European Commission
The European Commission is an institution of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City, pledging to respect the treaties and to be independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. Unlike in the Council of the European Union, where members are directly and indirectly elected, the European Parliament, where members are directly elected, the Commissioners are proposed by the Council of the European Union, on the basis of suggestions made by the national governments, appointed by the European Council after the approval of the European Parliament; the Commission operates with 28 members of the Commission. There is one member per member state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the general interest of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. One of the 28 is the Commission President proposed by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament.
The Council of the European Union nominates the other 27 members of the Commission in agreement with the nominated President, the 28 members as a single body are subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament. The current Commission is the Juncker Commission, which took office in late 2014, following the European Parliament elections in May of the same year; the term Commission is variously used, either in the narrow sense of the 28-member College of Commissioners or to include the administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants who are split into departments called directorates-general and services. The procedural languages of the Commission are English and German; the Members of the Commission and their "cabinets" are based in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. The European Commission derives from one of the five key institutions created in the supranational European Community system, following the proposal of Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, on 9 May 1950.
Originating in 1951 as the High Authority in the European Coal and Steel Community, the Commission has undergone numerous changes in power and composition under various presidents, involving three Communities. The first Commission originated in 1951 as the nine-member "High Authority" under President Jean Monnet; the High Authority was the supranational administrative executive of the new European Coal and Steel Community. It took office first on 10 August 1952 in Luxembourg City. In 1958, the Treaties of Rome had established two new communities alongside the ECSC: the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community; however their executives were called "Commissions" rather than "High Authorities". The reason for the change in name was the new relationship between the Council; some states, such as France, expressed reservations over the power of the High Authority, wished to limit it by giving more power to the Council rather than the new executives. Louis Armand led the first Commission of Euratom.
Walter Hallstein led the first Commission of the EEC, holding the first formal meeting on 16 January 1958 at the Château of Val-Duchesse. It achieved agreement on a contentious cereal price accord, as well as making a positive impression upon third countries when it made its international debut at the Kennedy Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations. Hallstein notably began the consolidation of European law and started to have a notable impact on national legislation. Little heed was taken of his administration at first but, with help from the European Court of Justice, his Commission stamped its authority solidly enough to allow future Commissions to be taken more seriously. In 1965, accumulating differences between the French government of Charles de Gaulle and the other member states on various subjects triggered the "empty chair" crisis, ostensibly over proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy. Although the institutional crisis was solved the following year, it cost Etienne Hirsch his presidency of Euratom and Walter Hallstein the EEC presidency, despite his otherwise being viewed as the most'dynamic' leader until Jacques Delors.
The three bodies, collectively named the European Executives, co-existed until 1 July 1967 when, under the Merger Treaty, they were combined into a single administration under President Jean Rey. Owing to the merger, the Rey Commission saw a temporary increase to 14 members—although subsequent Commissions were reduced back to nine, following the formula of one member for small states and two for larger states; the Rey Commission completed the Community's customs union in 1968, campaigned for a more powerful, European Parliament. Despite Rey being the first President of the combined communities, Hallstein is seen as the first President of the modern Commission; the Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions followed with work on monetary co-operation and the first enlargement to the north in 1973. With that enlargement, the Commission's membership increased to thirteen under the Ortoli Commission, which dealt with the enlarged community during economic and international instability at that time; the external representation of the Community took a step forward when President Roy Jenkins, recruited to the presidency in January 1977 from his role as Home Secretary of the United Kingdom's Labour government, became the first President to att
Peter Kažimír
Peter Kažimír is a Slovak politician and senior member of the social-democratic SMER-SD party. In the years 2006 – 2010 he served at the Slovak Finance Ministry. In the years April 4, 2012 to April 11, 2019, he was the Finance Minister of the Slovak government under prime ministers Robert Fico and Peter Pellegrini. In 2015, Kažimír was part of a team that secured the investment of Jaguar Land Rover in a £1bn plant, beating off stiff competition from Poland and Mexico. In the second half of 2016, during Slovakia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, he represented the EU and the Eurogroup at the G20 and G7 meetings as well as the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund. By November 2017, Kažimír submitted his formal application for succeeding Jeroen Dijsselbloem as the next chairman of the Eurogroup. At the vote on December 4, he withdrew after the first round and Mário Centeno was elected to the post. European Investment Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors World Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors National Nuclear Fund for Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations, Member of the Supervisory Board DDP Credit Suisse Life & Pensions, Member of the Supervisory Board According to the Financial Times, Kažimír developed a strong record on managing Slovakia’s public finances since taking office.
