WELCOME TO THE EUROPEAN UNION POLITICAL HISTORY

 

Dear Students,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this new edition of European Union Political History. 

We are in a troubled period of history. After having been through a bunch of difficult years initially due to the 2008 financial crisis and the results of the 2020 Pandemic, since February 24 of 2022 we are at war in Ukraine with Putin (not against Russia) and since 2025 with Donald Trump, not only commercially but directly as he pretends to occupy militarily Greenland, a territory that so far legally belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, though with a great degree of autonomy.

You may say that we are not physically involved in Ukraine, and that we are still not fighting in Greenland, but you have to recognize that we are suffering quite directly in our oil and gaz supplies the consequences of the Russian invasion and, through the substantial raise of customs duties of imports from Europe, the pressure of Donald Trump. And I do not mention another great initiatives of Emperor Trump: as the “Canadian Anschluss”, the expulsion of illegal immigrants, the raising of the Mexican Wall, or the suggestion of changing the name Gulf of Mexico by American Gulf.  Wait and see!!!!

However I think that we should also look at the other side of the coin. Because on the other hand: should we not consider Donald Trump the strongest European asset, as in response to his menaces European governments are getting together to face the major crisis that we Europeans are going through since 1945?

 The real problem is that we Europeans for a very long time, concretely for almost 80 years (since 1945), we have been used to live comfortable lives and we did not care to develop strong armies that are extremely expensive, because since the creation of NATO in 1949, we have entirely relied on the US to protect ourselves at the world level.

And now, for the first time since 1945, as Donald Trump does not want to spend more money on our protection, we are beginning to understand how important is to be military strong against foreign dangers. And it is precisely at this crucial point that we are about to start the study of how we tried to come together in an integrated Europe, since the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, and how we became a European Union, in 1992 after the disappearance of the Soviet Union. The question is of course if is this enough for us Europeans to continue to be independent and relevant in the 21^st century world in face of World powers as the US, Russia or China?

The problem lies in the fact that the EU totally lacks of an exciting common narrative.  We are little more than a bunch of States that got together because of economic interests, and we still are selfishly more concerned about our own countries towards a common Project. We Europeans still feel more nationals than Europeans, and we show little solidarity in a EU that so far has no soul !!! We entirely lack of a common European sentiment, and Putin and Trump know it. Though the worst is that so far we are doing nothing to prevent them from harming us. Essentially because we do not understand what is at the stake.

 But you, students, are lucky because in the course we start today of European Union Political History we will try to understand why did we create a European Union in the first place. An intellectual effort that requires understanding how the idea of Europe developed through the centuries, and what means today to be a European. Without this we could not move towards an operational Union of all Europeans to face US, Russian or Chinese ambitions.

Bear in mind that we will have to get back to our origins, which relate to the Greek Myth of the Abduction of Europe, before remembering the expansion of Greek civilization from the 5^th century BC, and the creation of our first big empire resulting from the achievements of a very organized people: the Romans.  And so on until we will continue to look at our history until we get to the present times in order to realize how important is the European contribution to the World history.

You may not realize it but let’s remember you that we live in the safest spot on earth, where the average citizen is more protected. And this is why we have to defend our liberty and our culture against all the disturbing models in which individuals are not as respected and protected as in our old continent.  

Let’s see now how we are going to do it.

EVALUATION METHOD:

 You can choose one of the two following ways of getting evaluated. The first way applies if you are too busy and cannot attend classes regularly you will just have to work on your materials, do the exercises and prepare at home your Class Notebook. For getting your grade you will just have to pass the official exam at the end of the semester, in the date fixed by the university: 12 May 2026. Your final mark will be the one you will obtain in this only exam.

 The second way of getting evaluated is through continuous assessment evaluation. In this case your final mark will not depend exclusively on how well you will do in the final exam, but also in the weekly activities that include not only working the teaching guides of your materials, but also the extra compulsory readings and participating actively in class. If you choose this type of evaluation your final note will be the result of the addition of the following activities: 

60%:    Exam.

30%:    Results modular exams on compulsery readings.

10%:    Assistance and meaningful participation in class and Class notebook. 

 If you decide to be on the continuous assessment evaluation system, class attendance is compulsory. Not attending classes regularly will send you automatically in the only final exam type of evaluation. I will be very strict concerning class attendance. So if you are not sure you can make it, I will advise you to choose the first method of evaluation from the beginning.

