1.
Graduate school
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A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree with a high grade point average. The distinction between schools and professional schools is not absolute, as various professional schools offer graduate degrees. Also, some graduate degrees train students for a specific profession, many universities award graduate degrees, a graduate school is not necessarily a separate institution. Those attending graduate schools are called students, or often in British English as postgraduate students and, colloquially, postgraduates. Degrees awarded to students include masters degrees, doctoral degrees. Producing original research is a significant component of graduate studies in the humanities, sciences and this research typically leads to the writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. In graduate programs that are oriented towards professional training, the degrees may consist solely of coursework, the term graduate school is primarily North American. Unlike in undergraduate programs, however, it is common for graduate students to take coursework outside their specific field of study at graduate or graduate entry level. Some institutions designate separate graduate versus undergraduate staff and denote other divisions, Graduate degrees in Brazil are called postgraduate degrees, and can be taken only after an undergraduate education has been concluded. Lato sensu graduate degrees, degrees that represent a specialization in a certain area, sometimes it can be used to describe a specialization level between a masters degree and a MBA. However, since there are no norms to regulate this, both names are used indiscriminately most of the time, stricto sensu graduate degrees, degrees for those who wish to pursue an academic career. Usually serves as qualification for those seeking a differential on the job market. Most doctoral programs in Brazil require a degree, meaning that a Lato Sensu Degree is usually insufficient to start a doctoral program. Doctors / PhD, 3–4 years for completion, usually used as a stepping stone for academic life. In Canada, the Schools and Faculties of Graduate Studies are represented by the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies or Association canadienne pour les études supérieures and its mandate is to promote, advance, and foster excellence in graduate education and university research in Canada. In addition to a conference, the association prepares briefs on issues related to graduate studies including supervision, funding. Admission to a masters program generally requires a degree in a related field, with sufficiently high grades usually ranging from B+ and higher. Some schools require samples of the writing as well as a research proposal
2.
Rector (academia)
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A rector is a term used in non-English-speaking countries for a university chancellor. In the sphere of academia, it is the highest academic official of universities and in certain other institutions of higher education. The term and office of a rector are called a rectorate, the title is used widely in universities in Europe. And is very common in Latin American countries and it is also used in Brunei, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel and the Middle East. In some universities, the title is phrased in an even loftier manner and this term is generally not used in English-speaking countries. In England and elsewhere in Great Britain, the head of a university is referred to as a chancellor. This pattern has been followed in the Commonwealth, the United States, in Scotland, many universities are headed by a chancellor, with the Lord Rector designated as an elected representative of students at the head of the university court. The head of a university in Germany is called a president, rector magnificus or rectrix magnifica, in Dutch universities, the rector magnificus is the most publicly prominent member of the board, responsible for the scientific agenda of the university. In the Netherlands, the rector is, however, not the chair of the university board, the chair has, in practice, the most influence over the management of the University. In some countries, including Germany, the position of teacher in secondary schools is also designated as rector. In the Netherlands, the rector and conrector are used commonly for high school directors. This is also the case in some Maltese secondary schools, in the Scandinavian countries, the head of a university or a gymnasium is called a rektor. In Sweden and Norway, this term is used for the heads of primary schools. For example, in Portugal, the rector of the University of Coimbra, the heads of Czech universities are called the rektor. The rector acts in the name of the university and decides the universitys affairs unless prohibited by law, the rector is nominated by the University Academic Senate and appointed by the President of the Czech Republic. The nomination must be agreed by a majority of all senators. The vote to elect or repeal a rector is secret, the term of office is four years and a person may hold it for at most two consecutive terms. The rector appoints vice-rectors, who act as deputies to the extent the Rector determines, Rectors salaries are determined directly by the Minister of Education
3.
Postgraduate education
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In North America, this level is generally referred to as graduate school. The organization and structure of education varies in different countries. This article outlines the types of courses and of teaching and examination methods. There are two types of degrees studied for at the postgraduate level, academic and vocational degrees. The term degree in this means the moving from one stage or level to another. University studies took six years for a degree and up to twelve additional years for a masters degree or doctorate. The first six years taught the faculty of the arts, which was the study of the seven liberal arts, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, the main emphasis was on logic. Once a Bachelor of Arts degree had been obtained, the student could choose one of three faculties—law, medicine, or theology—in which to pursue masters or doctors degrees. Because theology was thought to be the highest of the subjects, the main significance of the higher, postgraduate degrees was that they licensed the holder to teach. In most countries, the hierarchy of postgraduate degrees is as follows, in Scottish Universities, the Master of Philosophy degree tends to be by research or higher masters degree and the Master of Letters degree tends to be the taught or lower masters degree. In many fields such as social work, or library science in North America. Professional degrees such as the Master of Architecture degree can last to three and a years to satisfy professional requirement to be an architect. Professional degrees such as the Master of Business Administration degree can last up to two years to satisfy the requirement to become a business leader. These are often divided into academic and professional doctorates. An academic doctorate can be awarded as a Doctor of Philosophy degree or as a Doctor of Science degree, a doctorate is the terminal degree in most fields. In the United States, there is distinction between a Doctor of Philosophy degree and a Doctor of Science degree. In the second half of the 19th century, however, US universities began to follow the European model by awarding doctorates, in the UK, an equivalent formation to doctorate is the NVQ5 or QCF8. Most universities award degrees, usually at the postgraduate level
4.
Bruges
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Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country. The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares, including 1,075 hectares off the coast, the historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval and about 430 hectares in size, the citys total population is 117,073, of whom around 20,000 live in the city centre. The metropolitan area, including the commuter zone, covers an area of 616 km2 and has a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008. Along with a few other canal-based northern cities, such as Amsterdam and Stockholm, Bruges has a significant economic importance thanks to its port and was once one of the worlds chief commercial cities. Bruges is well known as the seat of the College of Europe, the name probably derives from the Old Dutch for bridge, brugga. Also compare Middle Dutch brucge, brugge, and modern Dutch bruggehoofd, the form brugghe would be a southern Dutch variant. The Dutch word and the English bridge both derive from Proto-Germanic *brugjō-, Bruges was a location of coastal settlement during prehistory. This Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement is unrelated to medieval city development, in the Bruges area, the first fortifications were built after Julius Caesars conquest of the Menapii in the first century BC, to protect the coastal area against pirates. The Franks took over the region from the Gallo-Romans around the 4th century. The Viking incursions of the century prompted Count Baldwin I of Flanders to reinforce the Roman fortifications, trade soon resumed with England. Bruges received its city charter on 27 July 1128, and new walls and canals were built, in 1089 Bruges became the capital of the County of Flanders. Since about 1050, gradual silting had caused the city to lose its access to the sea. A storm in 1134, however, re-established this access, through the creation of a channel at the Zwin. The new sea arm stretched all the way to Damme, a city became the commercial outpost for Bruges. Bruges had a location at the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade. They developed, or borrowed from Italy, new forms of merchant capitalism, whereby several merchants would share the risks and profits and they employed new forms of economic exchange, including bills of exchange and letters of credit. The city eagerly welcomed foreign traders, most notably the Portuguese traders selling pepper and other spices, the citys entrepreneurs reached out to make economic colonies of England and Scotlands wool-producing districts
5.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
6.
