This course introduces various aspects of Environmental and Landscape policy in Europe while several project categories are going to be presented in order to make students familiar with the European Projects.

The goal of the course is to give students a basic understanding of European Landscape and Environmental policy, the 7th Environment Action Programme to 2020, the renewed Sustainable Development strategy as well as the integration of environmental issues in the decisions and actions of other policy sectors.

Students should be able to explain European Environmental and Landscape policy based on its underlying principles, the actors and interest groups involved, as well as its historical developments.

Students will also be encouraged to compare policies adopted at the European level with certain policies adopted in the United States and to explain the reasons for these differences.

This course should contribute to sharpening students’ analytical skills for analysing the effectiveness of environmental policies and enable them to assess European Environmental politics within a global framework.

Students are going to be familiar with the multiple interfaces of the European Landscape Convention, the world’s first international treaty specifically concerning landscape undersigned by the Member States of the Council of Europe in Florence, Italy, on  October 20^th, 2000.

Several case studies of European Projects are going to be presented during this course in order to achieve the aforementioned goals.

Following a short synopsis of the basics of policy making in the EU, students will learn about the principles of the developments in European Environmental policy, the main actors and their interests in this area, and the way that these actors influence the policy-making process at the national levels.

 As a result of taking this course, the student should be able to:

 Explain the process of Environmental and Landscape policy following by the EU, including the public participation, access to environmental information (Aarhus) and the roles of the several stakeholders.

• Demonstrate knowledge of the principles and rules that constitute EC Environmental policy making and key environmental topics.
• Identify the interests of the key actors formulating European Community Environmental policy and law, such as member states, institutions and interest-groups.
• Examine the application of Strategies for integrating the environment into European Policies (Cardiff-June 1998)
• Evaluate and explain the success or the failure of key policy examples within the EU and the forthcoming challenges and opportunities for EC Environmental policies.
• Develop ability for presenting and communicating in a written form through academic papers or orally though arguments and presentations current and future Environmental and Landscape policies.
• Develop their overall understanding of the European Landscape Convention
• Understand Strategies for sustainable Development (Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992, European)
• Develop ability to understand and draft the main concept of a European Project

The main topics of this course are:

• Emphasise on the European Union (EU) as the key entity shaping Environmental and Landscape policies on the European countries; the EU’s impact on non-Member States will also be given attention to.
• Analyse European Climate Change Strategy as well as the policies and instruments adopted to mitigate the threat of world-wide heating effect. The renewable energies growth and the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) will be examined.
• Policy areas such as biodiversity, nature conservation, waste and recycling policies will be examined. Furthermore, the efforts of the EU to shape the Transport policy of Member States and lower emissions in this sector will be analysed.
• Analyse the role of European Environmental policy in determining Environmental policies of non-European countries and global climate dialogs. The recent global climate summit in Paris in late 2015 will be especially considering.
• Discuss the role that the Landscape Convention Plays in Europe and the interfaces with law, landscape ecology, heritage, and globalisation. Furthermore, the European Landscape Convention will be examined, as a discursive interface, with its contradictory as well as synergetic aspects.
• Develop and discussed several European Projects related with the Environment and the Landscape (e.g. LIFE+, HORIZON 2000: Natural Based Solution, Central Europe: Environmental Risk Management and Climate Change)

None

The course is structured through:

 Class lectures, interactive learning (class discussions, group work), video and power point presentations, and case studies discussed in class.

• Exercises and primary source documents are assigned as homework, the answers and critical response to which are reviewed in class
• International guest speakers specialized in European Projects
• Students’ projects and presentations
• Evaluation of an existed European Project

 Student Evaluation Assessments will be based upon the followings: 

• In-class participation and attendance (10%). This cover reading all the assigned reading requirements and participating in the discussions.
• One in-class presentation (20%). Students will be asked to give a 10 to 15-minute-long presentation in which they are presenting a case study from a European Project (information’s and relevant websites about that will be given in class) related to the environmental and Landscape Policies. The presentation should be held during the session covering the respective topic. Students have until mid-March to inform the instructor about the topic of the presentation.
• Mid-term essay presentation (20%). Students will have to write a take-home essay (around 3000 words, +/- 10% including references) in which they compare a specific aspect of environmental policy in Europe and their home country. The exact topic can be the same as the one chosen for the in-class presentation but should also include the suggestions made during the presentation. Supplementary reading is required for the essay and can be discussed with the instructor. The mid-term essays are due on end of March.
• Final in-class presentation of the essay (50%). The final in-class presentation will be held during the exam period and last around 15 minutes for each student.

Bibliography

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