1.
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
2.
Jean-Claude Juncker
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Jean-Claude Juncker is a Luxembourgish politician. Since 2014, Juncker has been President of the European Commission, from 1995 to 2013, he was the 23rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and from 1989 to 2009, he was the Minister for Finances. From 2005 to 2013, Juncker served as the first permanent President of the Eurogroup, in 2014, the European Peoples Party had Juncker as its lead candidate, or Spitzenkandidat, for the Presidency of the Commission in the 2014 elections. This marked the first time that the Spitzenkandidat process was employed, the EPP won 220 out of 751 seats in the Parliament. On 27 June 2014, the European Council officially nominated Juncker for the position, and on 15 July 2014 and he succeeded Jose Manuel Barroso as President on 1 November 2014. During his leadership, Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Juncker is the first President that prior to the election has campaigned as a candidate for the position, a process introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. Juncker was born in Redange, Luxembourg, and spent the majority of his childhood in Belvaux and he studied at the Roman Catholic école apostolique at Clairefontaine on the edge of Arlon in Belgium, before returning to Luxembourg to study for his Baccalaureate at the Lycée Michel Rodange. He joined the Christian Social Peoples Party in 1974 and he studied Law at the University of Strasbourg, graduating with a Masters in Law in 1979, and although he was sworn into the Luxembourg Bar Council in 1980, he never practised as a lawyer. Juncker is fluent in his language of Luxembourgish, along with French, German. Following Junckers graduation from the University of Strasbourg, he was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary and he later won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1984 and was immediately appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jacques Santer as Minister of Labour. This led to his given a chairmans role at a number of meetings of the Council of the European Communities. Shortly before the 1989 election Juncker was seriously injured in a road accident. His eventual promotion to Prime Minister seemed at this time inevitable, Juncker at this time also accepted the position of Luxembourgs representative on the 188-member board of Governors of the World Bank. Juncker was re-elected to the Chamber in 1994, maintaining his ministerial role, Juncker relinquished his post at the World Bank at this time, but maintained his position as Minister for Finance. Junckers first term as Prime Minister was focused on a platform of international bilateral ties to improve Luxembourgs profile abroad. The press dubbed Juncker the Hero of Dublin for achieving a consensus between the two. He also instigated the Euro 11, an group of European finance ministers for matters regarding his Economic. For all of these initiatives, he was honoured with the Vision for Europe Award in 1998, after the 2004 election, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party became the second largest party again, and Juncker again formed a coalition with them
3.
European Commission
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Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. The Commission operates as a government, with 28 members of the Commission. There is one member per 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, the current Commission is the Juncker Commission, which took office in late 2014. The procedural languages of the Commission are English, French and German, the Members of the Commission and their cabinets are based in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. 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, 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 executives and the Council. Some states such as France expressed reservations over the power of the High Authority, 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, Hallstein notably began the consolidation of European law and started to have a notable impact on national legislation. The three bodies, collectively named the European Executives, co-existed until 1 July 1967 when, under the Merger Treaty, the Rey Commission completed the Communitys customs union in 1968 and campaigned for a more powerful, elected, European Parliament. Despite Rey being the first President of the communities, Hallstein is seen as the first President of the modern Commission. The Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions followed with work on monetary co-operation, with that enlargement the Commissions membership increased to thirteen under the Ortoli Commission, which dealt with the enlarged community during economic and international instability at that time. Following the Jenkins Commission, Gaston Thorns Commission oversaw the Communitys enlargement to the south, the Commission headed by Jacques Delors was seen as giving the Community a sense of direction and dynamism. Delors and his team are considered as the founding fathers of the euro. The International Herald Tribune noted the work of Delors at the end of his term in 1992. He arrived when Europessimism was at its worst, although he was a little-known former French finance minister, he breathed life and hope into the EC and into the dispirited Brussels Commission. The successor to Delors was Jacques Santer, the entire Santer Commission was forced to resign in 1999 by the Parliament as result of a fraud and corruption scandal, with a central role played by Édith Cresson
4.
Institutions of the European Union
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The institutions of the European Union are the seven principal decision making bodies of the European Union. Institutions are different from agencies of the European Union, most EU institutions were created with the establishment of the European Community in 1958. Much change since then has been in the context the shifting of the balance away from the Council. The role of the Commission has often been to mediate between the two or tip the balance, however the Commission is becoming more accountable to the Parliament, in 1999 it forced the resignation of the Santer Commission and forced a reshuffle of the proposed Barroso Commission in 2004. The development of the institutions, with changes from treaties. Some such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post said of the institutions that nobody would have designed a government as complex. The first institutions were created at the start of the 1950s with the creation of the ECSC, based on the Schuman declaration, at its core was an independent executive called the High Authority with supranational powers over the Community. The laws made by the Authority would be observed by a Court of Justice in order to ensure they were upheld, during the negotiations, two supervisory institutions were put forward to counterbalance the power of the High Authority. The Common Assembly proposed by Jean Monnet to act as a monitor, counterweight, the second was the Council of Ministers, pushed by the smaller states also to add an intergovernmental element and harmonise national policies with those of the authority. In 1957 the Treaties of Rome established two, similar, communities creating a market and promoting atomic energy co-operation. The three institutions shared the Court of Justice and the Parliament, however they had a separate Council and High Authority, the reason for this is the different relationship between the Commission and Council. The three communities were merged in 1967, by the Merger Treaty, into the European Communities. The institutions were carried over from the European Economic Community, under the Treaties of Rome, the Common Assembly was supposed to become elected. However this was delayed by the Council until 1979, since then it gained more powers via successive treaties. The Maastricht Treaty also gave powers to the Council by giving it a key role in the two new pillars of the EU which were based on intergovernmental principles. The 2009 Lisbon Treaty brought nearly all areas under the codecision procedure. The rules for the distribution of seats in the parliament were also changed to a formula system, the High Representative merged with the European Commissioner for External Relations and joined the Commission. The appointment of the Commission President became dependent upon the last EU elections, the Council of Ministers adopted more qualified majority voting and the European Council was made a distinct institution with a permanent president
5.
European Council
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The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings. Established as a summit in 1975, the European Council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Its current President is Donald Tusk, while the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is a strategic body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as a collective presidency. The European Commission remains the sole initiator of legislation, but the European Council is able to provide an impetus to guide legislative policy, decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise. The European Council officially gained the status of an EU institution after Lisbon treaty in 2000, before that, the first summits of EU heads of state or government were held in February and July 1961. The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988, the inaugural European Council, as it became known, was held in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Irelands first Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In 1987, it was included in the treaties for the first time and had a role for the first time in the Maastricht Treaty. At first only a minimum of two meetings per year were required, which resulted in an average of three meetings per year being held for the 1975-1995 period, since 1996, the number of meetings were required to be minimum four per year. For the latest 2008-2014 period, this minimum was well exceeded, the seat of the Council was formalised in 2002, basing it in Brussels. Three types of European Councils exist, Informal, Scheduled and Extraordinary, some meetings of the European Council are seen by some as turning points in the history of the European Union. For example,1969, The Hague, Foreign policy and enlargement,1974, Paris, Creation of the Council. 1985, Milan, Initiate IGC leading to the Single European Act,1991, Maastricht, Agreement on the Maastricht Treaty. 1992, Edinburgh, Agreement to retain at Strasbourg the plenary seat of the European Parliament,1993, Copenhagen, Leading to the definition of the Copenhagen Criteria. 1997, Amsterdam, Agreement on the Amsterdam Treaty,1998, Brussels, Selected member states to adopt the euro. 1999, Cologne, Declaration on military forces,1999, Tampere, Institutional reform 2000, Lisbon, Lisbon Strategy 2002, Copenhagen, Agreement for May 2004 enlargement. 2007, Lisbon, Agreement on the Lisbon Treaty,2009, Brussels, Appointment of first president and merged High Representative. The Treaty of Lisbon made the European Council a formal institution distinct from the Council of the EU, as an outgrowth of the Council of the EU, the European Council had previously followed the same Presidency, rotating between each member state. Following the ratification of the treaty in December 2009, the European Council elected the then-Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent president
6.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
7.