Natolin
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Natolin is a historic park and nature reserve on the southern edge of Warsaw, Poland. Natolin is also the name of a neighborhood located to the west of the park — a part of Warsaws southernmost Ursynów district, since 1993 Natolin has been the site of one of two College of Europe campuses. The history of Natolin begins at end of the 17th century and it was a part of his royal residence of Wilanów and also served as a hunting lodge. In early 1730s his successor, King August II the Strong, the place was thus called Bażantarnia – Pheasantry. With time the royal grounds were passed to the mighty Czartoryski family. In 1780 Prince August Czartoryski built on the spot his new summer residence, the palace featured a distinctive half-open salon, with a view on the forest below the escarpment. In late 18th century the Wilanów estate, including the grounds around the Pheasantry, passed on to son-in-law of Izabela Lubomirska, after the Partitions of Poland, in 1806, Potocki started an extensive modernization of the palace and the park. The Pheasantry was also renamed to its name of Natolin in honor of the Potockis granddaughter. The palaces reconstruction included rebuilding of the facade and the elevation, as well as notable changes in the internal design. The new design was created by another of Polands notable architects of the epoch, Chrystian Piotr Aigner, the paintings inside the palace were replaced with stuccos by Wirgiliusz Bauman. Significant changes were applied to the surrounding park, which was converted from a typical classicist French park into a picturesque. The palace itself was extended to include buildings that made it a full-time residence rather than a summer resort. Among the buildings added were the stables, a residential annex, a small Gothic revival chapel was also built opposite the Holendernia and a newly built monument modelled after the so-called Nerons Sarcophagus and Jean-Jacques Rousseaus tomb in Paris. The Alexander Potockis death ended the period of developments of Natolin. The next administrators of estate, son August and the daughter-in-law Alexandra did not maintain the property so Natolin began to fall into decline, the palace and park were used only occasionally, mainly as temporary accommodation for owners relatives. In the first half of the 20th century Natolin passed to the Branicki family, during World War II Natolin suffered further. At time of Warsaw Uprising it underwent an almost total destruction, in 1945 Natolin was nationalized and given to the Warsaw National Museum, later becoming the residence of President of Polish Republic. In 1991, decision was made to locate a branch of the College of Europe Natolin, as a result, funds became available to gradually restore the park and the palace
7.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
8.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
9.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
10.
Salvador de Madariaga
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Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo was a Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist. He graduated with a degree in engineering in Paris, France before gaining a Masters of Arts at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He then went to work as an engineer for the Northern Spanish Railway Company but abandoned this work to return to London and become a journalist, writing in English, at this time he began publishing his first essays. In 1921 he became a member of the Secretariat of the League of Nations. In 1928, he became Professor of Spanish at Oxford University for three years, during which time he wrote a book on nation psychology called Englishmen, Frenchmen, between 1932 and 1934 he was Ambassador to France. In 1933 he was elected to the National Congress, serving as both Minister for Education and Minister for Justice, in July 1936, as a classic liberal he went into exile in England to escape the eruption of the Spanish civil war. From there he became an opponent of, and organised resistance to. In 1947, he was one of the authors of the Oxford Manifesto on liberalism. He participated in the Hague Congress in 1948 as president of the Cultural Commission and he was one of the co-founders, in 1949, in his writing career he wrote books and essays about Don Quixote, Christopher Columbus, Shakespeares Hamlet, and the history of Latin America. He militated in favour of a united and integrated Europe and he wrote in French and German as well as Spanish and Galician and English. In 1973 he won the Karlspreis for contributions to the European idea, in 1976, he returned to Spain after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. The Madariaga European Foundation has been named him, promoting his vision of a united Europe making for a more peaceful world. The 1979–1980 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour, in 1912 he had married Constance Archibald de Madariaga, a Scottish economic historian. The couple had two daughters, Nieves Mathews and professor/historian Dr. Isabel de Madariaga, after Constances death in May 1970 Salvador in November 1970 married Emilia Székely de Rauman who had been his secretary since 1938 and who died in 1991 aged 83. An Oxfordshire blue plaque in honour of Salvador de Madariaga was unveiled at 3 St Andrews Road, Headington, and she will, when Spaniards say our Chartres, Englishmen say our Cracow, Italians our Copenhagen and Germans our Bruges. Archival sources by and on Salvador de Madariaga can be consulted at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence
11.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
12.
Paul-Henri Spaak
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Paul Henri Charles Spaak was an influential Belgian politician and statesman also considered as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A convinced socialist, Spaak entered politics in 1932 for the Belgian Workers Party and he became Prime Minister of Belgium in 1938 and held the position until 1939. After the war, he regained the position of Prime Minister, first for under a month in March 1946. He held various further Belgian ministerial portfolios until 1966 and he was Belgiums Foreign Minister for 18 years between 1939 and 1966. Spaak, a supporter of multilateralism, became internationally famous for his support of international cooperation. In 1945, he was chosen to chair the first session of the General Assembly of the new United Nations, a long-running supporter of European integration, Spaak had been an early advocate of customs union and had negotiated the Benelux agreement in 1944. He received the Charlemagne Prize the same year, between 1957 and 1961, he served as the second Secretary-General of NATO. Retiring from Belgian politics in 1966, Spaak died in 1972, Paul-Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in Schaerbeek, Belgium, to a distinguished Belgian family. The Spaak family originated from Bohuslän in Sweden and his maternal grandfather, Paul Janson was an important member of the Liberal Party. His mother, Marie Janson was a socialist, and the first woman to enter the Belgian Senate, after death of Marguerite in August 1964, he married Simone Dear in April 1965. His brother was the screenwriter Charles Spaak and his niece was the actress Catherine Spaak, and one of his grandsons is the artist Anthony Palliser. During the 1940s, during his time in New York with the United Nations, during World War I, Spaak attempted to join the Belgian Army but was captured by the Germans and spent the next two years in a German prison camp. At the end of the war, Spaak was released from captivity and entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles, during the same period, Spaak was also a tennis star, and played for the Belgian team in the 1922 Davis Cup. He became a member of the Socialist Belgian Labour Party in 1920 and he was elected deputy in 1932. In 1935 he entered the cabinet of Paul Van Zeeland as Minister of Transport, in February 1936 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving first under Zeeland and then under his uncle, Paul-Émile Janson. From May 1938 to February 1939 he was Prime Minister for the first time, in 1938, he allowed Herman Van Breda to smuggle the legacy of Edmund Husserl out of Nazi Germany to Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin. In social policy, a number of reforms were realised during Spaaks first premiership. The Act also removed a previous requirement in which a wage earner had to work for at least a year with the employer in order to earn an annual holiday
13.
