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POLI-D456

Interest Representation in the EU

academic year
2023-2024
2024-2025

Course teacher(s)

Nathalie BRACK (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

This course focuses on interest representation in the EU in a broad sense, i.e. representation of the private and public interest trying to attempt to influence the actions and policies of the EU. It also questions the theoretical and methodological challenges in studying interest representation and it discusses its relation to democracy.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

This class aims to discuss the theoretical, methodological and normative aspects of interest representation in the EU.

At the end of the course, students should:

  • Have a good understanding of interest representation in the EU
  • Have developed critical thinking, discussion and writing skills
  • Be able to analyze key topics related to interest representation politics in the EU

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

A good knowledge of how the EU institutions operate.

Teaching methods and learning activities

The course relies on the autonomy of the students and their participation in the class.The workload during the semester will be quite high but there is no exam in January.

The course will rely on these types of material:

  • Lectures and PowerPoints
  • guest speakers (lobbyists)
  • Compulsory readings / active readings
  • Collective presentations and discussions in class 

Course material: Students will be granted access to the course material (whether videos or commented powerpoint) and the material will be available on the UV. This material is covered by intellectual property rights regulations and it is not authorized to share it outside the UV. By registering for the course, you consent to these conditions related to the course material.

Contribution to the teaching profile

This course complements the other courses of the programme in European studies. More particularly, it aims at giving an in-depth analysis of one particular type of actors: those who represent specific interests in the EU and their strategies. It is particularly complementary to the course Decision-making in the EU.

Course notes

  • Podcast
  • Université virtuelle

Other information

Contacts

Nathalie Brack
Nathalie.Brack@ulb.be
Office hours on Teams upon appointment

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Personal work
  • Group work
  • Other
  • Written report

Personal work

Group work

Other

Written report

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The grade will be the sum of your results on 2 components:

  1. Individual memos, discussion and collective presentation: 40%
  1. Paper (individual): 60%

Write a (research or policy) paper on a topic related to interest representation in the EU.

6000 words (+/- 10%), bibliography excluded.

Language(s) of evaluation

  • english

Programmes