OVERVIEW

The course introduces the history of European integration and the theoretical principles that underlie it, illustrating the methodological tools for critically accessing documentary sources and the complexity of historiographical interpretations on the subject.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course the student is able to: - know the historical processes that led to the first attempts at European unification, the theoretical principles underlying them, the initiatives of movements, parties, political, economic and social forces in favor of continental unity from the second post-war period to the present day; - be aware of the historical dimension of the reality of the European Union and its possible evolutions; - understand the historiography and sources of European integration; - develop in-depth papers on specific topics

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Know in-depth historical notions on the history of European integration from 1945 to today;
• master information on the history of the idea of Europe; 
• know the main stages of the European integration process from a historical, economic, social and environmental policy point of view;
• acquire direct knowledge of documentary and oral sources on the history of European integration;
• critically elaborate a knowledge of the various historiographical tendencies on the subject;
• apply a methodology that allows for the preparation and presentation of specific papers, based on individual research on historical sources;
• analyze and understand the complexity of the European Union, between national thrusts and supranational integration, which can be concretely used to prepare dossiers with innovative proposals on current issues.

SDGs

This course contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.

5. Gender Equality

8. Decent Work and Economic Growth

10. Reduced Inequalities

13. Climate Action

16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

17. Partnerships for the Goals

PREREQUISITES

Knowledge of contemporary history.

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching consists of lectures, for a total of 36 hours, and attendance is recommended.

Those who have attended 70% of the lessons are considered attending students.

Attending students may be involved in the simulation of a meeting of an EU institution or of an European supranational body or in the debate on an important topcis of the political agenda.

During the course, in-depth thematic seminars will be organized and recommended on topical issues of the European integration process.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course will address the following topics:

• Roots of Europe. A moving Europe
• The idea of Europe in the history
• The turning point of the end of 18th century
• Characters and major figures of nineteenth-century Europeanism
• The First World War and the Society of Nations. Einaudi’s criticism at the League of Nations
• Projects, movements, ideas of European unification in Europe between the two wars
• The Briand Plan
• The Franco-British Union Monnet project
• Europe’s idea and European constitution projects in the Second World War and in the post-war period
• The movements for the European unity
• Europe at the start of the Cold War
• Strategies for European unification
• Jean Monnet and Altiero Spinelli
• The American attitude towards European unification: from the period between the two wars to the Marshall Plan
• The OEEC
• The Brussels Pact
• The Hague Congress
• The Council of Europe
• The Schuman Plan
• The ECSC
• The EDC
• The founding fathers of Europe: Alcide De Gasperi, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak
• Article 38 of the EDC and the draft European Community Policy
• The Ad Hoc Assembly
• From the fall of the EDC to the WEU
• The Treaties of Rome
• The common agricultural policy
• Italy in the EEC and its entry into EMS: 1958-1978
• De Gaulle’s European policy. The Fouchet Plans and the empty chair crisis
• Kennedy’s proposal of equal partnership of July 1962
• Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the international context
• The enlargements of the EEC / EU
• The crisis of the Bretton Woods system
• The Hague Conference and the re-launch of the integration process: completion, enlargement, deepening
• The first monetary unification projects. The Werner Plan
• The Monetary Snake
• EMS
• From direct EP elections to the Spinelli project
• The European Single Act
• The Treaty of Maastricht and the constitutional last twenty years
• Italy's entry into monetary union
• The Treaty of Nice
• The Laeken Declaration and the Constitutional Treaty
• The Treaty of Lisbon
• The Euroscepticism

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Slides and material are available on Aulaweb.