Alcide De Gasperi
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Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi was an Italian statesman and politician who founded the Christian Democracy party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year term in office remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics, De Gasperi is the fourth longest-serving Prime Minister since the Italian Unification. De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino in Tyrol, which at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary and his father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From 1896 De Gasperi was active in the Social Christian movement, in 1900 he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Vienna, where he played an important role in the inception of the Christian student movement. He was very inspired by the Rerum novarum encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. In 1904 he took a part in student demonstrations in favour of an Italian-language university. Imprisoned with other protesters during the inauguration of the Italian juridical faculty in Innsbruck, in 1905, De Gasperi obtained a degree in philology. In 1905 he began to work as editor of the newspaper La Voce Cattolica which was replaced in September 1906 by Il Trentino, in 1911 he became a Member of Parliament for the Popular Political Union of Trentino in the Austrian Reichsrat, a post he held for 6 years. He was politically neutral during World War I, which he spent in Vienna, however, he sympathised with the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of Pope Benedict XV and Bl. Karl I of Austria to obtain a peace and stop the war. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement and he however never tried to hide his love for Austria and German culture and often preferred speaking German to his family, many of whom spoke German as their first language. In 1919 he was among of the founders of the Italian Peoples Party and he served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of Fascism. He initially supported the participation of the PPI in Benito Mussolinis first government in October 1922, the PPI split, and De Gasperi became secretary of the remaining anti-Fascist group in May 1924. In November 1926, in a climate of violence and intimidation by the Fascists. De Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison, a year and a half in prison nearly broke De Gasperis health. During World War II, he organised the establishment of the first Christian Democracy party drawing upon the ideology of the Popular Party, in January 1943, he published Ideas for Reconstruction, which amounted to a programme for the party. He became the first general secretary of the new party in 1944, De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for decades
14.
Congress of Europe
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The Congress brought together representatives from across a broad political spectrum, providing them with the opportunity to discuss ideas about the development of European political co-operation. A broad range of philosophers, journalists, church leaders, lawyers, professors, entrepreneurs, a call was launched for a political, economic and monetary Union of Europe. This landmark conference was to have an influence on the shape of the European Movement. The Spanish statesman Salvador de Madariaga proposed the establishment of a College of Europe at the Congress and this would be a college where university graduates from many different countries, some only a short while before at war with each other, could study and live together. The Congress also discussed the structure and role of the Council of Europe. Teitgen and Maxwell-Fyfe were instrumental in creating the Convention of Human Rights, the Congress provided the means to heighten public opinion for European unity. On 20 July 1948, at the Hague meeting of ministers of Western European Union, Schumans Foreign Minister Georges Bidault proposed the creation of a European Assembly, thus the conclusions of the Congress became French government policy and then the subject of European governmental policy
15.
Solidarity
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Solidarity is unity which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies. It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one, the term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences as well as in philosophy or in Catholic social teaching. What forms the basis of solidarity varies between societies, in simple societies it may be mainly based on kinship and shared values. In more complex societies there are various theories as to what contributes to a sense of social solidarity, according to Émile Durkheim, the types of social solidarity correlate with types of society. Durkheim introduced the mechanical and organic solidarity as part of his theory of the development of societies in The Division of Labour in Society. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in traditional and small scale societies, in simpler societies, solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks. Organic solidarity comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work, definition, it is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies. Organic here is referring to the interdependence of the component parts, thus social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts. A connection between the biological and the social was of importance for the idea of solidarity as expressed by the anarchist ideologist. According to him, mutual aid, or cooperation, within a species has been an important factor in the evolution of social institutions. Solidarity is essential for mutual aid, supportive activity towards other people does not result from the expectation of reward, Solidarity is an emerging concept in contemporary philosophy – it is subject to ongoing studies in various subfields of ethics and political philosophy. One notable approach in bioethics is to identify solidarity primarily as a three-tiered practice enacted at the interpersonal, communal, Solidarity is an integral element of Catholic social teaching. According to Pope Francis, No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world. The Brazilian people, particularly the humblest among you, can offer the world a lesson in solidarity. 774, ISBN 0-00-470804-0 Ankerl, Guy, Toward a Social Contract on Worldwide Scale, geneva, ILO,1980, ISBN 92-9014-165-4 Media related to Solidarity at Wikimedia Commons
16.
Western Europe
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Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
17.
Elite
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Elite, is a term that originates from Latin eligere. In political and sociological theory for a group of powerful people that controls a disproportionate amount of wealth. Insofar as national events are decided, the elite are those who decide them. Mills states that the elite members recognize other members mutual exalted position in society. As a rule, hey accept one another, understand one another, marry one another, tend to work and to think and it is a well-regulated existence where education plays a critical role. These memberships in turn pave the way to the prominent social clubs located in all major cities, the Military Circle, In Mills time a heightened concern about warfare existed, making top military leaders and such issues as defense funding and personnel recruitment very important. Most prominent corporate leaders and politicians were strong proponents of military spending and these two groups tended to be mutually supportive. Unlike the ruling class, a formation based on heritage and social ties. According to Mills, the power elite rose from the reorganization of the propertied classes into the more or less unified stratum of the corporate rich. Domhoff further clarified the differences in the two terms, The upper class as a whole does not do the ruling, Power elite is a term used by American sociologist C. Wright Mills to describe a relatively small, loosely connected group of individuals who dominate American policymaking. The basis for membership of a power élite is institutional power, one study of power élites in the United States under President George W. Bush identified 7,314 institutional positions of power encompassing 5,778 individuals. A later study of U. S. Ethnicity White Anglo-Saxons dominate in the power élite, with Protestants representing about 80 percent of the top business leaders, education Nearly all the leaders have a college education, with almost half graduating with advanced degrees. About 54 percent of the leaders and 42% of the government élite graduated from just 12 prestigious universities with large endowments. Social clubs Most holders of top positions in the power élite possess exclusive membership in one or more social clubs. About a third belong to a number of especially prestigious clubs in major cities like London, New York City, Chicago, Boston. In the 1970s an organized set of policies promoted reduced taxes, especially for the wealthy, starting with legislation in the 1980s, the wealthy banking community successfully lobbied for reduced regulation. Doing so would hopefully alleviate various destructive conditions affecting large numbers of affluent citizens. Mills determined that there is a core of the power elite involving individuals that are able to move from one seat of institutional power to another
18.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
19.
