The Course
The Autumn component of the Pirate Academy is a structured, high-engagement online module aimed at preparing participants for policy work in and around the European Parliament. Over the course of five interactive sessions and one live meeting, participants will explore real political conflicts, practice legislative tools, and understand how EU values, actors, and constraints interact in practice.
Each session runs for 180 minutes, includes required reading/viewing in advance, and features short assignments or simulations.
Tools & Format
Platform: Jitsi + collaborative docs
Materials provided 3 days before each session
Instructors: Paul Diegel, David František Wagner & guests (e.g. former assistants, MEPs, journalists)
Session 1: Institutions and power – EU in the digital space
Date: Mid September
Objective: Understanding the structure and logic of the European institutions, getting the idea of what is actually possible, limits of MEP/ COM/ Council power and so on. Built as a basis for other sessions to build on.
Topics to be covered
– legislative procedures, trialogues, rapporteurship, groups and shadows
– showing limits of negotiations on specific examples
– timelines “how things get done”
Between the sessions activity: students providing feedback and ideas how to change things
Session 2: Tools of power: budgets, armies, trade rules, tariffs, spyware
Date: Late September
Objective: understanding the “hard power” tools Europe employes, how it uses them, exploring the “Brussels effect” and it’s real limitations, comparing EU with other superpowers
Topics to be covered
– EU budget vs national budgets
– Pillars of European security
– Basic principles of European trade agreements
– European security apparatus vs real challenges
– spyware, privacy protection
Between the sessions activity: providing a comparison/ deep dive into topic chosen during the session
Session 3: Energy – transition, security, supply routes
Date: First half of October
Objective: Understanding the polycrisis of European energy supply. Problems of transition, inflows of fossil fuels, meddling by vested interests and third countries.
Topics to be covered
– energy transition: and China dominance in renewables
– fossil fuels, their prices, international market and relationships with the biggest suppliers
– energy grid as critical target of cyber-warfare and sabotage
– possible routes to abundant, safe and cheap energy for Europe
– corporate capture vs informed policymaking
Between the sessions: mapping different alternatives, producing predictions for the future of energy
Session 4: Scenario play: security crisis
Date: Late October
Objective: Participants are given simple roles representing various stakeholders in the process of European decision making and try to react to different threats in a reactive scenario run by the team. After the scenario, they will go through an extended de-brief.
The exact scenario will not be known by the participants beforehand.
Session 5: Inside the Machine – How to change the world
Date: Mid November
Objective: Summary of all that was explored till this point. Investigation into how external crises reshape the policy field and the windows of opportunity and how can even minority voices in the Parliament have outsized influences on the results, including examples of good practice and failures.
Topics to be covered
- COVID, Ukraine war, climate pressure
- Geopolitics of supply chains and regulation
- Trade-offs between sovereignty, green goals, and solidarity
- Rule of law conditionality as Pirate success
- protecting your privacy