The political economy of the EU

The course provides an overview of the conditions necessary to maintain the EU as an economic union. The following regulations represent the focus of attention: the customs union, common commercial policy, competition policy within the internal market, and the monetary union.

The course adresses the economic purposes of the regulations and their underlying processeses of policy making. The course also elaborates the economic and political challenges related to maintaining these policies. Previous education in economics is no prerequisity for attending the course.

A candidate is expected to have obtained the following knowledge and skills:

Knowledge:
-empirical knowledge about the emergence of the customs union, the common commercial policy, the competition policy in the internal market, and the monetary union.
-theoretical and empirical knowledge about how the regulations work, and thereby knowledge about the inherent tensions within the EUs political economy

Skills:
-the ability use terminology and theories in an academic work based on empirical data
-be able to communicate knowledge precisely both orally and written

Lectures and Seminars. Obligatory term paper/ oral presentation.