European Union law
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European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union. Since the founding of the Coal and Steel Community after World War II, the EU has political institutions, social and economic policies, which transcend nation-states for the purpose of cooperation and human development. According to its Court of Justice the EU represents a new order of international law. The EUs legal foundations are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, New members may join, if they agree to play by the rules of the organisation, and old members may leave according to their own constitutional requirements. People are entitled to participate through the Parliament, and their governments in shaping the legislation the EU makes. Democratic ideals of integration for international and European nations are as old as the modern nation-state, in the Renaissance, medieval trade flourished in organisations like the Hanseatic League, stretching from English towns like Boston and London, to Frankfurt, Stockholm and Riga. These traders developed the lex mercatoria, spreading basic norms of good faith, in 1517, the Protestant Reformation triggered a hundred years of crisis and instability. This unstable settlement unravelled in the Thirty Years War, killing around a quarter of the population in central Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia 1648, which brought peace according to a system of law inspired by Hugo Grotius, is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the nation-state system. In 1693 William Penn, a Quaker from London who founded Pennsylvania in North America, argued that to prevent ongoing wars in Europe a European dyet, to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice. Brought untold sorrow to mankind, the United Nations Charter was passed in 1945, also, the Council of Europe, formed by the Treaty of London 1949, adopted a European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by a new transnational court in Strasbourg in 1950. The Treaty of Paris 1951 created the first European Coal and Steel Community, signed by France, West Germany, Belgium and its theory was simply that war would be impossibly costly if ownership and production of every countrys economy was mixed together. It established an Assembly to represent the people, a Council of Ministers for the states, a Commission as the executive. In the East, the Soviet Union had installed dictatorial governments, controlling East Germany, in the West, the decision was made through Treaty of Rome 1957 to launch the first European Economic Community. It shared the Assembly and Court with the Coal and Steel Community, a separate treaty was signed for a European Atomic Energy Community to manage nuclear production. In 1961 the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and Norway applied for only to be vetoed in 1963 by Frances Charles de Gaulle. Spain also applied and was rejected as it was led by the Franco dictatorship. The same year, the Court of Justice proclaimed that the Community constituted a new order of international law
20.
International economics
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It seeks to explain the patterns and consequences of transactions and interactions between the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and migration. International finance studies the flow of capital across international markets. International monetary economics and international macroeconomics study flows of money across countries, the economic theory of international trade differs from the remainder of economic theory mainly because of the comparatively limited international mobility of the capital and labour. In that respect, it would appear to differ in degree rather than in principle from the trade between regions in one country. Thus the methodology of international trade economics differs little from that of the remainder of economics, modern trade analysis, on the other hand, depends mainly upon empirical analysis. However, extremely restrictive assumptions have had to be adopted in order to make the problem amenable to theoretical analysis, on those assumptions, it derives a model of the trade patterns that would arise solely from international differences in the relative abundance of labour and capital. The resulting theorem states that, on those assumptions, a country with an abundance of capital would export capital-intensive products. The Stolper-Samuelson theorem, which is described as a corollary of the H-O theorem, was an early example. In its most general form it states that if the price of a good rises then the price of the factor used intensively in that industry will also rise while the price of the factor will fall. In the international context for which it was devised it means that trade lowers the real wage of the scarce factor of production. Those theories have sometimes taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. Modern trade analysis moves away from the assumptions of the H-O theorem and explores the effects upon trade of a range of factors, including technology. It makes extensive use of econometrics to identify from the available statistics, the contributions of differences of technology have been evaluated in several such studies. The temporary advantage arising from a development of a new technology is seen as contributory factor in one study. Another econometric study also established a correlation between size and the share of exports made up of goods in the production of which there are scale economies. There is a presumption that any exchange that is freely undertaken will benefit both parties, but that does not exclude the possibility that it may be harmful to others. However Paul Samuelson has proved that it always be possible for the gainers from international trade to compensate the losers. They suggested that much of the gain arises from the growth of the most productive firms at the expense of the less productive
21.
Public administration
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Public administration is the implementation of government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the public service. As a field of inquiry with a diverse scope its fundamental goal, is to advance management and policies so that government can function. Public administrators are public servants working in departments and agencies. In the US, civil servants and academics such as Woodrow Wilson promoted American civil service reform in the 1880s, however, until the mid-20th century and the dissemination of the German sociologist Max Webers theory of bureaucracy there was not much interest in a theory of public administration. In 1947 Paul H. Appleby defined public administration as public leadership of public affairs directly responsible for executive action. In a democracy, it has to do with such leadership and executive action in terms that respect and contribute to the dignity, the worth, and the potentials of the citizen. One year later, Gordon Clapp, then Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority defined public administration as a public instrument whereby democratic society may be completely realized. This implies that it must relate itself to concepts of justice, liberty, and fuller economic opportunity for human beings and is concerned with people, with ideas. The key term product refers to items that are constructed or produced such as prisons, roads, laws, schools. As implementors, public managers engage these products and they participate in the doing and making of the living democracy. A living democracy is an environment that is changing, organic, imperfect, inconsistent, more recently scholars claim that public administration has no generally accepted definition, because the scope of the subject is so great and so debatable that it is easier to explain than define. Public administration is a field of study and an occupation, scholar Donald Kettl is among those who view public administration as a subfield within political science. The moral purpose of administration, implicit in its acceptance of its role, is the maximisation of the opportunities of the public to satisfy its wants. The North American Industry Classification System definition of the Public Administration sector states that public administration, dating back to Antiquity, Pharaohs, kings and emperors have required pages, treasurers, and tax collectors to administer the practical business of government. Prior to the 19th century, staffing of most public administrations was rife with nepotism, favoritism, and political patronage, Public administrators have long been the eyes and ears of rulers. In medieval times, the abilities to read and write, add, as the European Imperialist age progressed and the militarily powers extended their hold over other continents and people, the need for a sophisticated public administration grew. Far in advance of the rest of the world until almost the end of the eighteenth century, the eighteenth-century noble, King Frederick William I of Prussia, created professorates in Cameralism in an effort to train a new class of public administrators. The universities of Frankfurt an der Oder and University of Halle were Prussian institutions emphasizing economic and social disciplines, johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi was the most well-known professor of Cameralism
22.
The Times
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The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
23.
