TALKING EUROPE 8101-EUKON/Z-OG

Talking Europe seminars are a friendly and interactive way of passing the knowledge on the EU. Students will learn that the EU is not only synonymous with complex procedures and structures, but also with its member states and their history, culture, individual challenges. This course is aimed at presenting practical effects of integration. Some meetings may focus on countries from outside of the EU.
The subject matter of the course is broad, it ranges from purely political, through economic to social and cultural issues. Detailed course programme will be published in October and its shape will depend on the most recent internal situation in the EU.
The interdisciplinary and up-to-date character as well as the direct contact between students and experts, Talking Europe course is complementary with other academic courses and goes beyond the usual framework of analysis of the EU institutions and its particular policies. The course also gives an insight into individual member states from a perspective broader than that of their political systems.
Individual topics will be discussed by various guests (journalists, officials, academics, think tank researchers, diplomats), experts in their fields. Course participants may ask questions and discuss with the speakers.
The first seminar will take the form of a workshop on the beginnings of the European integration after the second world war; it will also be an opportunity for students to integrate.
In addition, one of the meetings will take the form of simulation, where students will assume roles of Polish and German diplomats and journalists to renegotiate the Treaty of Good Neighbourhood and Friendly Cooperation between Poland and Germany of 1991.
The course is organised by two NGOs – Polish Robert Schuman Foundation and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
In order to achieve the aims of the course, students need to devote an estimated total amount of time of:
15 hours of the course;
Ca. 8 hours to read and learn the materials provided (handouts, minutes from the meetings, notes);
ca. 6 hours to prepare for the simulation.