Europe Without Borders

Order Description

READING for TASK 3 –

For this task, you should click on the link below and read the whole section 2 entitled ’Defining Europe’ from the Open University unit What is Europe, available at

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=399012&printable=1

OR

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=399012&direct=1

PORTFOLIO

The portfolio is the first written assessment in the course. You have to complete the four tasks listed below. Do ensure that you answer all the questions within each task. The completed portfolio should then be submitted electronically (with the header sheet attached) through Moodle and Turnitin on the due date: Thursday 11th December 2014. [Please note the anticipated return date is three working weeks after the submission date.]

The portfolio accounts for 40% of the total marks for this course. The total word length should be around 2500 words.

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PORTFOLIO ACTIVITIES

Task 1 (25%)

Read the following chapter:

Desmond Dinan (2008) ’How did we get here’, in The European Union: How does it work? in E. Bomberg et al. (Oxford University Press), pp. 22-41 (also available on Moodle).

•    Summarise in your own words the main points of this chapter (500 words).

Task 2 (20%)

For this task, you should read the edited extract entitled ”2. Defining Europe” from the Open University unit What is Europe, available at:

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/society/politics-policy-people/geography/what-europe/content-section-1.2.1

Please read the entire section 2 namely ”2.1 Europe as a geographical area”; ”2.2 Europe as a sequence of ideas”; ”2.2 Europe as a sequence of ideas”; ”2.3 Europe as a ‘non-other’”

Now, read the following questions, and provide short answers (50-100 words for questions a,b,c).

(a)    Why is Europe more than a geographical expression?

(b)     Why was WW1 and WW2 such a traumatic shock for Europe, and why did war and its consequences challenge Europe’s core values?

(c)    How did the idea/identity of Europe change after 1989?

(d)     What role has the idea of ’otherness’ played in the formation of European identity?  (250-300 words).

Task 3 (35%) – 1,000 words in total.

Read the following article:

John Redmond (2007) ’Turkey and the European Union: Troubled European or European Trouble?, International Affairs, 83:2, 305-317  (also available on Moodle).

•    What are the ambiguities in EU policy towards Turkey? (100 words)

•    Which EU member states support Turkish membership, and which do not?

How does the author explain these positions? (100 words

•    Why does the author support Turkey becoming a member of the EU soon? (100 words

•    The opposition to Turkey is based on religious and cultural reasons. Which of these arguments does the author present, and how does he argue against them? (100 words

•    Do you agree or disagree with the author’s position? Why? (600 words).

Task 4 (20%) – 400-600 words in total.

Read the following chapter:

E. Bomberg and A. Stubb (2008) ’The EU’s Institutions’, in The European Union: How does it work?, in E. Bomberg et al. (Oxford University Press), pp. 22-41 (also available on Moodle).

•    Briefly describe the structure and functions of the following institutions:

(a)    The European Parliament (100-150 words)

(b)    The Council of the European Union (100-150 words)

(c)    The European Commission (100-150 words)

(d)     The European Court of Justice (100-150 words)