Official residence
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An official residence is the residence at which a nations head of state, head of government, governor or other senior figure officially resides. It may or may not be the location where the individual conducts work-related functions or lives. This has occurred in the 21st century in Detroit and New York City, in the case of Denver, no mayor has ever lived in the official residence, the city instead makes it available to certain non-profit groups for special functions. The President uses own private residence, - Its address is 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located next to Gyeongbokgung, the palace during the Joseon Dynasty. Cheong Nam Dae - Cheong Nam Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. It was returned to public in 2003, - It is located in Cheongwon-gun, North Chungcheong Province. Cheong Hae Dae - Cheong Hae Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. Although the president no longer uses this facility this compound is still under the administration of the Republic of Korea Navy, - It is located on one of the islands of Geoje-shi, South Gyeongsang Province. Chongri Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Prime Minister of Republic of Korea. The Prime Minister, however, does not work here, - Its address is 111-2 Samcheongdong-gil, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located close to Cheong Wa Dae, gukhoeuijang Gonggwan - This is the official residence for the Speaker of the National Assembly of Republic of Korea. The Speaker, also, does not work here, - It is located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where many foreign missions to Korea are located. Daebeobwonjang Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Chief Justice of Republic of Korea. The Chief Justice, also, does not work here, - It is also located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Most ministers of state and heads of administrative regions also have official residences, although they are not listed here. S
8.
Berlaymont building
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The Berlaymont is an office building in Brussels, Belgium, that houses the headquarters of the European Commission, which is the executive of the European Union. The structure is located at Schuman roundabout at Wetstraat 200 Rue de la Loi, the building has housed the European Commission since its construction, and has become a symbol of the Commission and the European presence in Brussels. The office of the President and the Commission boardroom are on the 13th floor, together with the room of the Hebdo. With the number of European civil servants rapidly growing since their arrival in Brussels in 1958, by 1965, the Commission alone had 3,200 staff scattered across 8 different cramped buildings. The Belgian government, becoming aware of the problem and keen to ensure that the Commission stayed, offered to build an administration complex large enough to house the entire staff. President Walter Hallstein was interested but cautious about making long-term commitments while the issue of where the institutions were based was still being discussed, however, the need for office space was overwhelming. The Belgian governments proposal required sufficient land which would preferably be in the Leopold Quarter and near the homes of the servants to the south. The land chosen was then occupied by the Dames de Berlaymont, the convent and school moved to a larger and quieter site out of the city centre in Waterloo. However, the Belgian state desired a building not just tailored to the Commission and this was also why they favoured a central office building rather than the project for the construction of a European city on the Etterbeek. Due to the plans not meeting their desires, the Commission gained a lower rent. The work was planned so that as soon as each wing was complete, the north and east wings were to be completed first. The south would take given the need to demolish more buildings including the girls school. The Belgian government, realising that budgetary constraints meant it could not meet any of the deadlines, OSSOM would own the land but the building would be constructed and rented by the Belgian government with rent deducted from its contribution to OSSOMs budget. Eventually it would buy it in 1985 through regular instalments while it was being sublet to the Commission, the lack of a public tender was criticised by the Belgian audit office. In 1963, the first wing entered its active phase and was scheduled to be finished by the end of 1965, the wing was completed on 1 February 1967, with the first civil servants moving in three months later. The three-month gap was due to disagreements about the conditions of the lease, the lease came into effect on 1 May 1967 and cost €545,366. The building was fully occupied at the beginning of September of that year. However, from the start of the project, it was clear that the Commission would expand beyond the capacity of the Berlaymont, the Charlemagne building became available for the Commission
9.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
10.
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
11.
Elections to the European Parliament
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Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage. 751 MEPs are elected to the European Parliament, which has been elected since 1979. No other EU institution is directly elected, with the Council of the European Union, while Europarties have the right to campaign EU-wide for the European elections, campaigns still take place through national election campaigns, advertising national delegates from national parties. As the numbers of MEPs to be elected by each country have arisen from treaty negotiations, no change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of all governments. The electoral area may be subdivided if this will not generally affect the nature of the voting system. Most of the states of the European Union elect their MEPs with a single constituency covering the entire state. In addition, the method of calculating the quota and the election threshold vary from country to country, the first two of these elect their MEPs using party list PR, but the German-speaking constituency only has 1 member, who is therefore not elected by a proportional method. France is split into 8 constituencies, each electing its members by party list PR, republic of Ireland is split into three constituencies and uses the Single transferable vote. In Malta, MEPs are elected by single transferable vote, the United Kingdom is split into constituencies representing Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the regions of England. Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote while the other constituencies use party lists and these subdivisions are not strictly constituencies, as they do not decide how many seats each party is awarded, but are districts that the members represent once elected. The number of members for each region is decided dynamically after the election, a region with high turnout will result in more votes for the parties there, which will result in a greater number of MEPs elected for that region. The European Union has a multi-party system involving a number of ideologically diverse Europarties, as no one Europarty has ever gained power alone, their affiliated parliamentary groups must work with each other to pass legislation. Since no pan-European government is formed as a result of the European elections, Europarties have the exclusive right to campaign for the European elections, their parliamentary groups are strictly forbidden to campaign and to spend funds on any campaign-related activity. For the 2014 EP election, Europarties decided to put forward a candidate for President of the European Commission, the two major parties are the centre-right European Peoples Party and the centre-left Party of European Socialists. They form the two largest groups, along with smaller parties. There are numerous groups, including communists, greens, regionalists, conservatives, liberals. Together they form the seven recognised groups in the parliament, MEPs that are not members of groups are known as non-inscrits. Turnout has been falling steadily since the first elections in 1979, turnout has constantly fallen in every EU election since 1979
12.
Term of office
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A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office. Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdoms system of government are replicated in other countries. The monarch serves as head of state until his or her death or abdication, in the United Kingdom Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, an election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament, an MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election. The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned, prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the Prime Ministers request, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years. Early dissolution is possible, but under much more limited circumstances. Hereditary peers and life peers retain membership of the House of Lords for life, Lords Spiritual hold membership of the House of Lords until the end of their time as bishops, though a senior bishop may be made a life peer upon the end of their bishopric. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are variations on the system of government used at Westminster, the office of the leader of the devolved administrations has no numeric term limit imposed upon it. However, in the case of the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government there are fixed terms for which the legislatures can sit and this is imposed at four years. Elections may be held before this time but only if no administration can be formed, offices of local government other regional elected officials follow similar rules to the national offices discussed above, with persons elected to fixed terms of a few years. Federal judges have different terms in office, however, the majority of the federal judiciary, Article III judges, such as those of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and federal district courts, serve for life. The terms of office for officials in state governments according to the provisions of state constitutions. The term for state governors is four years in all states but Vermont and New Hampshire, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported in January 2007 that among state legislatures,44 states had terms of office for the lower house of the state legislature at two years. Five had terms of office at four years,37 states had terms of office for the upper house of the state legislature at four years
13.
Treaties of the European Union
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The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union member states which sets out the EUs constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedures and objectives, the EU can only act within the competences granted to it through these treaties and amendment to the treaties requires the agreement and ratification of every single signatory. The treaties have been amended by other treaties over the 65 years since they were first signed. The consolidated version of the two treaties is regularly published by the European Commission. The two principal treaties on which the EU is based are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. These main treaties have been altered by amending treaties at least once a decade since they came into force. Lisbon also made the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding, though that is not a treaty per se, the troubled ratification of Lisbon has meant there is little climate for further reform in the next few years beyond accession treaties, which merely allow a new state to join. Following the preamble the treaty text is divided into six parts, Title 1, Common Provisions The first deals with common provisions. Article 1 establishes the European Union on the basis of the European Community, the member states share a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail. Article 3 then states the aims of the EU in six points, the first is simply to promote peace, European values and its citizens well-being. The second relates to free movement with external border controls are in place, point 3 deals with the internal market. Point 5 states the EU shall promote its values, contribute to eradicating poverty, observe human rights, the final sixth point states that the EU shall pursue these objectives by appropriate means according with its competences given in the treaties. Article 4 relates to member states sovereignty and obligations, Article 5 sets out the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality with respect to the limits of its powers. Article 6 binds the EU to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 7 deals with the suspension of a member state and article 8 deals with establishing close relations with neighbouring states. Title 2, Provisions on democratic principles Article 9 establishes the equality of national citizens, Article 10 declares that the EU is founded in representative democracy and that decisions must be taken as closely as possible to citizens. Article 12 gives national parliaments limited involvement in the legislative process and it obliges co-operation between these and limits their competencies to the powers within the treaties. Article 18 establishes the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Title 4, Provisions on enhanced cooperations Title 4 has only one article which allows a limited number of member states to co-operate within the EU if others are blocking integration in that field. Title 5, General provisions on the Unions external action and specific provisions on the Common Foreign, Article 21 deals with the principles that outline EU foreign policy, including compliance with the UN charter, promoting global trade, humanitarian support and global governance
14.