Harvard Business School
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Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The school offers a large full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, HBX and it owns Harvard Business Publishing, which publishes business books, leadership articles, online management tools for corporate learning, case studies, and the monthly Harvard Business Review. Initially established by the faculty, it received independent status in 1910. The first dean was historian Edwin Francis Gay, the goal was an institution of higher learning that would offer a master of arts degree in the humanities field, with a major in business. In discussions about the curriculum, the suggestion was made to concentrate on business topics such as banking, railroads. Professor Lowell said the school would train qualified public administrators whom the government would have no choice but to employ, Harvard was blazing a new trail by educating young people for a career in business, just as its medical school trained doctors and its law faculty trained lawyers. From the start the school enjoyed a relationship with the corporate world. Within a few years of its founding many business leaders were its alumni and were hiring other alumni for starting positions in their firms, at its founding, the school accepted only male students. The Training Course in Personnel Administration, founded at Radcliffe College in 1937, was the beginning of training for women at Harvard. HBS took over administration of that program from Radcliffe in 1954, in 1959, alumnae of the one-year program were permitted to apply to join the HBS MBA program as second-years. In December 1962, the faculty voted to allow women to enter the MBA program directly, the first women to apply directly to the MBA program matriculated in September 1963. HBS is consistently ranked among the business schools in the world. It was ranked tied for 1st in the United States by U. S. News & World Report in 2017, No.1 in the U. S. by Bloomberg Businessweek, students can join one or more of the more than 80 clubs on campus. The Student Association is the interface between the MBA student body and the faculty/administration. The Summer Venture in Management Program is a management training program for rising college seniors designed to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. Participants must be employed in an internship and be nominated by and have sponsorship from their company or organization to attend. HBX, is a learning initiative announced by the Harvard Business School in March 2014 to host online university-level courses. Initial programs are the Credential of Readiness and Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen, leading with Finance was added to the catalog in August 2016
24.
The Economist
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The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine-format newspaper owned by the Economist Group and edited at offices in London. Continuous publication began under its founder, James Wilson, in September 1843, in 2015 its average weekly circulation was a little over 1.5 million, about half of which were sold in the United States. The publication belongs to the Economist Group and it is 50% owned by the English branch of the Rothschild family and by the Agnelli family through its holding company Exor. The remaining 50% is held by investors including the editors. The Rothschilds and the Agnellis are represented on the board of directors, a board of trustees formally appoints the editor, who cannot be removed without its permission. Although The Economist has an emphasis and scope, about two-thirds of the 75 staff journalists are based in the London borough of Westminster. For the year to March 2016 the Economist Group declared operating profit of £61m, previous major shareholders include Pearson PLC. The Economist takes a stance of classical and economic liberalism which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, free immigration. The publication has described itself as a product of the Caledonian liberalism of Adam Smith and it targets highly educated readers and claims an audience containing many influential executives and policy-makers. The publications CEO described this recent global change, which was first noticed in the 1990s and accelerated in the beginning of the 21st century, on the contents page of each issue, The Economists mission statement is written in italics. The Economist was founded by the British businessman and banker James Wilson in 1843, to advance the repeal of the Corn Laws, articles relating to some practical, commercial, agricultural, or foreign topic of passing interest, such as foreign treaties. An article on the principles of political economy, applied to practical experience, covering the laws related to prices, wages, rent, exchange, revenue. Parliamentary reports, with focus on commerce, agriculture and free trade. Reports and accounts of popular movements advocating free trade, general news from the Court of St. Jamess, the Metropolis, the Provinces, Scotland, and Ireland. Law reports, confined chiefly to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, books, confined chiefly, but not so exclusively, to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, and including all treatises on political economy, finance, or taxation. A commercial gazette, with prices and statistics of the week, correspondence and inquiries from the news magazines readers. It has long respected as one of the most competent. Its logo was designed in 1959 by Reynolds Stone, in January 2012 The Economist launched a new weekly section devoted exclusively to China, the first new country section since the introduction of a section about the United States in 1942
25.
Financial Times
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The Financial Times is an English-language international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. The paper, published and owned by Nikkei Inc. in Tokyo, was founded in 1888 by James Sheridan and Horatio Bottomley, and merged in 1945 with its closest rival, the Financial Times has an average daily readership of 2.2 million people worldwide. FT. com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital subscribers, FT Chinese has more than 1.7 million registered users. The world editions of the Financial Times newspaper had an average daily circulation of 234,193 copies in January 2014. In February 2014 the combined sale of the editions of the Financial Times was 224,000 copies. In October 2013 the combined print and digital circulation of the Financial Times reached nearly 629,000 copies. In December 2016 print sales for the paper stood at 193,211, on 23 July 2015 Nikkei Inc. agreed to buy the Financial Times from Pearson for £844m. On 30 November 2015 Nikkei completed the acquisition, the FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on 10 January 1888, renaming itself the Financial Times on 13 February the same year. Describing itself as the friend of The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, the readership was the financial community of the City of London, its only rival being the slightly older and more daring Financial News. After 57 years of rivalry the Financial Times and the Financial News were merged in 1945 by Brendan Bracken to form a single six-page newspaper, the Financial Times brought a higher circulation while the Financial News provided much of the editorial talent. The Lex column was introduced from Financial News. Pearson bought the paper in 1957, over the years the paper grew in size, readership and breadth of coverage. It established correspondents in cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the economy towards globalisation. On 1 January 1979 the first FT was printed outside the UK, since then, with increased international coverage, the FT has become a global newspaper, printed in 22 locations with five international editions to serve the UK, continental Europe, the U. S. The European edition is distributed in continental Europe and Africa and it is printed Monday to Saturday at five centres across Europe reporting on matters concerning the European Union, the Euro and European corporate affairs. In 1994 FT launched a lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. In 2009 it launched a website for the magazine. On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the world with the launch of FT. com
26.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
27.
