OAFP 5915 - The EU and its neighborhood

The EU’s neighbourhood has been characterised by great instability for the past 20 years, with direct impact on EU’s own security. If the war in Ukraine and Hamas’ attack in Israel represent climaxes of insecurity, several events have engaged the EU in an overhaul of its policy towards its neighbourhood: the enlargement to 13 new countries between 2004 and 2013 and the Brexit in 2016 reshaped EU’s borders; the so-called “Arab Spring” required new relationships with the southern Mediterranean countries; the Syrian and Libyan crises have generated security and migration concerns for the EU countries; etc.

The objectives of this course are to:

• present the EU policies towards its neighbourhood;
• take stock of the political, economic and social situation in the neighbourhood;
• highlight the challenges that the EU must respond to (e.g. energy issues; migration; (cyber-)security; etc.);
• identify solutions and way forward for an effective policy towards EU’s neighbours

The students should have some basic knowledge about the functioning of the European Institutions and about the EU External Policy.

It is recommended to visit the websites of the Directorate General of the European Commission on European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/node_en) and of the European External Action Service (https://www.eeas.europa.eu/_en).

Students will be evaluated on the following work:

• One oral presentation on a subject to be defined at the beginning of the course (50% of the final grade);
• One factsheet to be drafted on a subject to be defined at the beginning of the course (40% of the final grade):
• Participation to the course 10%

Apart from the assignments required to validate the course, the students will be provided with specific readings before each session that will trigger discussions and debates. It is expected that the students will have read the documents before the session. They are also expected to follow weekly news related to the EU and its neighbourhood to connect class discussions with current developments.