generate more trust in the EU’s capacity to act efficiently.

The objective of ShapingEU is to fill a knowledge gap on how EU enlargement and internal reforms are intertwined, especially in the field of rule of law, democratic procedures and fundamental rights. These issues stand out as major problems in some EU member states since the last enlargement round and are also contested issues in several applicant countries. At the same time, they form the character of a political and not only economic union. These insights were gained through various findings from the work in my previous project, the Jean Monnet Module EU4Law.  

Regarding the familiarity of the students of our department with the EU Studies, there is still a gap in the teaching offer that needs to be filled. The Chairs on Political Behaviour and Comparative Politics do not regularly teach EU-related courses. Therefore, the courses offered in the context of my Jean Monnet Module were always attended by 25-35 students per course, which is quite a high number in our department, and the students were asking to provide more and constant offers in this study field. I am planning to collaborate more closely with a colleague who offers courses primarily for BA students on decision-making in the EU’s multi-level governance system to continue the work on a permanent curriculum component.

Also for students’ training to become teachers, who were already integrated in the courses taught in my Eu4Law module, there need to be further offers. By discussing the rule of law related issues and the policies that the EU undertakes to foster compliance by member states, it has become evident that more basic knowledge on the functioning of the European Union is needed. Therefore, I also want to expand teaching collaboration with especially another colleague who teaches political education. Here, we will develop didactic tools on how to teach European Union politics in a way that they in turn can learn how to apply this knowledge when teaching in schools. For this objective, closer collaboration with the University of North Carolina’s European Center of Excellence will be sought as they are engaging in the education of educator as well and mirroring the perspectives of teachers from outside the European Union will be beneficial for our teacher students as well.     Finally, considering the public debate in Germany about the consequences of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the fears and hopes of people regarding the aftermath of the conflict, such as fast-track accession and its unintended consequences, providing more fact-based assessments is of utmost importance. While the trust in the EU generated by its solidarity with Ukraine is high in public opinion, there is a need for convincing answers regarding the functional setup and future shape of a possibly larger EU in order not to lose this trust. Having at least one public event per year, reaching out to 50-100 participants each will help to achieve the objective of generating trust through knowledge.