Walter Hallstein
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Walter Hallstein was a German academic, diplomat, and politician. He was the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community, Hallstein began his academic career before World War II, becoming Germanys youngest law professor at the age of 29. During the war he served as an officer in France. Captured by American troops in 1944, he spent the rest of the war in a camp in the United States. He was one of the architects of the European Coal and Steel Community and the first President of the Commission of the European Economic Community and he held the office from 1958 to 1967 and has remained the only German to serve as president of the European Commission or its predecessors. He is also the author of books and numerous articles and speeches on European integration and on the European Communities, Walter Hallstein was born on 17 November 1901 in Mainz, Germany. After primary school in Darmstadt he attended a school in Mainz. From 1920 Hallstein studied law in Bonn, later moving to Munich and he specialized in international private law and wrote his doctoral dissertation on commercial aspects of the Treaty of Versailles. He obtained his doctorate from the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1925 – at the age of 23. From 1923 to 1926 he was a clerk at the Kammergericht. He was to remain there until 1930, in 1929 he obtained his habilitation from the University of Berlin, based on a thesis on company law. In 1930, at the age of 29, he was appointed professor of law and company law at the University of Rostock. He remained in Rostock until 1941, Hallstein was a member of several nominally Nazi professional organizations, but he was not a member of the Nazi Party or the SA. He is reputed to have rejected Nazi ideology and kept his distance from the Nazis, in 1942 Hallstein was called up, and he served in an artillery regiment in Northern France with the rank of first lieutenant. On 26 June 1944, during the Battle of Cherbourg, he was captured by the Americans and sent to Camp Como, as a German prisoner of war in the United States, Hallstein started a camp university, where he held law courses for the prisoners. Hallstein remained a prisoner-of-war from June 1944 to mid-1945, in November 1945 Hallstein returned to Germany, where he campaigned for Frankfurt University to be re-opened. He was president of the South German Rectors Conference, which he founded, from 1948 to 1949, he spent a year as visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Hallstein was co-founder of the German national UNESCO committee and was its president from 1949 to 1950, Germany had still not regained its sovereignty following defeat in World War II, and was represented internationally by the Allied High Commission
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Vice-President of the European Commission
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A Vice-President of the European Commission is a post in the European Commission usually occupied by more than one member of the Commission. Any Vice-President occupies this role in addition to the portfolio as Commissioner. Although the post of Vice-President gives little extra power, it is seen as important in appointments, Commission salaries are set as a percentage of the top civil service grade. Vice-Presidents are paid at 125%, in comparison to 112. 5% for normal Commissioners, however, the Vice-President who is also the High Representative, is paid at 130%. There are further allowances on top of these figures, the First Vice-President usually takes on the main role of a Vice-President, taking over from the President in their absence. The current First Vice-President is Frans Timmermans, the Previous First Vice-President was Catherine Ashton who was also the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. European Commission Website ec. europa. eu VP Ashtons Website ec. europa. eu
16.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
17.
Citizenship of the European Union
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Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed in 1992, and has been in force since 1993. European Union citizenship is additional to national citizenship, the EU citizenship affords rights, freedoms and legal protections to its citizens. EU citizens also have the right to address the European Parliament, European Ombudsman, and EU agencies directly, EU citizens freedoms include the right to free movement, settlement and employment across the EU. EU citizens are free to trade and transport goods, services and capital through EU borders, as in national market. EU citizens also enjoy legal protections of the EU law, specifically the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and acts, the EU also has an office of European Ombudsman whom EU citizens can approach directly. EU citizenship was first introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, and was extended by the Treaty of Amsterdam, prior to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the European Communities treaties provided guarantees for the free movement of economically active persons, but not, generally, for others. However, the treaty provisions were interpreted by the European Court of Justice not as having an economic purpose. In the case of Martinez Sala, the European Court of Justice held that the provisions provided substantive free movement rights in addition to those already granted by union law. Historically, the benefit of being a citizen of an EU country has been that of free movement. The free movement also applies to the citizens of European Economic Area countries, however, with the creation of EU citizenship, certain political rights came into being. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for citizens to be represented at Union level in the European Parliament. Member States can distinguish between nationals and Union citizens but only if the provisions satisfy the test of proportionality, migrant EU citizens have a legitimate expectation of a limited degree of financial solidarity. Having regard to their degree of integration into the host society Length of time is an important factor when considering the degree of integration. The ECJs case law on citizenship has been criticised for subjecting an increasing number of rules to the proportionality assessment. Article 45 Freedom of movement to work Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states that 1, Freedom of movement for workers shall be secured within the Union. State employment reserved exclusively for nationals varies between member states, however, it is broadly limited to those roles that exercise a significant degree of public authority, such as judges, police, the military, diplomats, senior civil servants or politicians. Note that not all Member States choose to all of these posts to nationals. Much of the existing legislation and case law was consolidated in the Citizens Rights Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move
18.
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
19.
President of the European Council
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The President of the European Council is a principal representative of the European Union on the world stage, and the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council. This institution comprises the college of heads of state or government of EU member states as well as the President of the European Commission, appointments, as well as the removal of incumbents, require a double majority support in the European Council. On 19 November 2009, the European Council agreed that its first president under the Lisbon Treaty would be Herman Van Rompuy, Van Rompuy took office when the Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1 December 2009 with a term stretching until 31 May 2012. His term was extended with a second period ending on 30 November 2014. The current president, for the term 1 December 2014 until 31 May 2017, is the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and he was reelected on 9 March 2017. As the European Council is composed of leaders, it was chaired by the head of state or government of the Presidency state. The European Constitution, drafted by the European Convention, outlined the President of the European Council as a longer term, the first president is expected to set the job description for future office holders as there is no clear idea of how the post would evolve. This would attract semi-retired leaders seeking a fitting climax to their career, however another opinion envisages a more pro-active President within the Union and speaking for it abroad. This post would hence be quickly fashioned into a de facto President of Europe and, unlike the first model, persons connected to this position would be more charismatic leaders. The appointment of Herman Van Rompuy indicated a desire to see the style of president. The Treaty of Lisbon doesnt define a process for the President of the Council. However, he faced large scale opposition for being from a large state outside the eurozone, minor opposition to other leaders such as Juncker also led to their rejection. On 19 November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy, at that time Prime Minister of Belgium, was chosen to be appointed as the first full-time President of the European Council. The formal decision on the appointment was made after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that he had unanimous backing from the 27 EU leaders at the summit in Brussels on the evening of 19 November 2009. Mr Brown also praised Mr Van Rompuy as a builder who had brought a period of political stability to his country after months of uncertainty. Mr Van Rompuy has a reputation as a builder, having taken charge of the linguistically divided Belgian government. At a press conference after his appointment, Van Rompuy commented, a negotiation that ends with a defeated party is never a good negotiation. I will consider everyones interests and sensitivities, even if our unity remains our strength, our diversity remains our wealth, he said, stressing the individuality of EU member states
20.
European People's Party
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The European Peoples Party is a European political party. A transnational organisation, it is composed of political parties. Founded by primarily Christian democratic parties in 1976, it has broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and it is also by far the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Council, President of the European Commission, many of the Founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP. Outside the EU the party also controls a majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EPP has alternated with its centre-left rival the Party of European Socialists as the largest European political party and parliamentary group. In the late 1990s the Finnish politician Sauli Niinistö negotiated the merger of the European Democrat Union, of which he was President, in October 2002 the EDU ceased its activities after being formally absorbed by the EPP at a special event in Estoril, Portugal. In recognition of his efforts Niinistö was elected Honorary President of the EPP the same year, the manifesto called for, Creation of new jobs, continuing reforms and investment in education, lifelong learning, and employment in order to create opportunities for everyone. Avoidance of protectionism, and coordination of fiscal and monetary policies, increased transparency and surveillance in financial markets. Making Europe the market leader in green technology, increasing the share of renewable energy to at least 20 per cent of the energy mix by 2020. Family-friendly flexibility for working parents, better care and housing, family-friendly fiscal policies. A new strategy to attract skilled workers from the rest of the world to make Europe’s economy more competitive, more dynamic and more knowledge-driven. The EPP operates as an international non-profit association under Belgian law according to its by-laws, the Presidency is the executive body of the party. It decides on the political guidelines of the EPP and presides over its Political Assembly. The Presidency is composed of the President, ten Vice-Presidents, the Honorary Presidents, the Secretary General, the Chairperson of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, the Presidents of the Commission, the Parliament and the Council, and the High Representative are all ex officio Vice-Presidents. The Political Assembly is composed of designated delegates from EPP member parties, associated parties, member associations, the Political Assembly meets at least three times a year. The Congress is the highest decision-making body of the EPP, the Congress elects the EPP Presidency every three years, decides on the main policy documents and electoral programmes, and provides a platform for the EPPs heads of government and party leaders. EPP leaders meet for the EPP Summit a few hours before each meeting of the European Council in order to formulate common positions and it also invites individual Commissioners to the EPP Summit meetings and to EPP Ministerial meetings
21.