He earned respect for keeping budget deficits under control and became known for his tough stance in the eurozone’s negotiations with debt-plagued Greece. CV of Peter Kazimir, Slovak Ministry of Finance Program Na Telo, TV Markiza
Olhão
Olhão, or Olhão da Restauração, is a municipality and urban community in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 45,396, in an area of 130.86 km². Located near the regional capital Faro, it is a fishing port, home of the Bela brand sardines and Conserveira do Sul's Manná range of processed fish products. Along with Faro, Loulé, Tavira, Olhão forms a conurbation with the city of Faro, from the eastern and central Algarve. Since pre-history, Olhão has had vestiges of human occupation, although the oldest written record dates only from 1378, referring to a place called Olham; the estuary and abundance of water were decisive factors that influenced fishermen, at the beginning of the 17th century, to congregate along the beach of Olhão. The settlement developed as officials in Faro discouraged concentration along this coast. Yet, the growth of activity here was impulsed by the protection, after the middle of the 17th century, offered by the Fortress of São Lourenço, which guarded the coast and entrance to the estuary, discouraging attacks from corsairs.
The incremental growth of the fishery along the coast and sea, commercial enterprises associated their growth, provoked a leap in population. As a result, in 1695, the residents requested from the Bishop of Faro, that Olhão should be deannexed from the parish of Quelfes: resulting in the formation of the parish of Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Olhão. During the French occupation of the Algarve, during the Peninsular Wars, Olhão was notable for one of the few public uprisings against the occupiers, occurring on 16 June 1808; this revolt culimnated in the expulsion of the French from Olhão and, as a result, from the rest of the Algarve. It was during this period, that a month a small group of 17 men embarked to Brazil on a caique named Bom Sucesso, in the hope of promoting the Algarvean success to the Portuguese Court; the crew brought an ex-official statement describing the audacious attitude of the Olhanese revolt. A replica of the boat is moored at Olhão's waterfront. In recompense, a regal charter was signed by the Prince Regent John to distinguish Olhão, its inhabitants, transforming the location from a locality to town, ordering that it be referred to as Vila de Olhão da Restauração.
The transformation, resulted in the creation of a new municipality, with local autonomy, beginning in 1826. In this year, the municipal council hall was erected and a juiz de fora was instituted to preside over the councilmen. In 1835, the parish of Moncarapacho began to function as a suburb of Olhão, in the following year, the municipal council took control of the parishes of Olhão, Pechão and part of Moncarapacho. A judicial division of Portugal in 1874, resulted in the definitive demarcation of the municipality of Olhão, constituted by the five parishes of Olhão, Quelfes, Pechão and Fuseta. Over time the small town of fishermen grew into an economic and urban centre, resulting in its elevation in city in 1985. In recent years, it has developed a growing tourist industry; the municipality is confronted on the east and north by the municipality of Tavira, to the west by the municipality of Faro and in the south by the Atlantic Ocean. It is located within the morphological sub-regions of the coast.
In the Barrocal, the municipality is limited in the north by the old massif and south with the sand-stones of the Mesozoic. These lines, follow an ancient beach and coast, justifying the existence of the sedimentary deposits over the ancient massif; the coast, constituted by a sub-zone of Quaternary or Neogenic in age. These deposits came to rest over sand-stones and marls that comprise the coastal Mesocenozoic, a young relief, little accented, aided by a platform that includes superficial lavas. All of the coastal littoral of the municipality belongs to the Nature Park of Ria Formosa, one of the more important humid zones in Europe, considered in 2004, by International Union for Conservation of Nature as a humid zone of world interest; the Nature Park of Ria Formosa was instituted in 1987, by Decree Law 373/87, with the objective of protecting and conserving this river system, in particular the flora and fauna, including species of migratory bird and their habitats. The Nature Park extends into the municipalities of Loulé, Olhão, Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António, covering an area of 18400 hectares, for 60 kilometres along the coast, from Ancão until Manta Rota, covering a great variety of habitats: barrier islands, banks of mud and sand, salt marshes, freshwater ponds and brackish waterways and agricultural areas.
