For many, “Brussels” is a black box that has become an intransparent factory of legislation and regulation. It may sound like a herculean task, but there are ways to cut through the complexity. You could consult official sources of information like the EU Official Journal, follow live-streamed meetings or collect what you can find on the websites of the Commission, Council and EP. Or you could look at unofficial sources (free), like general newsletters and bulletins, subject-specific sources, think tank studies or social media.
This course helps students to develop three essential intelligence gathering skills and applies them, through individual and group assignments, to current case studies:
- Finding key people (who is who and who does what) and networking – in person and from a distance
- Getting reliable information and news: baseline information (from official sources in EU institutions), breaking news (what is about to happen or has happened) and analysis (from stakeholders and from independent experts)
- Mapping procedures and processes: getting meeting dates and agendas and plotting the state of play of a negotiation on a codecision (“tracking chart”)
To develop these skills, each student will build a portfolio for a dossier assigned to her/him containing:
- Key official documents
- “Who is who” tables of contacts (for different categories of players)
- An overview of reliable news sources for the dossier (including social media)
- An overview of analyses and commentaries from “independents” and stakeholders
- An updated codecision tracking chart
Armed with this comprehensive set of information, students will develop an approach and provide advice to a particular stakeholder on how to engage with key players in Brussels.
