Teaching European Negotiations to Candidates for EU Membership: The EU Chocolate Directive Simulation

Abstract:     
European integration has always been a political and economic process that is open to all European countries prepared to sign up to the founding treaties and take on board the full body of EU law. According to Article 237 of the Treaty of Rome ‘any European state may apply to become a member of the Community’.

During the years of negotiation, candidate countries receive EU aid so as to make it easier for them to catch up economically. Thus, a European Seminar supported by the CEES was launched for candidate countries for EU membership like Romania (joined the EU on 1 January 2007), Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Understanding the complex mechanisms of negotiations and decision-making in the EU is a difficult task, even for trained experts.

For this seminar, we decided to create the “EU Chocolate Directive Simulation” which is a negotiation teaching simulation designed to introduce diplomats from candidate countries for EU membership to some aspects of European negotiations.

The Chocolate Directive, finally adopted in August 2003, is a great example of European negotiation in order to focus on stakeholders map, coalitions, informal negotiations and lobbying.

The simulation “EU Chocolate Directive”, which has become a successful standard element of the CEES’s professional education portfolio, can provide participants with the tools necessary to negotiate more effectively at EU level.

Designed primarily for officials (from EU candidate countries), the simulation also attracts professionals from the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry and civil society organisations.

Keywords: European negotiations, simulation, EU Directive, coalitions, informal negotiations, lobbying

JEL Classification: Q1

working papers series