How to teach the EU

Professor R. Daniel Kelemen

Director, Center for European Studies

Rutgers University

Teaching Resources:EU Centers of Excellence

• Network of European Union Centers of Excellence: http://www.euce.org/education/

• Which includes: – Lesson Plans– Multimedia Resources– External Links

• University of Washington: http://jsis.washington.edu/euc/educators/#web_resources

• University of Pittsburgh: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/euce/outreach/index.html

• Teach Europe Resources page: http://www.teacheurope.org/resources.php

• New York Times, Learning Network Blog: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com

• Outreachworld http://www.outreachworld.org/

Outline

• The bad news: I don’t know how to teach high school or middle school students. You do!

• Resources for teaching the EU

• Some Major themes

• Discussion

Teaching Resources:EU resources

• EU Resources– EU Delegation to the US Teaching Resources:

http://www.eurunion.org/eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2144&Itemid=9

– EU Teachers’ Corner: http://europa.eu/teachers-corner/

– The EU in Slides: http://europa.eu/abc/euslides/index_en.htm

– EU Kid’s Corner: http://europa.eu/europago/welcome.jsp

– EU Games/Quizzes Competitions: http://europa.eu/quick-links/eu-kids/index_en.htm

• EUtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/eutube

EU Resources:News

• BBC Europe:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/2003/inside_europe/default.stm

• EU Observer: http://euobserver.com/

• NPR:

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128407020

Major Themes:What does the EU help us teach?

• Interdependence and Cooperation

• Nationalism, Language and Identity

• Diversity, Multiculturalism and Immigration

• Enlargement and challenges of political unification (parallels with the US)

• Europe as model? Benefits of integration

Interdependence and Cooperation

• EU is most successful example in world history of countries working together to solve common problems

• EU countries are interdependent. They face common challenges that none can solve alone:– Environment– Economic Globalization– Defense / Security

Nationalism, Language, Identity

• Nationalism discredited by WWII

• But languages and identities remain national

• Can Europe craft a stronger ‘common identity’

• First build Europe, then Europeans?

23 Official Languages

Can Europe Craft Common Identity?

• Common symbols

• Exchange programs

Diversity, Multiculturalism and Immigration

• Muslims in Europe• http://www.euce.org/assets/doc/education/k12/mich_muslims_in_eu

rope.pdf

• The Veil Controversy• http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/conferences/Veil2000/burqa.htm

• The Danish Cartoon Crisis• http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/da

nish_cartoon_controversy/index.html• http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/printing-error/

• EU vs. France over the Roma• http://euobserver.com/9/31074

Enlargement• Bridge to the Future:

http://euce.org/assets/doc/education/k12/UW-EUcurriculum_bridge.pdf

• Debating Benefits and Challenges of EU Membership: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/western-union-debating-benefits-and-challenges-of-eu-membership/

• Council for Economic Education: Enlarging the European Union• http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=163&type=educator

• Outreach world:• http://www.outreachworld.org/Files/university_of_washington_seattl

e/enlarging_the_eu.pdf

Major EU Achievements

1. Peace

2. Enlargement

3. Internal market

4. The Euro

5. Environmental Policy

..and many more

From war to peace

From the rubble of Dresden…

… to the ‘Love Parade’ in Berlin

From war…

• Centuries of warfare culminating in:– WWI – over 15 million casualties– WWII – over 50 million casualties, including 6

million Jews killed in the Holocaust

…to peace• On Bastille Day 1994, a German battalion

marched down the Champs-Elysées… and they were invited!

• War between France and Germany is now unthinkable

• EU is moving toward a common defense policy

EU Enlargement: From 6 to 27

Enlargement: from six to 27 countries

1952 1973 1981

1986

1990 1995 2004 2007

ENLARGEMENT

1957: France, Italy, Germany, Bel., Neth., Lux

1973: Denmark, Ireland, UK

1981: Greece

1986: Spain, Portugal

1995: Finland, Sweden, Austria

2004: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus

2007: Bulgaria and Romania

Enlargement

• Helped spread and stabilize democracy across Europe

• Brought prosperity to ailing economies

Internal Market

Travel

Communications

InvestmentEducation

Retirement in the sunFree Trade

Internal Market

• Market power: The EU has the world’s largest market and is America’s biggest trading partner

• Businesses benefit

• Consumers benefit

• Economic performance improves

From many….

… to one: the Euro

The Euro

• Value of € in circulation now exceeds $

• Gaining ground as reserve currency (roughly 25% of global reserves)

• Business benefits

• Consumer benefits

Environmental Policy

• EU has become world leader on environmental policy

• EU has spread high environmental standards across Europe- Climate Change Policy

- REACH Chemicals law– Automobile recycling

To stop global warming, EU leaders decided in 2007 to:

• reduce greenhouse gas emissions – by 20% by 2020

improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020 

raise the share of renewable energy – to 20% by 2020 (wind, solar, hydro power,

biomass)

Europe as model?

• We mostly hear bad news about Europe

• But ‘European Model’ is attractive to many around the world

• Less militaristic foreign policy

• Stronger support for environmental protection

• More social security

• Can it be sustained?