Prime Minister of Luxembourg
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The Prime Minister of Luxembourg is the head of government in Luxembourg. His official residence and office is in the Hôtel de Bourgogne at 4 rue de la Congrégation in the city of Luxembourg. Since 1989, the title of Prime Minister has been an official one, between 1857 and 1989, the Prime Minister went by the name of the President of the Government, with the exception of the 25-day premiership of Mathias Mongenast. Before 1857, the Prime Minister was the President of the Council, in addition to these titles, the Prime Minister uses the title Minister of State, although this is usually relegated to a secondary title. This is a list of Prime Ministers and governments since the post was founded, in larger font are the dates of the Prime Ministers entering and leaving office. The smaller dates, during the respective premierships, are those of the Prime Ministers governments, each of the smaller dates reflects a change in the government without a change of Prime Minister. From the promulgation of the first constitution, in 1848, until the twentieth century, Luxembourgish politics was dominated by independent politicians. The prerogative powers of the Grand Duke remained undiluted, and, as such, in the early twentieth century, the emergence of socialism as a third force in Luxembourgish politics ended the dominance of independents, and further politicised the government of the country. This did not affect the Prime Ministers position until 1915, when the long-serving Paul Eyschen died in office and his death created a struggle for power between the main factions, leading to the establishment of the formalised party system. In 1918, towards the end of the First World War, to this end, formalised parties were formed by the main political blocs, so as to increase their bargaining power in the negotiations. The revisions to the constitution introduced universal suffrage and compulsory voting, adopted proportional representation, since the foundation of the party system, only one cabinet has not included members of more than one party. Most of the time, governments are grand coalitions of the two largest parties, no matter their ideology, this has made Luxembourg one of the most stable democracies in the world, two cabinets included members of every party represented in the Chamber of Deputies. During the occupation of Luxembourg by Nazi Germany, Luxembourg was governed by a Nazi Party official, thus, although Luxembourg was formally annexed on 30 August 1942, the Prime Minister of the government in exile, Pierre Dupong, is assumed to have remained Prime Minister throughout. Political Party, PD PNI CSV DP List of monarchs of Luxembourg List of Presidents of the Council of State of Luxembourg Lists of incumbents Specific Bibliography Thewes, les gouvernements du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg depuis 1848. Luxembourg City, Service Information et Presse, les gouvernements de 1848 à nos jours. Archived from the original on 8 July 2006, website of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg
22.
Frans Timmermans
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Frans Timmermans was born on 6 May 1961 in Maastricht in the Dutch province of Limburg to a Roman Catholic family. In 1980 Timmermans entered the Radboud University Nijmegen, graduating in 1985 with a Master of Arts degree in French literature. In 1984 he also enrolled at the Nancy-Université in Nancy, France, on 6 January 1986 he was conscripted in the Royal Netherlands Army as a Private first class for the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service as a Russian Prisoner of War interrogator. Aside from his native languages Limburgish and Dutch, Timmermans is fluent in Italian, Russian, French, German, on 1 August 1987 he was discharged from military service in the Royal Netherlands Army. Timmermans joined the Dutch Civil Service as an officer in the Integration Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 1 July 1990 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow in Russia. On 1 September 1993 he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Head of the Bureau for European Development Cooperation, on 15 March 1994 he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs becoming Assistant to European Commissioner Hans van den Broek. Timmermans represented the House of Representatives in the Convention on the Future of Europe from March 2002 until July 2003, Timmermans also served as a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 21 September 1998 until 22 February 2007. Timmermans was reelected to the House of Representatives after the Dutch general elections of 2002 and 2003, a major theme of his time as Undersecretary for European Affairs was to increase support for European integration. In February 2010, NATO officially requested the Netherlands to extend its involvement in Task Force Uruzgan. Following the withdrawal of the Labour Party from the coalition agreement, following a coalition agreement between the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, Christian Democratic Appeal and the Party for Freedom the Labour Party became the Opposition Party. Timmermans was returned to the House of Representatives being installed on 17 June 2010, during his second term as a Member of the House of Representatives he served as Parliamentary Spokesman of the Labour Party for Foreign Affairs and European Affairs. On 24 March and March 25,2014 the Netherlands hosted the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit, on 17 July 2014 passenger flight Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine resulting in the deaths of 194 Dutch citizens. Timmermans delivered a speech which was widely praised by the international community. His speech called for Dutch Prime Minister Rutte and the International Community to help bring the victims home, in September 2014 the Dutch Government nominated Frans Timmermans as its prospective member of the European Commission under President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker. As of 1 November 2014 Timmermans took office as Vice-President of the European Commission in Junckers European Commission, Timmermans portfolio comprises Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights. Timmermans has married twice, having two children by his first marriage, a daughter and a son, Timmermans remarried in 2000 to Irene Timmermans, he and his second wife have a son Max and a daughter Mare
23.
History of the European Union
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The European Union is a geo-political entity covering a large portion of the European continent. It is founded upon numerous treaties and has undergone expansions that have taken it from 6 member states to 28, both the ECSC and EEC were later incorporated into the European Union while the EAEC maintains a distinct legal identity despite sharing members and institutions. The Maastricht Treaty created the European Union with its pillars system, including foreign and this in turn led to the creation of the single European currency, the euro. The Maastricht Treaty has been amended by the treaties of Amsterdam, Nice, large areas of Europe had previously been united by empires built on force, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Frankish Empire, the First French Empire and Nazi Germany. An example of an organisation formed to promote the association of states between the wars to promote the idea of European union is the Pan-Europa movement, World War II from 1939 to 1945 saw a human and economic catastrophe which hit Europe hardest. It demonstrated the horrors of war, and also of extremism, through the Holocaust, once again, there was a desire to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war giving the world nuclear weapons. Most European countries failed to maintain their Great Power status leaving two rival ideologically opposed superpowers, however, the exception was the USSR, which became a superpower after World War II and maintained the status for 45 years. To ensure Germany could never threaten the peace again, its industry was partly dismantled and its main coal-producing regions were detached. With statements such as Winston Churchills 1946 call for a United States of Europe becoming louder and it gave birth to the first institutions, such as the High Authority and the Common Assembly. The first presidents of institutions were Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak respectively. The attempt to turn the Saar protectorate into a European territory was rejected by a referendum in 1955, the Saar was to have been governed by a statute supervised by a European Commissioner reporting to the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union. After failed attempts at creating defence and political communities, leaders met at the Messina Conference, the report was accepted at the Venice Conference where the decision was taken to organise an Intergovernmental Conference. The two new communities were created separately from ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly, the executives of the new communities were called Commissions, as opposed to the High Authority. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom would integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union between members. Throughout the 1960s tensions began to show with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. While the political progress of the Communities was hesitant in the 1960s, after much negotiation, and following a change in the French Presidency, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom eventually joined the European Communities on 1 January 1973. This was the first of several enlargements which become a policy area of the Union. In 1979, the European Parliament held its first direct elections by universal suffrage,410 members were elected, who then elected the first female President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil
24.