In the municipality of Olhão, the island of Armona is included in the barrier islands of the Ria Formosa: this includes the beaches of Fuseta Mar and Armona Mar. The Algarve is an area that presents a climate Mediterranean, characterized by warm and dry seasons during five months of the year, with median daily temperatures around 22.5 °C and gentle winters, with scarce precipitation and daily median temperatures around 12.4 °C. In a general way, the municipality presents a temperate humid Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and mild winters; the precipitation is distributed in an irregular fashion throughout the year, while concentrating in the months between autumn and spring. The climate is not homogeneously distributed throughout the region; the municipality of Olhão has an area of 130.9 square kilometres, with a resident population that includes 42,272 inhabitants (approxi
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon is a public research university in Lisbon, the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, the former Classical University of Lisbon and the Technical University of Lisbon; the history of a university in Lisbon dates back to the 13th century. The first Portuguese university was established in Lisbon between 1288 and 1290, when Dinis I promulgated the letter Scientiae thesaurus mirabili, granting several privileges to the students of the studium generale in Lisbon, proving that it was founded on that date. There was an active participation in this educational activity by the Portuguese Crown and its king, through its commitment of part of the subsidy of the same, as by the fixed incomes of the Church; the current University of Lisbon is the result of the merger of two former public universities of Lisbon, the former Classical University of Lisbon, founded in 1911 and the Technical University of Lisbon, founded in 1930.
The merger process was initiated in 2011 and was made into law on December 31, 2012. As stated on the decree-law No. 266-E/2012, the new University of Lisbon began its legal existence on the day the newly elected rector took office, on July 25, 2013. Classical University of Lisbon Technical University of Lisbon As of 2013, the University of Lisbon comprises eighteen schools and its research institutes: Faculdade de Arquitetura - School of Architecture Faculdade de Belas-Artes - School of Fine Arts Faculdade de Ciências - School of Sciences Faculdade de Direito - School of Law Faculdade de Farmácia - School of Pharmacy Faculdade de Letras - School of Letters Faculdade de Medicina - School of Medicine Faculdade de Medicina Dentária - School of Dental Medicine Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária - School of Veterinary Medicine Faculdade de Motricidade Humana - School of Human Motricity Faculdade de Psicologia - School of Psychology Instituto de Ciências Sociais - Institute of Social Sciences Instituto de Educação - Institute of Education Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território - Institute of Geography and Territorial Planning Instituto Superior de Agronomia - School of Agronomy Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas - School of Social and Political Sciences Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão - School of Economy and Management Instituto Superior Técnico - School of EngineeringIt comprises six specialized units and shared services, the Lisbon University Stadium.
According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 known as Shanghai Ranking, the University of Lisbon is ranked first in Portugal and 151-200 in the world. In the broad subject field of Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences the university is ranked 51-75 worldwide, while in the disciplines of Mathematics and Computer Science it is ranked 101-150, 151-200 and 151-200, respectively. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2017 the University of Lisbon is regarded as the largest university in Portugal and is ranked 401-500, while in the QS World University Rankings 2018 it is ranked 305. List of universities in Portugal Higher education in Portugal Official website Official website
Jeroen Dijsselbloem
Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem is a Dutch politician who served as President of the Eurogroup from 21 January 2013 to 12 January 2018 and President of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism from 11 February 2013 until 12 January 2018. A member of the Labour Party, he was appointed as Minister of Finance of the Netherlands on 5 November 2012, retaining the office until 26 October 2017, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2002, 2002 to 2012 and in 2017. Dijsselbloem studied agricultural economics at Wageningen University and was elected to the municipal council of Wageningen. Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem was born on 29 March 1966 in Netherlands, his parents were both schoolteachers. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. Dijsselbloem went to a Roman Catholic primary school in Son en Breugel and the Catholic secondary school Eckartcollege in Eindhoven, he studied at the Wageningen University between 1985 and 1991, where he obtained an engineer's degree in agricultural economics in 1991, majoring in business economics, agricultural policy, social and economic history.
Dijsselbloem subsequently did research in business economics at the University College Cork in Ireland, but he did not graduate from this university. Dijsselbloem’s interest in politics began in 1983, spurred by the mass protests against U. S. Pershing cruise missiles. In 1985, he became a member of the Dutch Labour Party. From 1993 to 1996 he worked for the parliamentary group of the Labour Party. From 1994-96 he was a member of the municipal council of Wageningen. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery under Minister Jozias van Aartsen and State secretary Geke Faber. From 2000 to 2012, Dijsselbloem was elected to the House of Representatives for the Labour Party, with a brief interruption after the 2002 general elections where the Labour Party suffered a major defeat, he reentered the lower house in November that year due to Peter Rehwinkel's resignation. In 2007, he led a parliamentary inquiry on education reform, he focused on matters of special education and teachers.