Oxbridge
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Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Although both universities were founded more than eight centuries ago, the term Oxbridge is relatively recent, in William Thackerays novel Pendennis, published in 1849, the main character attends the fictional Boniface College, Oxbridge. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is the first recorded instance of the word, virginia Woolf used it, citing Thackeray, in her 1929 essay A Room of Ones Own. By 1957 the term was used in the Times Educational Supplement, when expanded, the universities are almost always referred to as Oxford and Cambridge, the order in which they were founded. Both were founded more than 800 years ago, and continued as Englands only universities until the 19th century, between them they have educated a large number of Britains most prominent scientists, writers and politicians, as well as noted figures in many other fields. Each has a collegiate structure, whereby the University is a co-operative of its constituent colleges. Both universities have many buildings of great beauty and antiquity, and are sited on level terrain ideal for cycling and they are the top-scoring institutions in cross-subject UK university rankings, so they are targeted by ambitious pupils, parents and schools. Entrance is extremely competitive and some schools promote themselves based on their achievement of Oxbridge offers, combined, the two universities award over one-sixth of all English full-time research doctorates. Oxford and Cambridge have common approaches to undergraduate admissions, until the mid-1980s, entry was typically by sitting special entrance exams. Camford was also used in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Creeping Man, other words have been derived from the term Oxbridge, though none has achieved widespread recognition. The term Loxbridge is sometimes seen, and was adopted as the name of the Ancient History conference now known as AMPAH
28.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe was broadcast to Soviet satellite countries and Radio Liberty targeted the Soviet Union. RFE was founded as an anti-communist propaganda source in 1949 by the National Committee for a Free Europe, RL was founded two years later and the two organizations merged in 1976. Communist governments frequently sent agents to infiltrate RFEs headquarters, Radio transmissions into the Soviet Union were regularly jammed by the KGB. RFE/RL received funds from the Central Intelligence Agency until 1972, RFE/RL was headquartered at Englischer Garten in Munich, Germany, from 1949 to 1995. In 1995, the headquarters were moved to Prague in the Czech Republic, european operations have been significantly reduced since the end of the Cold War. In addition to the headquarters, the service maintains 20 local bureaus in countries throughout their broadcast region, as well as an office in Washington. RFE/RL broadcasts in 28 languages to 21 countries including Armenia, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the committee was composed of an A list of powerful U. S. Radio Free Europe received widespread support from Eisenhowers Crusade for Freedom campaign. In 1950, over 16 million Americans signed Eisenhower’s Freedom Scrolls on a publicity trip to over 20 U. S. cities, the NCFEs mission was to support the refugees and provide them with a useful outlet for their opinions and creativity while increasing exposure to the modern world. The NCFE divided its program into three parts, exile relations, radio, and American contacts, although exile relations were initially its first priority, Radio Free Europe became the NCFEs greatest legacy. The United States funded a long list of projects to counter the Communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe, RFE was developed out of a belief that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means. American policymakers such as George Kennan and John Foster Dulles acknowledged that the Cold War was essentially a war of ideas, the implementation of surrogate radio stations was a key part of the greater psychological war effort. RFE was modeled after Radio in the American Sector a U. S. government-sponsored radio service initially intended for Germans living in the American sector of Berlin, staffed almost entirely by Germans with minimal U. S. supervision, the station provided free media to German listeners. In January 1950 the NCFE obtained a base at Lampertheim, West Germany. In late 1950, RFE began to assemble a full-fledged foreign broadcast staff, teams of journalists were hired for each language service and an elaborate system of intelligence gathering provided up-to-date broadcast material. Most of this came from a network of well-connected émigrés. RFE did not use paid agents inside the Iron Curtain and based its bureaus in regions popular with exiles, RFE also extensively monitored Communist bloc publications and radio services, creating an impressive body of information that would later serve as a resource for organizations across the world. From October 1951 to November 1956, the skies of Central Europe were filled with more than 350,000 balloons carrying over 300 million leaflets, posters, books, the project served as a publicity tool to solidify RFEs reputation as an unbiased broadcaster
29.
Federalism
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Federalism is the mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government with regional governments in a single political system. It can thus be defined as a form of government in there is a division of powers between two levels of government of equal status. Leading examples of the federation or federal state include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, some also today characterize the European Union as the pioneering example of federalism in a multi-state setting, in a concept termed the federal union of states. The terms federalism and confederalism both have a root in the Latin word foedus, meaning treaty, pact or covenant and their common meaning until the late eighteenth century was a simple league or inter-governmental relationship among sovereign states based upon a treaty. It was in this sense that James Madison in Federalist 39 had referred to the new United States as neither a national nor a federal Constitution, thus, this article relates to the modern usage of the word federalism. Modern federalism is a based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments. The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world depending on context, however, in some countries, those skeptical of federal prescriptions believe that increased regional autonomy is likely to lead to secession or dissolution of the nation. In Syria, federalization proposals have failed in part because Syrians fear that these borders could turn out to be the same as the ones that the parties have currently carved out. Federations such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia collapsed as soon as it was possible to put the model to the test, cultural-historical theories, which hold that federal institutions are more likely to be adopted in societies with culturally or ethnically fragmented populations. Infrastructural power theories, which hold that federalism is likely to emerge when the subunits of a potential federation already have highly developed infrastructures. In Europe, Federalist is sometimes used to describe those who favor a federal government. Most European federalists want this development to continue within the European Union, European federalism originated in post-war Europe, one of the more important initiatives was Winston Churchills speech in Zürich in 1946. In the United States, federalism originally referred to belief in a central government. Constitution was being drafted, the Federalist Party supported a central government. This is very different from the usage of federalism in Europe. The distinction stems from the fact that federalism is situated in the middle of the spectrum between a confederacy and a unitary state. Constitution was written as a reaction to the Articles of Confederation, in contrast, Europe has a greater history of unitary states than North America, thus European federalism argues for a weaker central government, relative to a unitary state. The modern American usage of the word is closer to the European sense
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Helle Thorning-Schmidt