Romano Prodi
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Romano Prodi, OMRI is an Italian former politician and economist. He twice served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and he was also the tenth President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He is nicknamed Il Professore due to his occupation as professor of Economics at the University of Bologna, following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections, Prodi took power again. Up to this time, he has been the only one candidate of Italian Centre-left who won elections. On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first President of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party, on 12 September 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon selected Prodi as president of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel. He is currently serving as the UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Prodi was born in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia. He is the eighth of nine children of Mario Prodi, an originally from a peasant family, and Enrica. He has two sisters and six brothers, five of them being like him university professors, Prodi married Flavia Franzoni in 1969. He was married by Camillo Ruini, now a well-known cardinal and they have two sons, Giorgio and Antonio. He and his family live in Bologna. He then carried out postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, Prodi has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute. His research covers mainly competition regulations and the development of small and he is also interested in relations between states and markets, and the dynamics of the different capitalistic models. Prodi has received almost 20 honorary degrees from institutions in Italy, and from the rest of Europe, North America, Asia, in 1982–1989 Prodi was President of the influential state-owned industrial holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale. After leaving his position, Prodi ran the Bologna based consulting company Analisi e Studi Economici, between 1990 and 1993 the company earned £1.4 million, most of which was paid by the investment bank Goldman Sachs. In 1993-1994 Prodi was again President of the IRI, where he oversaw extensive privatization of public assets, Prodis former employer Goldman Sachs was involved in both of the deals. In February 2007 the Italian Treasury Police raided the Milan office of Goldman Sachs, the case was however shut down within weeks by superiors, while Geremia was exiled to Sardinia. Prodis political career began as a left-of-centre reformist Christian Democrat and a disciple of Beniamino Andreatta, during the mid-1970s he was appointed Minister of Industry. During Giulio Andreottis government in 1978, he served as a Technical Minister, through the 1980s, Prodi claimed he had been given this tip-off by the founders of the Christian Democracy party, contacted from beyond the grave via a séance and a Ouija board
25.
Jacques Santer
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Jacques Santer is a Luxembourg politician. As Prime Minister of Luxembourg he also led the negotiations on the Single European Act and he was the President of the European Commission from 1995 to 1999. He graduated in 1959 from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, from 1972 to 1974 he was a junior minister in the government. After the general election of 1984, Pierre Werner retired as Prime Minister and from life in general. This CSV / LSAP coalition was to last until 1999, there were weapons caches established in 1973, but direct access would not have been granted, according to Santer. On 14 October 1990 the remaining members of the organisation were informed and requested to return their radio communication equipment, Santer selection was barely ratified by a European Parliament upset with the process for which Commission presidents are selected. In the same year,1995, Santer became the first recipient of the Vision for Europe Award, allegations of corruption concerning individual EU-commissioners led to an investigation into administrative failings by an independent group of experts. Despite clearing most commissioners, the stated that they had not found a single person showing the slightest sense of responsibility. From 1999 until 2004, Santer was a member of the European Parliament and he also was on General Mediterranean Holdings board, a financial holding owned by Anglo-Iraqi Nadhmi Auchi. He is currently President of Group Europe, a section of the Union of European Federalists. He also sits on the board of directors of RTL Group, in May 2013, Santer became Honorary Member of SME Europe, the official pro-business organisation of the European Peoples Party
26.
Jacques Delors
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Jacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French economist and politician, previously the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office. He is the father of Martine Aubry, the former first secretary of the Socialist Party of France. Born in Paris in a family originating from Corrèze, Delors first held in the 1940s through the 1960s a series of posts in French banking and state planning with the Banque de France. As a member of the French Confederation of Christian Workers, he participated in its secularization, in 1974 Delors joined the French Socialist Party, with other left-wing Christians. He was one of the members of the party to be openly religious, thus challenging its long-standing secular tradition of Laïcité. He served in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1981, becoming chairman of its Committee on Economic, under President François Mitterrand, Delors served as Economics and Finance Minister from 1981 to 1983, and Economics, Finance, and Budget Minister from 1983 to 1984. He advocated a pause in the policies, a clear acceptance of the market economy. Critically, he held the line on Frances membership of the European Monetary System, Mitterrand flirted with the idea of naming him Prime Minister, but never made the appointment. Delors became the President of the European Commission in January 1985, during his presidency, he oversaw important budgetary reforms and laid the groundwork for the introduction of a single market within the European Community, which came into effect on 1 January 1993. In the autumn of 1988 Delors addressed the British Trade Union Congress, after 1988 it was to be the Conservatives who were divided, with Thatcher and her supporters opposed to further European integration. The article called Delors the Froggie Common Market chief, Delors has a longstanding interest in education. In 1994, members of the French Socialist Party attempted to persuade Delors to run for President of France, polls showed that he would have a very good chance of defeating either of the main conservative contenders – Prime Minister Édouard Balladur and Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac. However Delors declined to run and the eventual Socialist nominee, Lionel Jospin, was defeated in the 1995 presidential election by Chirac. In 1995 he won the Charles V Prize, awarded by the Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste Delors founded the Paris-based, centre-left think tank Notre Europe in 1996 and remains one of its presidents. He is president of the Conseil de lemploi, des revenus et de la cohésion sociale, on 15 September 2010 Delors supported the new initiative Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union. Other prominent supporters include Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Sylvie Goulard, Andrew Duff, in 2010, Delors was the first to be honored with the Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award. In 1990 he received the Freedom medal, Delors is the father of Socialist politician Martine Aubry. In 2012, Delors stated in the Handelsblatt newspaper that If the British cannot support the trend towards integration in Europe, we can nevertheless remain friends
27.
Gaston Thorn
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Gaston Egmond Thorn was a Luxembourg politician who served in a number of high-profile positions, both domestically and internationally. Amongst the posts that he held were the 20th Prime Minister of Luxembourg, President of the United Nations General Assembly, Thorn was born in Luxembourg City. His early childhood however was spent in Strasbourg where his father worked for the French railways, at the outbreak of World War II the family returned to Luxembourg. While still at school he engaged in activities during the German occupation. After the war he studied medicine in Montpellier, then switched to law, and continued his studies in Lausanne and Paris. In 1957 he married Liliane Petit, a journalist and he entered politics in 1959, representing the liberal Democratic Party. He was a member of the European Parliament from 1959 –1969 and he was Chairman of the Democratic Party from 1962 to 1969. From 1961 to 1963 he was one of the aldermen of the City of Luxembourg, Thorn was Foreign Minister and Foreign Trade Minister of Luxembourg from 1969 –1980, Prime Minister from 1974 –1979 and Minister of Economics from 1977 to 1980. He was also President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1975 –1976 for its 30th session, as Prime Minister from 1974-1979 he presided over a socialist-liberal coalition, between his own Democratic Party and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party. This was the first Luxembourg government since World War II that did not involve the dominant Christian Social Peoples Party, interestingly, he was the head of government even though his party had fewer seats in the legislature than their coalition partner. In 1980 Thorn was chosen as President of the Commission of the European Communities and he took office on 12 January 1981. His presidency was marked by several difficulties and it coincided with a time of economic and political crisis, of Eurosclerosis, inside the European Community. This was in addition to the international recession, and occasional threats of trade wars. This all combined to put the aspirations of Thorn and other supporters of European integration on hold, however, as EC President, Thorn did manage to reach agreement on a common fisheries policy, and laid the basis for Greece, Portugal and Spain joining the European Community. In this Thorn laid the groundwork for his successor Jacques Delors, after leaving the Commission Presidency in 1985, Thorn went into business. He was chairman of Luxembourgs largest media company CLT, and president of the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg from 1985 to 1999 and he was also president of the Liberal International, a grouping of liberal political parties, and is now this organisations President of Honour. He was married to Liliane Thorn-Petit, a journalist, with whom he had one son
28.
Roy Jenkins
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Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, OM, PC was a British Labour Party, SDP and Liberal Democrat politician, and biographer of British political leaders. The son of a Welsh trade unionist, Roy Jenkins was educated at Oxford University, elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in Harold Wilsons First Government. As Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1967–1970, he pursued a tight fiscal policy, on 8 July 1970, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, but resigned in 1972 because he supported entry to the Common Market, while the party opposed it. In 1981, dismayed with the Labour Partys leftward swing under Michael Foot, in 1987, Jenkins was elected to succeed Harold Macmillan as Chancellor of the University of Oxford following the latters death, he held this position until his death. A few months after becoming Chancellor, Jenkins was defeated in his Hillhead constituency by the Labour candidate, Jenkins accepted a life peerage and sat as a Liberal Democrat. In the late 1990s, he was an adviser to Tony Blair, Roy Jenkins died in 2003, aged 82. In addition to his career, he was also a noted historian. His A Life at the Centre is regarded as one of the best autobiographies of the later 20th century, born in Abersychan, Monmouthshire, in south-eastern Wales, as an only child, Roy Jenkins was the son of a National Union of Mineworkers official, Arthur Jenkins. His father was imprisoned during the 1926 General Strike for his involvement in disturbances. Roy Jenkins mother, Hattie Harris, was the daughter of a steelworks manager and his university colleagues included Tony Crosland, Denis Healey, and Edward Heath, and he became friends with all three, although he was never particularly close to Healey. During the Second World War, Jenkins served with the Royal Artillery and then as a Bletchley Park codebreaker, reaching the rank of captain. Having failed to win Solihull in 1945, he was elected to the House of Commons in a 1948 by-election as the Member of Parliament for Southwark Central, becoming the Baby of the House. His constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 1950 general election and he won the seat and represented the constituency until 1977. Like Healey and Crosland, he had been a friend of Hugh Gaitskell and for them Gaitskells death. After the 1964 general election Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation and was sworn of the Privy Council, while at Aviation he oversaw the high-profile cancellations of the BAC TSR-2 and Concorde projects. In January 1965 Patrick Gordon Walker resigned as Foreign Secretary and in the ensuing reshuffle Wilson offered Jenkins the Department for Education and Science and he declined it, preferring to stay at Aviation. In the summer of 1965 Jenkins eagerly accepted an offer to replace Frank Soskice as Home Secretary, however Wilson, dismayed by a sudden bout of press speculation about the potential move, delayed Jenkins appointment until December. Once Jenkins took office – the youngest Home Secretary since Churchill – he immediately set about reforming the operation and organisation of the Home Office, the Principal Private Secretary, Head of the Press and Publicity Department and Permanent Under-Secretary were all replaced
29.