Following the resignation of Job Cohen as party leader and parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives on 20 February 2012, he became the interim parliamentary leader, serving until 20 March 2012 when Diederik Samsom was elected as the next party leader of the Labour Party. On 15 November 2012, Dijsselbloem was appointed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to serve as Minister of Finance in the Second Rutte cabinet. From the start, Dijsselbloem emphasised his commitment to fiscal discipline. On 1 February 2013, he nationalized the financial institution SNS Reaal. Shareholders and owners of subordinated debt are expropriated with no compensation and others banks of the country have to contribute to the takeover up to one billion euros. By December 2013, Dutch press named Dijsselbloem politician of the year 2013, describing him as “intelligent and good at finding compromises.” In a response, he said that he was surprised about winning the prize because he “does not work on the forefront”.
In the Netherlands, he was named as a possible European Commissioner following the 2014 European elections. He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Wopke Hoekstra on 26 October 2017, he resigned from the House of Representatives the day before, while having been reelected during the Dutch general election, 2017 in March. On 21 January 2013, Dijsselbloem took office as President of the Eurogroup, a grouping of the Ministers of Finance of the Eurozone, those member states of the European Union which have adopted the euro as their official currency. Spain was the only country not to back his candidacy. Dijsselbloem struggled early in his two and a half year term and faced criticism for his handling of the "Cyprus bail-in." In March 2013, he took the lead in the negotiation and subsequent public promotion of the bailout. He attracted criticism for the precedent of taking depositors' balances as part of bank rescues but said "I’m pretty confident that the markets will see this as a sensible concentrated and direct approach instead of a more general approach...
It will force all financial institutions, as well as investors, to think about the risks they are taking on because they will now have to realise that it may hurt them."On 24 March 2013, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that Dijsselbloem saw the Cyprus bail-in as a template for resolution of a bankruptcy. However, it was the interviewer that had used not Dijsselbloem himself. On 26 March 2013, Dijsselbloem said explicitly that he did not consider the Cyprus case to be a template; as Eurogroup head, Dijsselbloem represented European creditors in negotiations with Greece over its bailout packages following Syriza's victory in the January 2015 legislative election. The Greek government formed by Syriza and the Independent Greeks pursued bilateral talks with creditors and the Eurogroup agreed on an extension of the bailout for four months; the negotiations for a new bailout package failed to meet the deadline for a €1.1 bn repayment to the IMF on midnight 1 July 2015. After the 5 July Greek referendum in which the outstanding bailout offer from the Eurogroup was rejected by 61% of voters, a crisis summit was held on 12 July to negotiate Greece's new bailout reques
Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)
The Assembly of the Republic is the parliament of the Portuguese Republic. According to the Portuguese Constitution, the unicameral parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens." The constitution names the assembly as one of the country's organs of supreme authority. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery; the Palácio de São Bento has been the seat of the Portuguese parliaments since 1834. The Assembly of the Republic's powers derives from its power to dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence, to change the country's laws, to amend the constitution. In addition to these key powers, the constitution grants to the Assembly extensive legislative powers and substantial control over the budget, the right to authorize the government to raise taxes and grant loans, the power to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements, the duty to approve or reject decisions by the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace.
The assembly appoints many members of important state institutions, such as ten of the thirteen members of the Constitutional Court and seven of the sixteen members of the Council of State. The constitution requires the assembly to review and approve an incoming government's program. Parliamentary rules allow the assembly to call for committees of inquiry to examine the government's actions. Political opposition represented in the assembly has the power to review the cabinet's actions though it is unlikely that the actions can be reversed. Party groups can call for interpellations that require debates about specific government policies; the assembly consisted at first of 250 members, but the constitutional reforms of 1989 reduced its number to between 180 and 230. Members are elected by popular vote for legislative terms of four years from the country's twenty-two constituencies (eighteen in mainland Portugal corresponding to each district, one for each autonomous regions and Madeira, one for Portuguese living in Europe and a last one for those living in the rest of the world.
Except for the constituencies for Portuguese living abroad, which are fixed at two members each, the number of voters registered in a constituency determines the number of its members in the assembly, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. Constituencies vary in size. For the 2015 legislative elections, the MPs distributed by districts were as follows: According to the constitution, members of the assembly represent the entire country, not the constituency from which they are elected; this directive has been reinforced in practice by the strong role of political parties in regard to members of the assembly. Party leadership, for example, determines in which areas candidates are to run for office, thus weakening members' ties to their constituencies. Moreover, members of the assembly are expected to vote with their party and to work within parliamentary groups based on party membership. Party discipline is strong, insubordinate members can be coerced through a variety of means.