TEACHING METHOD:

For getting acquainted with the history of European integration you will be working intensively the Materials that I will put weekly at your disposal in the blog:

¿Aprobar o aprender? https://aprobaroaprender.blogspot.com

I suggest that for mastering them you will have to work every week the texts and the exercises that accompany them in every Teaching Guide, and then strongly participate in presential a classes. Every week you will have to put in Handwriting the exercises in a Notebook on paper. screens are not allowed for this purpose. Beware: Without presenting the CLASS NOTEBOOK you will not be allowed to attend the midterm exam. You will go straight to the final one on May 12, 2026.

For those that will choose to attend classes, every week we will be working on these materials.  Every one of the 12 Teaching guides that will be at your disposal come with its corresponding exercises: dates, concepts, short and long questions. The way to do it? To work daily –or at least weekly- on it reflecting your work in your Class-notebook. And then participate in class as actively as you can to prove that you have understood the main issues. If not, please ask questions in class. If you do so you will pass the exam easily. A large proportion of these materials are taken from my book A History of Western Public Law. Between Nation and State. Springer 2015, and Demystifying the Legal Art of Order, Power and Fun. An Introduction to Pop Law. Cambridge Scholars 2025They are realtively expensive books though in the digital version they are more affordable. But you could share them. Anyhow with the excerpts that I have integrated in every Teaching guide you will have a first consistent approach. I join here a complementary bibliography in case you would be interested in knowing more about a particular point.

Aguilera-Barchet, B. Demistifying the Legal Art of Order, Power and Fun. An Introduction to Pop Law. Cambridge Scholars 2025. 

Aguilera-Barchet, B. A History of Western Public Law. Between Nation and State. Springer 2015. 

Aguilera Barchet, Bruno (2015) “Europeans: don’t be afraid of your culture!” in https://www.martenscentre.eu/blog/europeans-dont-be-afraid-of-your-culture/

Anderson, Perry (2011) The New Old World New York NY: Verso.

Aron, R. In Defense of Decadent Europe Transaction Publishers 1996. 

Berend, Ivan T. (2016) The History of European Integration. A  New Perspective. London: Routledge.

Blair, Alasdair (2010) The European Union since 1945, 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Caenegem, R. C. van A Historical Introduction to Western Constitutional Law. Cambridge University Press 2003. 

Dedman, Martin (2006) The origins and development of the European Union 1945-1995: a history of European Integration. London: Routledge.

Dinan, Desmond (2004) Europe recast: a history of European Union. 2nd ed. London: Palgrave Mcmillan.

Geary, P. J. The Myth of Nations. The Medieval origins of Europe. Princeton University Press 2002. 

Gellner, E. Nations and Nationalism. Blackwell Publishing 2006. 

Hobsbawm, E. J. Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge University Press. 2010. 

Judt, T. Postwar: Postwar. A History of Europe since 1945 Penguin Books 2005.

Kaiser, W. (2010) European Union History. Themes and Debates. London: Palgrave.

McCormick, J. (2020) Understanding the European Union: A concise Introduction. London: Red Globe Press.

Mishra, Pankaj (2017) Age of Anger London: Penguin Books. 

Pasture, P. (2017). Imagining Europe Unity since 1000 AD. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rutley, Philip (2002) “The Long Road to Unity: The Contribution of Law to the Process of European Integration since 1945” in Pagden, Anthony; Hamilton, Lee H. (2002). The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 260-285. 

Wind, Marlene (2019) La tribalización de Europa: una defense de nuestros valores liberales Barcelona: Espasa Calpe.

TESTS:

 

 Concerning the Evaluation, besides your very active participation in class, you will have to pass two tests including: 1) dates from the chronology, 2) concepts and 3) short questions, that would be followed 4) by a more general subject. I will recommend as well some texts extracted from literary works or essays, and some films that you will have to watch. The marks resulting from your two mid term exams will represent 60% of the final.

 

 The first midterm test will take place on Thursday the 26 of March. The second test will be on the 12 of May. For those who will not follow the continuous assessment evaluation, on the Tuesday 12 May they will do the unique and final exam.

 

COMPULSORY READINGS:

 

Besides your Class materials, the Blog and the class explanations, the students that will choose the attending classes system will have to read some additional texts, mainly essays or novels. Why? Because we live in a world of data, and data are not life. Data might work for the algorithms of the AI, but life is not a chat GPT. And what is the use of studying if what you study does not throw you into real life? In my experience literature is the best approach for really living what you study.