Sicco Mansholt
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Sicco Leendert Mansholt was a Dutch politician, recognised as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A member of the Labour Party, Mansholt was a farmer who entered politics in the late 1930s, during World War II, when the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany, he was involved in the Dutch Resistance and witnessed the Dutch famine of 1944. After the war, he was offered a portfolio as Minister of Agriculture, Fishing. He later became European Commissioner for Agriculture, and fourth President of the European Commission and he was one of the architects of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. Sicco Leendert Mansholt was born on 13 September 1908 in Ulrum, Groningen, Mansholt came from a socialist farmers family in the Dutch province of Groningen. Both his father and grandfather were supporters of early socialist leaders such as Multatuli, Domela Nieuwenhuis and his father, Lambertus H. Mansholt, was a delegate for the socialist SDAP party in the Groningen provincial chamber. His mother, Wabien Andreae, daughter of a judge in Heerenveen, was one of the first women to have studied Political Science and she organised political meetings for other women, usually in their own homes. Together with two brothers and two sisters, Mansholt was raised at Huis ter Aa, a villa in Glimmen. He attended the HBS-school in Groningen and after went to Deventer, to the School of Tropical Agriculture. He moved to Java in the Dutch East Indies, nowadays Indonesia and he returned to the Netherlands in 1936, unhappy with the colonial system. He wanted to become a farmer and moved to the Wieringermeer, there he started his own farm. He married Henny J. Postel in 1938, and they had two sons and two daughters, in the years of the Second World War he was an active member of the Resistance. He helped people who were in danger to hide in the Wieringermeerpolder. Mansholt became a member of the Social Democratic Workers Party in 1937 and he had several public functions for the SDAP in Wieringermeer, including that of acting mayor of the Wieringermeer community. Immediately after the war, in June 1945, socialist Labour Party Prime Minister Schermerhorn asked him to take a seat in his cabinet as minister of Agriculture, Fishery and he was the youngest member of a cabinet, aged only 36. He was a member of 6 cabinets in total, Schermerhorn-Drees in 1945, Beel in 1946, Drees-Van Schaik in 1948, as Minister of Agriculture during this time, he was one of the key architects of the ECs Common Agricultural Policy. In 1958, he one of the Commissioners of the new European Commission. He was Commissioner for Agriculture and vice-president of the institution and he became President of the European Commission on 22 March 1972 and continued in that position until 5 January 1973
30.
Franco Maria Malfatti
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Franco Maria Malfatti di Monte Tretto, was an Italian politician and President of the European Commission. A descendant of Philip IV of France and wife Joan I of Navarre and he was an important member of the governing council of Democrazia Cristiana in which he became chief of political bureau, and covered several institutional charges. In Democrazia Cristiana, he was a member of Dossettis lobby, together with Amintore Fanfani, Aldo Moro, in 1951 he was elected national representative for young members, in 1958 he was elected deputy for the district of Rieti and Umbria. He served as minister for Foreign Affairs, Finance, Instruction, Industry, State trades and he was also the third President of the European Commission from 1970 to 1972. The Malfatti Commission began as the process was relaunched, the EC adopting a financial framework. There was also the beginnings of cooperation, monetary cooperation and of enlargement as talks opened with Denmark, Ireland, Norway. He resigned from this post in 1972 to run for office in Italy, in the 1980s he was chief of the Italian delegation in the European Parliament. Politically close to Aldo Moros lobby, Malfatti was among the participants in Bilderberg meetings
31.
Jean Rey (politician)
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Jean Rey was a Belgian lawyer and Liberal politician who became the second President of the European Commission. The 1983–1984 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour, born in Liège in a Protestant family, he studied law at the University of Liège, where he obtained a PhD in 1926. He began his career as a barrister at the Court of Appeal in Liège and his commitment to the Walloon Movement drew him into politics. He joined the Liberal party and was elected city councillor of Liège in 1935, in 1939, he won a seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. In the wake of World War II, he was one of the most vocal opponents of the policy of independence of the Belgian government, as early as 1947 he promoted, together with five other members of Parliament, a bill on the organisation of a federal state. If passed, the new Constitution would have transformed Belgium into a Confederation consisting of two States, Flanders and Wallonia, and the region of Brussels. However, a majority in the Belgian Parliament refused to take the proposal into consideration, Rey was Minister of Reconstruction from 1949 until 1950, and Minister of Economy from 1954 until 1958. Member of the Commission of the CEE from 1958 until 1967, responsible for external relations, in 1967, he succeeded Walter Hallstein as President of the European Commission. Still a convinced federalist, he undertook to reinforce the Community institutions and he won increased powers for the European Parliament and advocated its election by universal suffrage. During his presidency, he oversaw the completion of the customs union and it was also at The Hague that France gave up its resistance against the accession of the United Kingdom to the EEC. Finally, in 1970, the last year of this mandate, from 1964 until 1974, Rey was chairman of the board of the College of Europe in Brugge. He presided the over European Movement from 1974 to 1978 and was member of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, in 1979, he became member of the first European Parliament elected by universal suffrage. Jean Rey also remained active in Belgian politics and he became the éminence grise of the French-speaking liberals who broke away from the unitary Party for Freedom and Progress to form the Parti Réformateur et Libéral Wallon in 1976. Jean Rey died in his native city Liège, in the European Quarter of Brussels, there is now a square named after him. Jean Rey Address given by Jean Rey on the merger of the executive bodies
32.
Treaty of Rome
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It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany and came into force on 1 January 1958. It remains one of the two most important treaties in the modern-day European Union, the TEEC proposed the progressive reduction of customs duties and the establishment of a customs union. It proposed to create a market for goods, labour, services. It also proposed the creation of a Common Agriculture Policy, a Common Transport Policy and a European Social Fund, the treatys name has been retrospectively amended on several occasions since 1957. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 removed the word economic from the Treaty of Romes official title and, in 2009, in 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community. The Treaty of Paris was a treaty based on international law, designed to help reconstruct the economies of the European continent, prevent war in Europe. The original idea was conceived by Jean Monnet, a senior French civil servant and it was announced by Robert Schuman, the aim was to pool Franco-West German coal and steel production, because the two raw materials were the basis of the industry and power of the two countries. The underlying political objective of the European Coal and Steel Community was to strengthen Franco-German cooperation, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands began negotiating the treaty. The Treaty Establishing the ECSC was signed in Paris on 18 April 1951, the Treaty expired on 23 July 2002, after fifty years, as was foreseen. The common market opened on 10 February 1953 for coal, iron ore and scrap, partly in the aim of creating a United States of Europe, two further Communities were proposed, again by the French. A European Defence Community and a European Political Community, while the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the EDC was rejected by the French Parliament. As a result of the crises, the Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the ECSC to cover other sources of energy. However, Monnet desired a separate Community to cover nuclear power, the report concluded that further nuclear development was needed, in order to fill the deficit left by the exhaustion of coal deposits and to reduce dependence on oil producers. In the end, Monnet proposed creating both as separate Communities to attempt to satisfy all interests, the report formed the cornerstone of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956. The outcome of the conference was that the new Communities would share the Common Assembly with the ECSC, however, they would not share the ECSCs Council of High Authority. The two new High Authorities would be called Commissions, from a reduction in their powers, Euratom fostered co-operation in the nuclear field, at the time a very popular area, and the European Economic Community was to create a full customs union between members. The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Treaty of Rome, the original full name of which was the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community has been amended by successive treaties significantly changing its content. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht established the European Union, the EEC becoming one of its three pillars, the European Community, hence, the treaty was renamed the Treaty establishing the European Community
33.
