Publications

“United Europe – Mission Possible”

The topic of the Annual Undergraduate Research Conference of the European Studies Department at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” was “United Europe – Mission Possible”. [...]

Conference proceedings: “Of Citizens and Institution – a Time for Decisions in the EU”

The PhD conference “Of Citizens and Institution – a Time for Decisions in the EU”– United Europe or the Europe of the nations” took place on May 13, 2023. [...]

The PhD conference “The European Union in the eye of the storm”

The PhD conference “The European Union in the “eye of the storm”– United Europe or the Europe of the nations” took place on October 29, 2022. [...]

“Young voices for energizing Europe”

The proceedings from the students’s scientific conference “Young voices for energizing Europe” hosted b y„ Antoine de Saint Exupéry” promotion could downloaded here. [...]

“The Rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union – from Empirical Facts towards Expert Evaluation”

There is no such thing as unsuccessful rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union – this rather humorous maxim, which is widely popular among academic and political experts on European affairs, has the potential to discourage any attempt at evaluating the Presidency. [...]

History of EU Eastern Enlargement

Assoc. Prof. Mirela Veleva

The main aim of the History of EU Eastern Enlargement course is to enhance student understanding of the current nature and operation of EU, to increase the chances of the students to pursue careers in areas related to EU administration policy making and politics at national or EU level by providing them with professional transferable skills and in more abstract terms to stimulate their European identity by including Eastern Europe and particularly Bulgaria in European integration historical narratives. The course is targeting advanced students, who would like to go deeper into the exploration of the nature and character of the EU, as well as the prospects for its future development. The students may be already acquainted with elements of EU studies from the point of view of history of European integration and current history of Europe. The core objectives of the course are twofold. The first it is designed to acquaint the students with the evolution and unfolding of eastern enlargement process and the factors that drove this process forward with special accent on the norms which are decisive in shaping the eastern enlargement and the main instruments of EU to “europeanize” Central and Eastern Europe.  Secondly, regarding the need of annual actualisation of the teaching content – the students will be provided with an opportunity to explore the issue of the chronological and institutional framework of eastern enlargement by the case of Bulgarian participation in it – the normalisation of the relationship with the EU, their institutionalisation, the official application for accession, and the process of negotiations – the main political factors in the domestic decision making process on EU issues, the impact of “Europe’ on domestic institution, the Bulgarian progress to membership according European institutions  – Council, Commission, Parliament.

In the framework of the Centre of Excellence project, an actualization of the teaching content is foreseen, which will enhance student understanding of the nature and operation of the EU by institutionalization of the using of Electronic archive of the EU accession. Also, the new teaching content will enhance the European identity and the sense of European citizenship by developing a common historical narrative to Eastern and Western Europe and therefore stimulate the citizen activity at European level.