This course intends to provide the participants with an introduction into the decision-making processes and means of action which shape and determine the European Union’s (E.U.) external relations. Starting with an overview of the E.U.’s institutional structures and decision-making procedure with respect to Foreign Policy, the course will discuss in particular, the various instruments of economic foreign relations - legislation, finances, treaties - within the European Community’s (E.C.) institutional framework in view of then analyzing more in detail the relations with various regions of the world, the USA, Russia, Central- and Eastern Europe, the Balkans etc. Finally, with the “Agenda 2000” and the “Stability Pact” for the southern Balkan, we shall study the political and institutional problems created by the impending accession of the countries in Central- and Eastern Europe to the E.U. and the E.C.
The course is directed mainly, but not exclusively at law students and does not require previous familiarity with EU matters or EC law, although some knowledge of European affairs will certainly be useful. The first lessons will provide the participants with the necessary basic insights and the particular political, institutional, or legal background of other aspects will be explained as we proceed.
The course is not based upon a specific textbook, but uses original texts instead, which are provided in class. It relies as well on the European Court’s of Justice jurisprudence, looking, however, from a practitioners point of view beyond the leading cases at the efforts of attorneys to beat or exploit the system in other, less publicized ones.