Aims
This module aims to provide students with a practical and grounded experience of politics, decision making and negotiation in the European Union. Students will be assigned within national, EU institutional and other teams. These teams will then be provided with supporting briefing material, reading lists and an overall gaming scenario. Their task will then be, over the course of the 12-week module, to act within their roles in simulated EU negotiations and decision making. Throughout the course of the module the scenario will evolve both as a result of the students own progress in negotiation but also as a result of "external" events. In a final two-day residential setting the scenario will be concluded at a negotiating session modelled upon an EU European Council summit.

Objectives
This module has several inter-related objectives. At the end of the module students should understand - in very real terms - the dynamics behind EU politics and decision making. Students will also be expected to have developed over the course of the simulation a detailed and expert knowledge of their own policy portfolio - which will depend upon their assigned role and the nature of the scenario provided (this is expected to change annually). Students will have cultivated their inter-personal, oral and written communication and negotiating skills. Finally, it is hoped that students will be able to apply these skills directly in their future professional occupations.

10 ECTS Credits