Bulletin

Issue: August/September 2006

News

Students win EU awards

La Trobe students Ella Bourke and Heidi Werner have won two EU prizes, presented to them by Ambassador Julien at the official opening of the Centre.

Dr Bull, left, and Ambassador Julien with EU
prize-winners Heidi Werner and Ella Bourke.

Ms Werner chose to study the European Union at La Trobe as part of her languages, business and cultural studies degree at the University of Passau, Germany, during her compulsory semester abroad under the Study Abroad program.

As a European, she was already familiar with EU history, but did not understand how it worked - or why its member states sometimes collaborated and sometimes found themselves at loggerheads.

‘I had a very idealistic view on the EU feeling that it should be a supranational organisation shaped by cooperation among the member states rather than a platform for intergovernmental bargaining. ‘

She selected her major essay topic A Critical Evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy from its origin to EU enlargement in 2004 ‘because the CAP is - due to its economic irrationality - one of the most controversial EU policies, permanently causing fights among the member states.

‘It is a good example of intergovernmental bargaining, for in this matter the European nations - the net contributors on the one hand and the main beneficiaries on the other - try to pursue their own interests instead of coming to agreements that suit both groups. ‘

Ms Bourke, in the third year of a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of International Relations degree, undertook the EU topic as part of her broader interest in global governance.

Her essay also dealt with obstacles standing in the way of a treaty to establish a constitution for Europe. Both students want to work eventually in the international or multilateral arena.