Recommended texts:

- U. MORELLI, Storia dell’integrazione europea, Milano, Guerini, 2011

- D. PREDA, Alcide De Gasperi: European Founding Father, Brussels, Peter Lang, 2017

Furthermore:

- Corrado Malandrino, Stefano Quirico, L’idea di Europa. Storie e prospettive, Carocci, 2020

Non-attending students must also report on one of the following volumes:

Raffaella Cinquanta, Fabio Zucca (a cura di), La paura del «Leviatano» europeo. Globalizzazione, euroscetticismo e crisi della democrazia, Milano, Ledizioni, 2022

Robert Belot, La Resistenza e la rinascita dell'idea europea (1942-1947), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022

Giuliana Laschi, L'Europa agricola, dalla fame agli sprechi. Storia della PAC (1945-2004), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022

Daniele Pasquinucci, Il frutto avvelenato. Il vincolo europeo e la critica all'Europa, Milano, Mondadori Education, 2022

Stefano Quirico, L'Europa di Wilhelm Röpke. Liberalismo, federalismo, nazione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022

Sante Cruciani, Maria Paola Del Rossi (a cura di), Diritti, Europa, federalismo. Bruno Trentin in prospettiva transnazionale (1988-2007), Firenze , Firenze University Press; Roma , Liberetà, 2023

Francesca Tortorella, Un antifascisme européiste. Giustizia e libertà et Partito d'azione (1929-1947), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022

Matteo Antonio Napolitano, Verso l’Europa unita. Il percorso politico-istituzionale di Giulio Bergmann, Roma, Aracne, 2020.

Francesco Bonini, Sandro Guerrieri (a cura di), La scrittura delle Costituzioni. Il secondo dopoguerra in un quadro mondiale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2020

Lara Piccardo, Dalla Patria all’Umanità. L’Europa di Giuseppe Mazzini, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2020

Giorgio Grimaldi, I Verdi italiani e l’Europa. Il Sole che ride dagli albori all’azione nel Parlamento europeo (1978-2009), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2020

Giorgio Grimaldi, I Verdi in Germania. L’ecologia in politica dai movimenti all’Europa, Pavia, Collana del Jean Monnet Interregional Centre of Excellence, 2020

Raffaella Cinquanta, Partigiani di tutta Europa, unitevi!”. L’ideale dell’Europa unita nelle riviste clandestine della Resistenza italiana, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2020

Euroscepticisms. Resistance and Opposition to the European Community/European Union, a cura di Guido Levi e Daniela Preda, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018

Daniela Preda, Alcide De Gasperi: European Founding Father, Brussels, Peter Lang, 2017

Guido Levi, L’europeismo ai tempi della Costituente, Padova, Cedam, 2020

Erasmus students will have to submit a detailed report on a theme of their choice and report on one of the following volumes:

U. MORELLI, L’Unione europea. Storia, istituzioni, politiche, Loescher 2007

W. LOTH, Building Europe, a history of European integration, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2015

M. T. BITSCH, Histoire de la construction européenne, Ed. Complexe, 1999.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

DANIELA PREDA (President)

LARA PICCARDO

MARIA ELEONORA GUASCONI (President Substitute)

LUCA BARBAINI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

II semester, February 2025.

Classrooms, dates, hours of lectures and exams on Easyacademy Unige: https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti/

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists of an oral interview and includes questions both on the institutional part and on the monographic one. The interview will have the purpose of ascertaining adequate knowledge of the topics covered by the course and its duration varies, modulating with respect to individual cases, in order to allow this verification.

Attending students, during the course, will have to prepare dossiers and present oral reports, which will form part of the overall assessment. Non-attending students will have to deepen a topic of their choice by reading a volume among those published on this teaching sheet and on aulaweb.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The Commission is designated by the Department Council and chaired by the course professor. The evaluation is based mainly on the knowledge of the subject, but also on the quality of the exposure, the correct use of the specialized lexicon and the critical reasoning ability on the study carried out.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students with “Special Needs”: the compensatory/dispensative tools recognized by the Department coordinator, Prof. Aristide Canepa, and by the University Service for students with special needs are applied. It is suggested to contact by Prof. Canepa and the lecturer of this course at the beginning of the lectures.