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Helle Thorning-Schmidt is a former Danish politician who was Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and the Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to hold either post, following defeat in 2015, she announced that she would step down as both Danish Prime Minister and Social Democratic party leader. Ending her political career in April 2016, she is the executive of the NGO Save the Children. Thorning-Schmidt served as a Member of the European Parliament for Denmark from 1999 to 2004 before being elected to the Danish Parliament in 2005, Thorning-Schmidt holds degrees in political science from the University of Copenhagen and a graduate degree from the College of Europe. Helle Thorning-Schmidt was born in Rødovre to Holger Thorning-Schmidt, a lecturer in mathematics and national economics at the University of Copenhagen and her father was politically conservative and she grew up in the Copenhagen suburb of Ishøj. She attended Ishøj Gymnasium from which she graduated in 1985 and her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. Thorning-Schmidt studied political science at University of Copenhagen, earning a cand. scient. pol and she also holds a masters degree in European studies specialising in policy and public administration from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where she studied from 1992 to 1993. At the time, Denmark had a quota administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of one student at this prestigious institution, in addition to her native Danish, she speaks fluent English and French. She became a social democrat during her studies in Belgium and joined the Social Democratic Party in 1993, from 1994 to 1997, Thorning-Schmidt led the secretariat of the Danish delegation of Social Democrats in the European Parliament. After her time in Brussels she worked as a consultant with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions until being elected MEP in 1999. Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Party of European Socialists, during the five-year term, she was a member of the Employment and Social Committee and served as a substitute on the Constitutional Committee. She co-founded the Campaign for Parliament Reform, in the 2005 Danish parliamentary election Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the Folketing. In his speech of resignation on election night,8 February 2005, Thorning-Schmidt campaigned for the party leadership as a moderate candidate and was elected by the party members on 12 April 2005, ahead of the other candidate, Frank Jensen. She led the Social Democrats in the 2007 election, in which her party suffered modest losses and was forced into a term in opposition. The party was unable to regain its position as the largest party in the Folketing. She was against holding a referendum on the European Reform Treaty, during her 2007 campaign she promised to relax restrictions on asylum seekers and immigrants. She also opposed tax cuts announced by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, instead stating she would like to see more funding for welfare. The party also campaigned on a platform of combating increased inequalities in society, although her party again lost two seats in the 2007 election reducing the total to 45 seats, her leadership was not questioned by her party
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Alexander Stubb
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Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician and a Member of Parliament, representing the National Coalition Party. From 2004 to 2008, Stubb was a Member of the European Parliament and he was the leader of the Finnish National Coalition Party from 2014 to 2016, when he was replaced by Petteri Orpo in the party convention. Stubb was born in Helsinki into a family, his father was a native Swedish speaker. Stubb spoke both languages at home and his father Göran Stubb worked in the business of professional ice hockey and was the CEO of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association from 1976 to 1983. In 1986 Stubb graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida and, after completing his military service, he won a golf scholarship to Furman University in South Carolina. At Furman, Stubb studied political science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993, the following year he studied French and obtained a Diploma in French Language and Civilisation from the Sorbonne in Paris. Stubb speaks five languages, Swedish, Finnish, English, French, in 1995 Stubb graduated as a Master of Arts in European Affairs from the College of Europe, Belgium. Wallace later said, LSE has had a number of extremely bright Finnish students in recent years –, Stubbs thesis was called Flexible Integration and the Amsterdam Treaty, negotiating differentiation in the 1996–97 IGC. Between 1995 and 1997, Stubb was a researcher at the Finnish Foreign Office, in 1997 he began to work also as a columnist. In 2000, he became a professor at the College of Europe, following the IGCs conclusion in 2001 he became an adviser to the President of the European Commission and a member of the Commission Task Force on the European Convention. In 2003 he returned to Finlands representation to the EU as an expert and to the intergovernmental negotiations. When that ended in 2004, he stood for the National Coalition Party in the election to the European Parliament, Stubb lived in Genval, Belgium, with his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, who is a British lawyer, until they moved to Tapiola, Espoo. She works for the media group Sanoma and they have two children, a daughter named Emilie and a son called Oliver Johan. A confessed sports nut, Stubb regularly competes in marathons and triathlons and has finished Ironman Triathlons, in his 2012 Frankfurt Ironman, he competed with Iron Birds Finland, a team of 18 people competing to support leukemia research. In Stockholm Ironman in 2013, Stubbs time was 9,5547, Stubb ran his marathon record,3,11,24, in the Berlin Marathon in 2014. Stubb served as an MEP for Finland from 2004 to 2008 and he was elected in 2004 with 115,225 votes as a member of the National Coalition Party. As that party was a member of the EPP, he sat in the European Peoples Party-European Democrats group, during this time he became one of the most well-known members of the Parliament. Stubb was a member of the Committee on Budgetary Control and a vice-president of the Committee on Internal Market and he was a substitute member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee
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Nick Clegg
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Clegg was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and has been the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam since 2005. In 2007 he was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats, leading his party into a government with the Conservative Party in 2010. In 2015, he resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats following that years general election at which his party was defeated and lost 49 MPs. Clegg is a fluent speaker of five European languages including English, German, Spanish, French and his English grandfather was Hugh Anthony Clegg, editor of the British Medical Journal for 35 years. Cleggs Dutch mother, Hermance van den Wall Bake, was interned, along with her family and she met Cleggs father during a visit to England in 1956, and they married on 1 August 1959. Clegg is multilingual, he speaks English, French, Dutch, German and his background has informed his politics. He says, There is simply not a shred of racism in me, as a person whose whole family is formed by flight from persecution and its one of the reasons I am a liberal. His Dutch mother instilled in him a degree of scepticism about the entrenched class configurations in British society. He has said of languages that The danger is that we can afford to be lazy about languages, because they all want to speak English – English is the most useful, the global language bar none. But I dont think we should allow that luxury to be a sort of not to learn languages. As a 16-year-old exchange student in Munich, he and a friend drunkenly set fire to what he called the collection of cacti in Germany. When news of the incident was reported during his time as Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and he was arrested and not formally charged, but performed a kind of community service. He spent a gap year working as a instructor in Austria, before going on to Cambridge University in 1986. He was active in the student theatre at Cambridge, acting in a play about AIDS and he was also captain of his colleges tennis team, and campaigned for the human rights organisation Survival International. Clegg spent the summer of 1989 as a junior in Postipankki bank in Helsinki. It has been alleged that Clegg joined the Cambridge University Conservative Association between 1986 and 1987, Clegg has maintained he has no recollection of that whatsoever. However, Conservative MP Greg Hands has a record of CUCA members for 1986–1987, Hands noted that for the avoidance of any doubt, there was only one N Clegg at Robinson College. Is listed in the Robinson College Record, under Freshmen 1986 and he graduated with an upper second class honours degree in social anthropology
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Enzo Moavero Milanesi
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Enzo Moavero Milanesi is an Italian independent politician, law professor and EU official. He served as Minister of European Affairs in the Monti Cabinet and he has formerly served as Deputy Secretary-General of the European Commission. Milanesi was born on 17 August 1954 and he is a descendant of Ferdinando Bocconi, who founded the Bocconi University in Milan. He graduated in law from the Sapienza University of Rome and continued his studies in Belgium, Milanesi served in the Guardia di Finanza from 1977 to 1979, and subsequently worked for 20 years for the European Commission in Brussels. In 1994, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed Milanesi Undersecretary for European Affairs, from 1995 to 2000 he served as chief of cabinet for European Commissioner Mario Monti, responsible for competition policy and the internal market. Milanesi served as Deputy Secretary-General of the European Commission from 2002 to 2005 and he was appointed as Minister of European Affairs in the Monti Cabinet on 16 November 2011 and reconfirmed in the following cabinet led by Prime Minister Enrico Letta on 28 April 2013. He left the cabinet on 22 February 2014, from 1993 to 1996, he was Professor of Law at the Sapienza University and LUISS, and from 1996 to 2000, he taught at the Bocconi University, and again at the Sapienza University from 2002 to 2006. He is currently Professor of European Law and Director of the School of Law at LUISS and he is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe
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European Movement International