A further obstacle to members' independence is that their bills first have to be submitted to the parliamentary groups, it is these groups' leaders who set the assembly's agenda. The President of the Assembly of the Republic is the second hierarchical figure in the Portuguese state, after the President of the Portuguese Republic, is elected by secret vote of the members of parliament; the President of the Assembly is aided by four vice-presidents, nominated by the other parties represented in the parliament, is the speaker. When he is not present, one of the vice-presidents takes the role of speaker; when the President of the Republic is, for any reason, unable to perform to job, the President of the Assembly of the Republic becomes his substitute. São Bento Palace ARtv Official website
2015 Portuguese legislative election
A Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October 2015. All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention; the right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead, composed of the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party, won the single largest vote with 38.6% and securing 47% of the seats in the Assembly. Compared with 2011, this was a loss of 12% in support. On the electoral map, the coalition won every district in the North and in the Centre except Castelo Branco, they won in the big districts of Lisbon and Porto. The map shows a clear North-South divide, with the conservative coalition winning everything in the North and Centre and the PS winning in the South; the Socialist Party was the second most voted political force, winning 32.3% of the vote and 37% of the seats in the Parliament. The PS received a higher share of the vote than in 2011, but did not increase its share by as much of a margin as had been predicted by the opinion polls prior to September 2015. António Costa, former mayor of Lisbon, was not able to win the city of Lisbon, where the PS lost to PàF 35% to 37%.
Although the PS and the other left-wing parties did win a clear overall majority in Parliament, in his concession speech Costa said that he would not support "a negative coalition" with the Left Bloc and Communist Party and that he would rather talk and negotiate with the PSD/CDS–PP coalition. The Left Bloc, despite predictions by opinion polls, achieved its best result in history, with more than 10% of the vote, becoming the third largest parliamentary group; the CDU's share of the vote increased compared to 2011, receiving 8% of the vote and one additional MP. The People–Animals–Nature elected one member of parliament becoming the first time since 1999 in which a new party entered the Assembly. Voter turnout reached a new low, with just 55.8% of the electorate casting their ballot on election day. Passos Coelho was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a minority government that took the oath of office on October 30, 2015; the government fell after the approval of a motion to bring it down on 10 November.
On 24 November, António Costa was appointed by the President of the Republic as Prime Minister-designate. Costa was sworn in on 26 November, 2015; the President of Portugal has the power to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic by their own will. Unlike in other countries, the President can refuse to dissolve the parliament at the request of the Prime Minister or the Assembly of the Republic and all the parties represented in Parliament. If the Prime Minister resigns, the President must appoint a new Prime Minister after listening to all the parties represented in Parliament and the government programme must be subject to discussion by the Assembly of the Republic, whose members of parliament may present a motion to reject the upcoming government; the 2014 Portuguese Socialist Party prime ministerial primary was held on 28 September 2014. It was the first open primary in the history of the party, of Portugal, elected the party's candidate for Prime Minister for the 2015 general election. There were two candidates running, António José Seguro, General Secretary of the party at the time of the primary, António Costa, mayor of Lisbon.
António Costa won the primary by a landslide with 67.9% of the vote against the 31.7% of Antonio José Seguro, resulting in Seguro conceding defeat and resigning as General Secretary of the party. Costa was next elected new socialist's General Secretary on 22 November 2014. According to the Portuguese Constitution, an election must be called between 14 September and 14 October of the year that the legislature ends; the election is called by the President of Portugal but is not called at the request of the Prime Minister, however the President must listen all the parties represented in Parliament and the election day must be announced at least 60 days before the election. If an election is called in the middle of the legislature it must be held at least in 55 days. Election day is the same in all multi-seats constituencies, should fall on a Sunday or national holiday; the next legislative election must, took place no than 11 October 2015. After meeting with all of the parties represented in parliament on 21 July 2015, the President Aníbal Cavaco Silva called the election for 4 October.
The Parliament of the Portuguese Republic consists of a single chamber, the Assembly of the Republic, composed of 230 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a maximum term of four years. Assembly members represent the entire country, rather than the constituencies in which they were elected. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 116 for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved; each one of Portugal's eighteen administrative districts, as well as each one of the country's two autonomous regions – the Azores and Madeira – is an electoral constituency. Portuguese voters residing outside the national territory are grouped into two electoral constituencies – Europe and the rest of the world – each one of which elects two Assembly members.
The remaining 226 seats are allocated among the national territory constituencies in proportion to their number of registered electors. Political parties and party coalitions may present lists of candidates; the lists are closed, so electors may not choose individual candidates in or alter the order of such lists. Electors cast a bal
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