European Atomic Energy Community
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It is legally distinct from the European Union, but has the same membership, and is governed by many of the EUs institutions. Since 2014, Switzerland has also participated in Euratom programmes as an associated state, currently, its main focus is on the construction of the International Fusion Reactor ITER financed under the nuclear part of FP7. Euratom also provides a mechanism for providing loans to finance projects in the EU. It was established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 alongside the European Economic Community, the Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the European Coal and Steel Community to cover other sources of energy. However, Jean Monnet, ECSC architect and President, wanted a community to cover nuclear power. In the end, Monnet proposed the creation of separate atomic energy, the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956 drew up the essentials of the new treaties. Euratom would have its own Council and Commission, with fewer powers than the High Authority of the European Coal, on 25 March 1957, the Treaties of Rome were signed by the ECSC members and on 1 January 1958 they came into force. To save on resources, these separate executives created by the Rome Treaties were merged in 1965 by the Merger Treaty, in 1993, the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union, which absorbed the Communities into the European Community pillar, yet Euratom still maintained a distinct legal personality. The European Constitution was intended to consolidate all previous treaties and increase democratic accountability in them, the Euratom treaty had not been amended as the other treaties had, so the European Parliament had been granted few powers over it. The Euratom treaty thus remains in force relatively unamended from its original signing, as of 2016, EAEC had co-operation agreements of various scopes with eight countries, U. S. Japan, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and South Africa. The United Kingdom announced its intention to withdraw from the EAEC on 26 January 2017, formal notice to withdraw from the EAEC was provided in March 2017. Withdrawal will only become effective following negotiations on the terms of the exit, which are scheduled to last two years
34.
Hallstein Commission
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The Hallstein Commission is the European Commission that held office from 7 January 1958 to 30 June 1967. Its President was Walter Hallstein and held two separate mandates and it was the first Commission on the European Economic Community and held its first formal meeting on 16 January 1958 at the Château of Val-Duchesse. It was succeeded by the Rey Commission and it served two terms and had 9 members. It began work on the European single market and the Common Agricultural Policy, the Commission enjoyed a number of successes, such as the cereal prices accord which it managed to achieve in the wake of de Gaulles veto of Britains membership. De Gaulle was an opponent to the Commission, and proposals such as the cereal prices accord were designed to bind France closer to the EEC to make it harder to break it up. Its work gained it esteem and prestige not only from the member states, in 1965 president Hallstein put forward the Commissions proposals for financing the Common Agricultural Policy. The proposals would have allowed the Community to develop its own resources, independently of the states. Furthermore, though, it applied the majority voting into the Council, Hallstein knew of the risky nature of the proposals and was unusually active in drafting them. The tone of internal deliberations at the time show the institution was aware of what they would cause. However, they were seen as vital for the Commissions long-term goals. The legislation would not only the Commissions powers, but also the Parliaments in an attempt to build a supranational structure. Because of this president Hallstein won support from the Parliament who had long been campaigning for more powers, indeed, Hallstein played to the Parliament by presenting his policy to the Parliament on 24 March, a week before he presented them to the Council. However, in this it proved that, despite its past successes, when Hallstein put forward his proposals, the Council was already troubled. Then-French President, Charles de Gaulle, was sceptical of the supranational power of the Commission. This, and similar differences between France and the Commission, were exacerbated when France took on the Presidency, thereby losing the normal system of mediation. Furthermore, the Commission became marginalised as the debate became one between France and the members, making the Council the centre of debate. Thus any chance of using the expertise of the Commission to come up with proposals was lost, finally on 30 June 1965 Paris recalled its representative in Brussels stating it would not take its seat in the Council until it had its way. This empty chair crisis was the first time that the operation of the EEC had failed because of a member state, Paris continued its policy for six months until the impact upon its economy forced it back into negotiations
35.
European Court of Justice
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The European Court of Justice, officially just the Court of Justice, is the highest court in the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union it is tasked with interpreting EU law, the Court was established in 1952 and is based in Luxembourg. It is composed of one judge per member state – currently 28 – although it normally hears cases in panels of three, five or 15 judges, the court has been led by president Koen Lenaerts since 2015. The court was established in 1952, by the Treaty of Paris as part of the European Coal and it was established with seven judges, allowing both representation of each of the six member States and being an unequal number of judges in case of a tie. One judge was appointed from each state and the seventh seat rotated between the large Member States. The Maastricht Treaty was ratified in 1993, and created the European Union, the name of the Court did not change unlike the other institutions. The power of the Court resided in the Community pillar, the Court gained power in 1997 with the signing of the Amsterdam Treaty. Issues from the pillar were transferred to the first pillar. Previously, these issues were settled between the member states, the ECJ is the highest court of the European Union in matters of Union law, but not national law. It is not possible to appeal the decisions of courts to the ECJ. However, it is ultimately for the court to apply the resulting interpretation to the facts of any given case. Although, only courts of appeal are bound to refer a question of EU law when one is addressed. The treaties give the ECJ the power for consistent application of EU law across the EU as a whole, the court also acts as arbiter between the EUs institutions and can annul the latters legal rights if it acts outside its powers. The judicial body is now undergoing strong growth, as witnessed by its continually rising caseload, the Luxembourg courts received more than 1,300 cases when the most recent data was recorded in 2008, a record. The staff budget also hit a new high of almost €238 million in 2009, the Court of Justice consists of 28 Judges who are assisted by 11 Advocates-General. The Judges and Advocates-General are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states, 37% of judges had experience of judging appeals before they joined the ECJ. In practice, each member state nominates a judge whose nomination is then ratified by all the member states. The President of the Court of Justice is elected from and by the judges for a term of three years
36.
Common Agricultural Policy
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The Common Agricultural Policy is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has several changes since then to reduce the cost. It has been criticised on the grounds of its cost, and its environmental, the circumstance that led to the development of the CAP occurred in the late 1950s to late 1960s. At the time, there was no example of a successful agricultural integration in Europe, however, two main factors contributed to its creation of this policy. ”Thus, leading to the creation of article 39 in a set of five social and economic objectives.9. As part of building a market, tariffs on agricultural products would have to be removed. However, the clout of farmers and the sensitivity of the issue made it take many years before the CAP was fully implemented. The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, established the Common Market and it also defined the general objectives of a CAP. The principles of the CAP were set out at the Stresa Conference in July 1958, the creation of a common agricultural policy was proposed in 1960 by the European Commission, and the CAP mechanisms were adopted by the six founding Member States. In 1962, the CAP came into force, the six member states individually strongly intervened in their agricultural sectors, in particular with regard to what was produced, maintaining prices for goods and how farming was organised. The intervention posed an obstacle to trade in goods while the rules continued to differ from state to state since freedom of trade would interfere with the intervention policies. Some members, particularly France, and all farming professional organisations wanted to maintain strong state intervention in agriculture and that could not only be achieved unless policies were harmonised and transferred to the European Community level. By 1962, three major principles had been established to guide the CAP, market unity, community preference, since then, the CAP has been a central element in the European institutional system. Germany is still the largest net contributor into the EU budget, however, as of 2005, France is also a net contributor while the more agriculture-focused Spain, Greece, and Portugal are the biggest beneficiaries. Transitional rules apply to the newly admitted states, which limit the subsidies that they currently receive. The CAP has always been an area of EU policy to reform, it is a problem that began in the 1960s and one that has continued to the present. Changes to the CAP are proposed by the European Commission, after a public consultation, both the Council and the European Parliament have to agree to any changes. The Parliament was involved in the process of change for the first time in 2013, the involvement of the Parliament, which represents the citizens, increases the democratic legitimacy of the CAP
37.
Mansholt Commission
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The Mansholt Commission is the European Commission that held office from 22 March 1972 to 5 January 1973. It was the successor to the Malfatti Commission and was succeeded by the Ortoli Commission and it oversaw the creation of the European Monetary System on 24 April 1972 and the first enlargement on 1 January 1973. The colour of the row indicates the approximate political leaning of the holder using the following scheme
38.