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The UEM acted as a platform for the co-ordination of the organisations created in the wake of World War II. They met again on 10 November 1947 and changed their name to The Joint International Committee for European Unity and they retained this name until after the 1948 Congress of The Hague. From 7 to 11 May 1948,800 delegates from Europe and observers from Canada and the United States gathered in The Hague and this landmark conference was to have a profound influence on the shape of the European Movement, which was created soon afterwards. The European Movement was formally created on 25 October 1948, when the Joint International Committee for European Unity decided to change its name, duncan Sandys was elected President and Léon Blum, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak were elected as Honorary Presidents. The U. S. policy was to promote a United States of Europe, the first major achievement of the European Movement was the setting up of the Council of Europe in May 1949. The European Movement was also responsible for the creation of the College of Europe in Bruges, one of its major functions during the 1950s through to the 1990s was the setting up of think-tanks and a network of discussion groups across Europe, in countries both democratic and Communist. Since 1948, the European Movement has lobbied for further integration, on numerous subjects and it worked in favour of the direct election of the European Parliament by all European citizens, in favour of the Treaty on the European Union and also for a European Constitution. It seeks to provide a structure to encourage and facilitate the participation of citizens. The Movement focuses its attentions on seeking further integration in the political, social and cultural arenas, the EM also works as a study and information group operating through various projects and activities. It tries to involve larger segments of the public in the European project by disseminating information on European affairs and activities, the association attempts to remain pluralist, and integrates into its management political personalities from both the Right and the Left. Honorary Presidents, generally prominent European politicians, are also elected, the current President of the EMI is Jo Leinen, MEP. The management of the organisation is drawn from across Europe, in principle national councils of all countries which are members of the Council of Europe can join the European Movement. Only on national level the EM has youth branches, policy is formulated by a Board, the chairmanship of which is held by the President. A Federal Assembly, made up of delegates from local Movements throughout Europe, several specialist committees, devoted to the discussion of individual policies exist as well. The current Political Committees are, More Democracy, Citizens’ Rights and Freedom, Jobs, Competitiveness and Sustainable Growth, day-to-day office-work is performed by the staff, which is led by a Secretary General, since June 2009 Diogo Pinto
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Union of European Federalists
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The Union of European Federalists is a European beehive system non-governmental organisation, campaigning for a Federal Europe. It consists of 20 constituent organisations and it has been active at the European, Federalists believed that only a common effort of European citizens working towards this goal could create a peaceful and democratic Europe guaranteeing freedom and the protection of human rights. The foundation of the UEF goes back to the meeting of 78 representatives of federalist movements from 16 European countries in September 1946 in Hertenstein, near Zürich in Switzerland. Federalists believed that only an effort of European citizens working towards this goal could create a peaceful and democratic Europe guaranteeing freedom. At a second meeting in Luxembourg these groups agreed on establishing a permanent European secretariat in Paris, after getting a legal status UEF campaigned for the European Federal Pact. It consisted of an attempt to transform the Advisory Assembly of the Council of Europe into the Constituent Assembly of the European Federation, UEF also campaigned for the ratification of the European Defence Community and for the establishment of a political community. After rejection of the EDC project the federalists became increasingly divided as to the strategy to be followed by the U. E. F, between those who, following Altiero Spinelli, favoured the constitutional approach, and those who preferred a step-by-step approach. The former could not be satisfied with a common market. This strategic idea, propounded by the Italian federalists, quickly became the joint platform of all the federalist organisations that met in April 1973, the next most important activities of UEF were a lot of public demonstrations attracting thousands of participants. H. Constituent organisations are free to take up any activities within the political framework of UEF at the European level. The Congress is the assembly of UEF. It meets every two years, it consists of delegates of the UEF constituent organisations and it determines the policy of UEF, elects the UEF president, modifies provisions of the Statutes and elects half of the Federal Committee members. The FC consists of members of whom 50% are elected directly by the UEF Congress, the members are elected to serve until the next UEF Congress. The FC determines the UEF political direction and activities between the Congresses and it organises the Congress, approves the annual budget and final account balances, draws up the rules of procedure of UEF, and elects the UEF Bureau and Treasurer. Elected by the Federal Committee for a period of two years, the Bureau carries out the decisions of and is accountable to the Federal Committee and it is convened upon the request of the UEF Bureau or at least two constituent organisations. The Conference gathers the representatives of the constituent organisations and of UEF supranational and it presents its proposals to the Federal Committee and has an advisory and co-ordinating role. The Conference also determines the membership fee, the UEF president is elected by the UEF Congress by absolute majority vote. He is also the President of the Federal Committee and of the UEF Bureau, currently the UEF president is Elmar Brok, member of European Parliament
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Central and Eastern Europe
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It is in use after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989–90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept, the transition countries in Europe are thus classified today into two political-economic entities, CEE and CIS. According to the World Bank, the transition is over for the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 and it can be also understood as all countries of the Eastern Bloc. The definition of this varies, depending on the source. Central Europe Central and Eastern European Online Library East-Central Europe Eastern Europe Regions of Europe Baltic states Visegrád Group
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Javier Solana
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Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. Solana was born in Madrid, Spain and he comes from a well-known Spanish family, being the grand nephew of Spanish League of Nations disarmament chief, diplomat, writer and European integrationist Salvador de Madariaga. His father was a professor, Luis Solana San Martín. His mother, Obdulia Madariaga Pérez, died in 2005, Javier is the third of five children. Solana studied at the Nuestra Señora del Pilar School, an exclusive Catholic Marianist secondary school, there as a student in 1963 he suffered sanctions imposed by the authorities for having organised an opposition forum at the so-called Week of University Renovation. In 1964 he clandestinely joined the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, which had been illegal under Franco since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. In the same year he graduated and then spent a year furthering his studies at Spains Higher Council for Scientific Research, in 1965 he went to the United States, where he spent six years studying at various universities on a Fulbright Scholarship. He visited the University of Chicago and the University of California, San Diego, returning to Spain he became a lecturer in solid-state physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, UAM, and then in 1975 he became a Professor at Complutense University. During these years he published more than 30 articles, for a time he worked as assistant to Nicolás Cabrera, whom he had met when Cabrera was Professor at the University of Virginia. The last PhD dissertations that he directed were in the early 1990s, on returning to Spain in 1971 Solana joined the Democratic Co-ordination of Madrid as the Spanish Socialist Workers Party representative. He was a personal friend of the partys leader Felipe González. In 1976 he represented the PSOE at a Socialist international congress held in Suresnes, France, on 20 May 1977 he accompanied González in visiting King Juan Carlos at the Zarzuela Palace. He became a representative of a union in the Complutense University. On 23 February 1981 he was in the parliament when it was taken over for 18 hours in a coup by gunmen led by Antonio Tejero. On 28 October 1982 PSOE won a victory with 202 out of 350 seats in the lower house. On 3 December, along with the members of Gonzálezs first cabinet, Solana was sworn in as Minister for Culture. On 5 July 1985 he was made the Official Spokesman for the Government for three years. On 27–28 November 1995, while Spain held the Presidency of the Council of the EU, a treaty was achieved between the twenty-seven nations in attendance with Solana gaining credit for what he called a process to foster cultural and economic unity in the Mediterranean region
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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