 Antoine de Saint Éxupéry (1900-1944) had fully understood it when he wrote, that “Knowing is not demonstrating or explaining. It is accessing a vision”  (Connaître, ce n’est point démontrer, ni expliquer. C’est accéder à la vision).  Learning something is useless if it does not push you to get fully involved, because after a few decades teaching I have fully understood the meaning of Saint Exupéry words, that included in his book Flight to Arras (1942), in which he summarized his experience as a pilot in a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940: “Intelligence is worthless if it is not used at the service of love” (“L’intelligence ne vaut qu’au service de l’amour »). 

Besides your class materials you will have to read carefully one article and one book. 

1. The first is an ARTICLE of mine in the magazine edited by Springer. The title “Europeans: don’t be afraid of your culture! Published in European View (2015) 14:181–189. DOI 10.1007/s12290-015-0367- You have it in the “Aula virtual”. You will have one question in your first test on this article, and we will debate on it.

 2. Our compulsory BOOK, The Every (2021) by American writer Dave Eggers. It is the sequel to The Circle (2013). In these two works, the author addresses the many-sided excesses of technological capitalism. In what can be described as dystopian novels, Eggers offers a relentless analysis of digital power and of the subjugation of the individual to algorithms controlled by major digital platforms. 

In “The Every”, the company depicted in “The Circle” has merged all digital platforms and now controls every single aspect of human life, having become an omnipresent technological empire. In this new reality, the distinction between professional and private life has virtually disappeared. The ideology of transparency and control is taken to its extreme. 

Born in Boston in 1970, Dave Eggers, although not anti-technology, strongly questions who controls technology, for what purposes and under which logics of power. Egger considers that unbridled technology threatens human and democratic values. And this is a very important issue in our contemporary society. Thus, it is very interesting to analyse where technological revolution could lead us to. Dave Eggers gives in his novel a very plausible response. 

It is interesting to pay attention to the full title of the book: The Every.  Or At least a sense of order or The final days of free will or Limitless choice is killing the world. 

Be aware of the subtitles. This not so unusual suggestion is an indication of a set of temporal patterns that show how our time is being structured to force us to be constantly productive and to prevent us from concentrating for extended periods of time. This leads to difficulties in assimilating any text and, therefore, to a decline in our critical thinking. This danger is crudely shown in this dystopic novel of Dave Eggers, very critical with this thorough voluntary submission to technology. Technology has, de facto, become a new religion in which technological gurus are worshipped as new gods. While this may already have been true in The Circle, where these figures were still flesh-and-blood individuals, in The Every gurus are no longer people but algorithms. The ultimate guru is technology itself: omniscient, invisible, and unquestioned. 

 Economically it means that Capitalism has disappeared because of the concentration of wealth in a bunch of technological behemoths as the GAMAM an acronym for the big five: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Meta. Companies that Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis consider the responsible for a new era of capitalism called “technofeudalism”[1] or “surveillance capitalism” according to Harvard University politologist Shoshanna Zuboff[2]. 

 And this surveillance capitalism of course is mainly in the hands of the US, though China is becoming an alternative we apps as Zoom, Tik tok, Wechat or Deep Seek. Europeans are far behind with apps as Mistral AI, a French Startup created in 2023. But at least they are developing the first legislation on AI: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and the of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence and amending Regulations. 

 Only through a strong EU we could protect Europe from being mangled by actual World super powers. This is why it is so important to understand how we got to the EU, and this historical trip we lead us inevitably to realize how Europeans have contributed to the World’s history. 

Let’s get started. 

READING METHODOLOGY

 We will work our compulsory reading on a weekly basis, in order to prepare the exam you will be doing on these compulsory readings. How will we do that? You will have to read every week a part of the book before coming to class. Let us insist that participation will be taken into account for your final mark and will be encouraged, and that this weekly work on the book will help you to prepare the exam. Also bear in mind that your participation in the reading sessions and in the debate after the exam would be more than welcome and duly considered for your marks. You will be requested to express your opinion, either good or bad, and your feelings about the book. An active and meaningful participation will improve your grading. Remember that the note you will receive in these reading activities would be 30% of your final mark. 

Book Timeline (The Every by Dave Eggers):

-        Week of 29^th – 30^th January: Chapters I to IV.

