SCHUNZ Simon - External Dimensions of EU Internal Policies: Climate Change, Energy and the Environment (10h)
This compulsory course investigates the rapidly evolving external dimensions of European Union (EU) internal policies with the help of several emblematic case studies chosen from the policy areas of climate change, energy and the environment. It enables students to explore the manifold intersections between EU internal and external policies and the different ways in which the European Union mobilises internal policies externally to attain internal and/or external policy objectives. Four forms of EU external engagement based on internal policies are considered: (i) a first form that revolves around the EU leveraging its internal policies – deliberately or unintendedly - by means of the “Brussels Effect” (Bradford 2020); (ii) a second form that relates to the EU’s attempts to proactively externalize its internal policies, notably via enlargement and neighbourhood policies and in the wider European region; (iii) a third form by which the EU seeks to pursue objectives related to internal policies by interlinking them with or integrating them into, external policies such as development and trade policies; and (iv) a final form of external engagement amounting to genuine bi- and multilateral ‘sectoral diplomacies’ in areas of initially internal EU policies. In the discussion of each of these four forms of EU external engagement, specific attention is paid, in a theory-informed way, to the EU’s presence and capacity (being) as a basis of its external action, the precise ways and instruments through which it acts (doing), and how and to what extent its external action based on internal policies can be and is effective (impact). The course takes students from a discussion of the theoretical-conceptual foundations for understanding the external dimensions of EU internal policies to the empirical analysis of relevant policies and a normative reflection on the broader implications of the analyzed case examples. Students will work together to co-design a comprehensive EU Climate Diplomacy strategy for the period 2025 to 2028. The course concludes by extracting cross-cutting insights and offering the opportunity for an appraisal of the relevance of the rapidly evolving external dimensions of EU internal policies in the discussed issue areas and beyond.
Professor: Simon SCHUNZ