The project is based on seven courses which will combine elements of traditional lecturing with interactive approaches involving participants in debating EU border aspects. Moreover, the didactic material that will accompany the course is a specific result of a research activity undertaken within the project for each course that will help the participants engage in a powerful learning activity through its multidisciplinary approach. This didactic material will serve as a theoretical common basis for the target group and will contain all the key concepts and information that will be presented during the lectures of the seven courses. The didactic material will be printed in a user friendly format and distributed at the beginning of each course during the three years of the project. The participants will attend on following courses:
1. The architecture of the European Union: institutions and decisional process – University Professor Iordan Gheorghe BARBULESCU, Ph.D
The aim of this course is to offer the frontier workers from Romania, Ukraine and Republic of Moldova a better understanding of the functioning of the European Union. Moreover, the course aims to reveal Romania’s path towards EU and to offer the best practices to others two neighbours countries – Ukraine and Republic of Moldova. The course will combine elements of traditional lecturing with interactive approaches involving participants in debating the past, present, and future of Institutions and the decisional process of the European Union. The training course aims to provide the participants with the theoretical and methodological tools for studying the institutional system of the European Union from a dynamic point of view and stressing the importance of the relationships between various actors, European values and European integration.
2. The policies of the European Union – Professor Iordan Gheorghe BARBULESCU, Ph.D
The main purpose of this course is to present the frontier workers the policies of the European Union in order to maximize their daily activities and to gain the requested expertise for a future adherence at the EU. A specific attention will be paid to their particular interest in some of the European Policies, such as Justice and Home Affairs, EU Common Security and Defence Policy. Last but not least, the course aims to stimulate a better cooperation between the three neighbouring countries on issues regarding the border management. The course will involve the participants in debates about the existing framework of the EU Policies, with a special focus on those policies that are of a great importance for our target group (e.g Justice and Home Affairs, EU Common Security and Defence Policy).
3. The European Union’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – University Professor George ANGLIȚOIU, PhD
This course aims to offer the correct interpretation and integration process of the European and Euro-Atlantic security, highlighting the importance of national and foreign policy dimension taken on national, regional and international security, and also to analyse the development of the regional and international systems of political, economical and security perspectives in comparison with the national security strategy; decision-making mechanisms in the context of national, regional and international approaches; to present the role of national states and nationalism in the process of configuration of identities of organizations; to examine EU policies, the EU’s external strategy. The course will combine elements of traditional lecturing with interactive approaches involving participants in debating the past, present, and future in the correct interpretation and integration process of the European and Euro-Atlantic security.
4. The evaluation of cross-border cooperation – University Professor Ioan HORGA, PhD
The main purpose of this course is to analyse the issues regarding public policy and programs evaluation with focus on cross border cooperation and its impact in improving governance. The course aims to offer participants theoretical and methodological knowledge towards working on their own study in the field. Moreover, the course intends to introduce participants to the main themes and theories on public policy and program evaluation, to offer the possibility for understanding different approaches in evaluation; Internalizing theoretical aspects for use in evaluating policy, public programs, a European structural instrument that works on a cross border level. By this course, frontier workers will have the opportunity to become familiar with a new approach to the evaluation of the European borders and especially towards the concept of cross-border cooperation.
5. The identity of national minorities and new forms of a frontier in the European area – University Professor Mircea BRIE, PhD
This course aims to offer a better understanding of the role of each culture in building the European identity, capturing and understanding the specificity of ethnic groups and migration, developing the capacity to early identify types and effects of migration, but also demographic and public policies and the specificity of the internal and the external EU borders. Moreover, the course analyses the specific of eastern border from the point of view of ethnic and religious borders, focusing on the perception of demographic crisis mechanisms and the effects of such a crisis on social security. Also, the course promote the mechanisms for capturing and understanding the relational mechanisms, identification of various typologies of ethnic and religious groups in order to relate intercultural communication to the process of European integration and to analyse the particular contributions of each EU Member State to the cultural environment of Europe, in order to understand the relevance of intercultural dialogue in managing European diversity and to examine and analyse the ways of dealing with conflicts.
6. ”Horizon 2020”: Eastern Europe – University Professor Adrian IVAN, PhD
The course aims at presenting in an analytical manner the issues of European security and geopolitics of Eastern Europe. Starting from a historical perspective the course will take in consideration the general image of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the main security issues that the region has to face and the region relations with international organizations as the European Union and NATO. The main objective of the course is to create a complex perspective about the future of Eastern Europe in 2020. The course is aimed at developing theoretical knowledge useful in understanding the issues of European security and geopolitics of Eastern Europe. Moreover, the course will take into consideration the general image of Eastern Europe after the fail of the Iron Curtain and to create a complex perspective of the Eastern Europe in 2020.
7. Geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe – University Lecturer Dacian DUNA, PhD
This course will help understanding the complex geopolitical landscape of the Central and Eastern European region: demography, military forces, frontiers, ethnicities, languages, resources, minorities, political forces, integration processes, and fragmentation (instability, violence, and war). The geopolitical knowledge will enable them to better understand the area, its history and human geography, the interactions between various national cultures under environmental constraints, the functioning of the border or frontier as a dynamic factor of human geography. Moreover, this course will contribute in facilitating cross-border cooperation and improving the skills and competences of the frontier workers.