-        Week of 5^th - 6^th February: Chapters V to IX.

-        Week of 12^th - 19 February: Chapters X to XIV.

-        Week of 19^th – 20^th February: Chapters XV to XX. 

-        Week of 5^th-6^th March: Chapters XXI to XV.

-        Week of 12^th – 13^th March: Chapters XXVI to XXX.

-        Week of 19^th – 20^th March: Chapters XXXI to XXXV.

-        Week of 26^th – 27^th March: Chapters XXXVI to XL.

-        Week of 9^th- 10^th April: Chapters XLI to the end and final revision. 

Exam on David Egger’s Book: 16^th April. 

The exam will consist of 10 short, clear questions about the book. It will be followed by a debate. 

Itching to know more?

As we are convinced that the topics treated in the reading part of the attending class system will interest at least some of you, in case you need to know more I join a list of books and of audiovisual materials. We remain at your disposal for further information both on bibliography and 

Some other interesting books: 

Alexievich, Svetlana (2029). Second-hand time. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Alexievich, Svetlana (2016). Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl. London: Penguin Classics.

Applebaum, Anne (2021). Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends. London: Penguin.

Coe, Jonathan (2019). Middle England. London: Penguin.

Da EmpolI, Giuliano (2024). The Wizard of the Kremlin. London: Pushkin Press.

Figes, Orlando (2020) The Europeans. Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture.

Figes, Orlando (2023). The story of Russia. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Kadaré, Ismail (2006) The file on H. London: Penguin.

Lanchester, John, (2015) Capital

Pagden, Anthony (2022). The pursuit of Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Varoufakis, Yannis. (2017) Adults in the Room. My battle with Europe’s deep establishment. 

Wagenstein Angel,  (2020) Isaac’s Torah. 

Zweig, Stefan. (1942) The world of Yesterday. Memories of a European.

 

SOME MOVIES: 

We will also be seeing some movies related to the topics we will be dealing with in the Teaching Guides and in the compulsory readings. In the tests there will be questions related to the movies. Here you have a long list. We will see some of them. 

Some great movies: 

-        “The trial”, directed by Orson Welles (1962).

-        “Advise and Consent” directed by Otto Preminger (1962)

-        “The Mission” directed by Roland Joffé (1986)

-        “Dancing with wolves” directed and produced by Kevin Costner (1990)

-         “Schindler’s list” directed by Steven Spielberg (1993).

-        “Europa, Europa” directed by Agnieszka Holland (1993).

-        “Lamerica” directed by Gianni Amelio (1994).

-        “Underground” directed by Emir Kusturica (1995).

-        “Harrison’s flowers” directed by Elie Chouraqui (2000).

-        “The Patriot” directed by Roland Emmerich (2000)

-         “L’auberge espagnole” directed by Cédric Kaplisch (2002).

-        “The pianist” directed by Roman Polanski (2002).

-        “Goodbye Lenin” directed by Wolfgang Becker (2003).

-        “Downfall” directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (2004).

-        “The lives of others” directed by Florien Henkel von Donnersmarck (2006).

-        “Apocalypto”, directed by Mel Gibson (2006)

-        “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” directed by Cristian Mungiu (2007).

-        “The white ribbon” directed by Michael Hanecke (2009).

-        “The Big Short” directed by Adam McKay (2015)

-        “Bridge of Spies” directed by Steven Spielberg (2015)

-        “An Officer and a Spy” directed by Roman Polanski (2019).

-        “Mr. Jones” directed by Agnieszka Holland (2019).

-        “Brexit: The Uncivil War” directed by Toby Haynes (2019).

-         “1917” directed by Sam Mendes (2019).

-        “The Two popes” directed by Fernando Meirelles (2019).

-        “The Trial of the Chicago 7” directed by Aaron Sorkin (2020)

-        “Argentina, 1985” directed by Santiago Mitre (2022)

-        “All quiet in the Western Front” directed by Edward Berger (2022).

-        “Oppenheimer” directed by Christopher Nolan  (2023)

-        “Conclave” directed by Edward Bertger (2024)

-        “Nuremberg” directed by James Vanderbilt (2025)

 

A series: “Tchernobyl” HBO (2019)

 

 

 

 

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[1] Yanis Varoufakis Technofeudalism: What killed Capitalism (2023)

[2] Shoshanna Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (2018).