President of France
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The President of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of the French Fifth Republic. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister, the current President of France is François Hollande, who took office on 15 May 2012. Hollande has announced that he stand down in the upcoming 2017 French presidential election. President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, at that time, there was no limit on the number of terms, so Chirac could have run again, but chose not to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007, following a further change, the Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic,2008, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a two terms. In order to be admitted as a candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials. These officials must be from at least 30 départements or overseas collectivities, furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate. There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors, spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending, at approximately 20 million euros, if the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden but official time is given to candidates on public TV, an independent agency regulates election and party financing. After the president is elected, he or she goes through an investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs. The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system, unlike many other European presidents, the French President is quite powerful. The president holds the nations most senior office, and outranks all other politicians, the presidents greatest power is his/her ability to choose the prime minister. When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, when the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the choice of the President. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower, among the powers of the government, The president promulgates laws
39.
Charles de Gaulle
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, in 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era, born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was an officer of the First World War, wounded several times. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions, during the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division which counterattacked the invaders, he was then appointed Under-Secretary for War. Refusing to accept his governments armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and he led a government in exile and the Free French Forces against the Axis. Despite frosty relations with Britain and especially the United States, he emerged as the leader of the French resistance. He became Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, frustrated by the return of petty partisanship in the new Fourth Republic, he resigned in early 1946 but continued to be politically active as founder of the RPF party. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, when the Algerian War was ripping apart the unstable Fourth Republic, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a presidency. He granted independence to Algeria and progressively to other French colonies and he restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations, De Gaulle openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his later years, his support for an independent Quebec, De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization. He died a year later at his residence in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, leaving his Presidential memoirs unfinished, many French political parties and figures claim the Gaullist legacy. De Gaulle was ranked as Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps, De Gaulle was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord departement, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic and traditional family and his father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college who eventually founded his own school. Henri de Gaulle came from a line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy. De Gaulles mother, Jeanne, descended from a family of entrepreneurs from Lille
40.
Head of state
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A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discuss states and governments in terms of models. An independent nation state normally has a head of state, the non-executive model, in which the head of state has either none or very limited executive powers, and mainly has a ceremonial and symbolic role. In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature and it also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system, usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament. For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, the Statuto Albertino—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, so, Italy had a de facto parliamentarian system, but a de jure presidential system. These officials are excluded completely from the executive, they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, hence their states governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of His/Her Majestys Government or His/Her Excellencys Government. Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist, the constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister and responsible to the Diet. The emperor is defined in the constitution as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people and he is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan. Today, the Speaker of the Riksdag appoints the prime minister, Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. In contrast, the contact the President of Ireland has with the Irish government is through a formal briefing session given by the taoiseach to the president. However, he or she has no access to documentation and all access to ministers goes through the Department of the Taoiseach. The president does, however, hold limited reserve powers, such as referring a bill to the court to test its constitutionality. The most extreme non-executive republican Head of State is the President of Israel, semi-presidential systems combine features of presidential and parliamentary systems, notably a requirement that the government be answerable to both the president and the legislature. The constitution of the Fifth French Republic provides for a minister who is chosen by the president
41.
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union
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The Economic and Monetary Union is an umbrella term for the group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages. The policies cover the 19 eurozone states, as well as non-euro European Union states, each stage of the EMU consists of progressively closer economic integration. Only once a state participates in the stage it is permitted to adopt the euro as its official currency. As such, the stage is largely synonymous with the eurozone. The euro convergence criteria are the set of requirements that needs to be fulfilled in order for a country to join the eurozone, nineteen EU member states, including most recently Lithuania, have entered the third stage and have adopted the euro as their currency. All new EU member states must commit to participate in the stage in their treaties of accession. Only Denmark and the United Kingdom, whose EU membership predates the introduction of the euro, have legal opt outs from the EU Treaties granting them an exemption from this obligation. The remaining seven non-euro member states are obliged to enter the stage once they comply with all convergence criteria. The idea of an economic and monetary union in Europe was first raised well before establishing the European Communities, for example, the Latin Monetary Union existed from 1865-1927. The project experienced serious setbacks from the crises arising from the non-convertibility of the US dollar into gold in August 1971, an attempt to limit the fluctations of European currencies, using a snake in the tunnel, failed. This way of working was derived from the Spaak method, the treaty enters into force on the 1 November 1993. On 16 December 1995, details such as the name of the new currency as well as the duration of the periods are decided. On 3 May 1998, at the European Council in Brussels, on 1 June 1998, the European Central Bank is created, and on 31 December 1998, the conversion rates between the 11 participating national currencies and the euro are established. From the start of 1999, the euro is now a real currency, a three-year transition period begins before the introduction of actual euro notes and coins, but legally the national currencies have already ceased to exist. On 1 January 2001, Greece joins the stage of the EMU. On 1 January 2002, the notes and coins are introduced. On 1 January 2007, Slovenia joins the stage of the EMU. On 1 January 2008, Cyprus and Malta join the stage of the EMU
42.
Group of Eight
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The G8 is an inter-governmental political forum of the world′s major highly industrialized economies in countries that view themselves as democracies. The summit came to be known as the Group of Seven, or G7, Russia was added to the political forum from 1997, which the following year became known as the G8. In March 2014 Russia was suspended following the annexation of Crimea, however, the European Union is represented at the G8 since the 1980s as a nonenumerated participant, but originally could not host or chair summits. The 40th summit was the first time the European Union was able to host, collectively, in 2012 the G8 nations comprised 50.1 percent of 2012 global nominal GDP and 40.9 percent of global GDP. G7 can refer to the states in aggregate or to the annual summit meeting of the G7 heads of government. The former term, G6, is now applied to the six most populous countries within the European Union. G7 ministers also meet throughout the year, such as the G7 finance ministers, G7 foreign ministers, or G7 environment ministers. Each calendar year the responsibility of hosting the G8 is rotated through the states in the following order, France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy. The holder of the sets the agenda, hosts the summit for that year. Nevertheless, the G7/G8 retains its relevance as a group for the West. The concept of a forum for the major industrialized countries emerged prior to the 1973 oil crisis. When running the idea past President Nixon, he noted that he would be out of town and offered use of the White House, taking their name from the setting, this original group of four became known as the Library Group. In mid-1973, at the World Bank-IMF meetings, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan to the four nations. The informal gathering of senior officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan. Presidents, moreover, Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau was forced into an early election, of the members of the Group of Five, all were new to the job with the exception of Pierre Trudeau. S. President Gerald Ford could get together in a retreat and discuss election results. Until the 1985 Plaza Accord no one outside a tight official circle knew when the seven finance ministers met, the summit was announced the day before and a communiqué was issued afterwards. Following 1994s G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held meetings with leaders of the G7 after the groups summits
43.
1973 oil crisis
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The 1973 oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo occurred in response to United States support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, by the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12 globally, US prices were significantly higher. The embargo caused an oil crisis, or shock, with many short- and long-term effects on global politics and it was later called the first oil shock, followed by the 1979 oil crisis, termed the second oil shock. The embargo was a response to American involvement in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, six days after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise military campaign against Israel, the US supplied Israel with arms. In response to this, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries announced an oil embargo against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the crisis had a major impact on international relations and created a rift within NATO. Some European nations and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from United States foreign policy in the Middle East to avoid being targeted by the boycott, Arab oil producers linked any future policy changes to peace between the belligerents. To address this, the Nixon Administration began multilateral negotiations with the combatants and they arranged for Israel to pull back from the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. By January 18,1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai Peninsula, the promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was enough to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974. The embargo occurred at a time of rising petroleum consumption by industrialized countries and coincided with an increase in oil imports by the worlds largest oil consumer. In the aftermath, targeted countries initiated a variety of policies to contain their future dependency. The 1973 oil price shock, with the accompanying 1973–74 stock market crash, was regarded as the first discrete event since the Great Depression to have a persistent effect on the US economy, the embargos success demonstrated Saudi Arabias diplomatic and economic power. It was the largest oil exporter and a politically and religiously conservative kingdom, in 1970, US oil production started to decline, exacerbating the embargos impact. Following this, Nixon named James E. Akins as US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia to audit US production capacity, the confidential results were alarming—no spare capacity was available and production could only decrease. The oil embargo had little effect on supply, according to Akins. OPEC was organized to resist pressure by the Seven Sisters to reduce oil prices, at first, OPEC operated as an informal bargaining unit for resource-rich third-world countries. OPEC confined its activities to gaining a share of the profits generated by oil companies. In the early 1970s it began to exert economic and political strength, on August 15,1971, the United States unilaterally pulled out of the Bretton Woods Accord. The US abandoned the Gold Exchange Standard whereby the value of the dollar had been pegged to the price of gold and all other currencies were pegged to the dollar, shortly thereafter, Britain followed, floating the pound sterling
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France
Belgium
Italy
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West Germany
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Netherlands
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Spain
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Portugal
