1.
Schengen Area
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The Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and any other type of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a country for international travel purposes. The area is named after the Schengen Agreement, States in the Schengen Area have eliminated border controls with other Schengen members and strengthened border controls with non-Schengen countries. Twenty-two of the twenty-eight European Union member states participate in the Schengen Area, three European microstates – Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City – can be considered de facto participants. The Schengen Area has a population of over 400 million people, as a result of the migration crisis ongoing as of early 2017, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden temporarily imposed controls on some or all of their borders with other Schengen states. Following the November 2015 Paris attacks and subsequent attacks in France, France declared a state of emergency, the Schengen Agreement was signed on 14 June 1985 by five of the ten EEC member states in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg. The Schengen Area was established separately from the European Economic Community, in 1990 the Agreement was supplemented by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy. The Agreements and the rules adopted under them were separate from the EC structures. As more EU member states signed the Schengen Agreement, consensus was reached on absorbing it into the procedures of the EU, the Agreement and its related conventions were incorporated into the mainstream of European Union law by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, which came into effect in 1999. A consequence of the Agreement being part of European law is that any amendment and regulation is made within its processes, in which the non-EU members are not participants. The UK and Ireland have maintained a Common Travel Area since 1923, but beyond this the UK could not accept abolishing border controls, and were given a full opt-out from the area. While not signing the Schengen Treaty, Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining but has not done so to maintain the CTA, the Nordic members required Norway and Iceland to be included, which was accepted, and so a consensus could be reached. The Schengen Area consists of 26 states, including four which are not members of the European Union, two of the non-EU members, Iceland and Norway, are part of the Nordic Passport Union and are officially classified as states associated with the Schengen activities of the EU. Switzerland was subsequently allowed to participate in the manner in 2008. Liechtenstein joined the Schengen Area on 19 December 2011, de facto, the Schengen Area also includes three European micro-states – Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City – that maintain open or semi-open borders with other Schengen member countries. Two EU members – Ireland and the United Kingdom – negotiated opt-outs from Schengen, the remaining four EU member states – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are obliged to eventually join the Schengen Area. However, before implementing the Schengen rules, each state must have its preparedness assessed in four areas, air borders, visas, police cooperation. This evaluation process involves a questionnaire and visits by EU experts to selected institutions, the only land borders with border controls between EU/EEA members, are those of Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, and the one at Gibraltar and those at the Channel Tunnel
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Schengen, Luxembourg
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Other villages within the commune include Remerschen and Wintrange. After the mergers with Burmerange and Wellenstein in 2011, the commune has a population of 4,223 with an area of 31.42 square kilometres, the largest settlement within the commune of Schengen is Remerschen after which the commune used to be named. The name of the commune was changed in 2006 to take advantage of the Schengens name recognition after the signing of the Schengen Agreement there in 1985, Schengen Castle dates from 1390 but was almost completely rebuilt in the 19th century. It is now a hotel and conference centre, the European Museum was opened on 13 June 2010,25 years after the signing of the Schengen Treaty, in the Centre européen building. The signing of the Agreement is documented with photos and video. Media related to Schengen, Luxembourg at Wikimedia Commons Schengen-Tourist
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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
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
6.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
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Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
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European Economic Community
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The European Economic Community was a regional organisation which aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, upon the formation of the European Union in 1993, the EEC was incorporated and renamed as the European Community. In 2009 the ECs institutions were absorbed into the EUs wider framework and it gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty. In 1993, a single market was achieved, known as the internal market, which allowed for the free movement of goods, capital, services. In 1994, the market was formalised by the EEA agreement. This agreement also extended the market to include most of the member states of the European Free Trade Association. Upon the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 and this was also when the three European Communities, including the EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars of the European Union, which the treaty also founded. The EEC was also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking countries and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was renamed as such in 1993. In 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and this was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members. In the aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed, 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, after the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union. The so-called Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee formed the cornerstone of the negotiations at Val Duchesse castle in 1956. Together with the Ohlin Report the Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome, in 1956, Paul Henri Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse castle, which prepared for the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, the resulting communities were the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. These were markedly less supranational than the communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed. The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission, was held on 16 January 1958 at the Chateau de Val-Duchesse, the EEC was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the nuclear power sphere. The EEC rapidly became the most important of these and expanded its activities, one of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs were removed on certain products, another crisis was triggered in regard to proposals for the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy, which came into force in 1962
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Visa policy of the Schengen Area
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The visa policy of the Schengen Area is set by the European Union and applies to the Schengen Area and to other EU member states without the opt-outs enjoyed by Ireland and the UK. The Schengen Area consists of 22 European Union member states and four non-members who are members of EFTA, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania are not yet part of the Schengen Area but, Ireland and the United Kingdom opt out of the EUs visa policies and instead operate their own separate visa policies, as do certain overseas territories of EEA member states. European Union citizens and European Free Trade Association nationals are not only visa-exempt but are legally entitled to enter and their right to freedom of movement in each others countries can, however, be limited in a reserved number of situations, as prescribed by the European Union Treaties. Switzerland, which is a member of EFTA but not of the EEA, is not bound by the Directive but rather has a separate bilateral agreement on the free movement with the EU. If the person has obtained permanent residence in the country where they seek entry, where the person has resided for 10 years or is a minor, the member state can only expel them on imperative grounds of public security. Expulsion on public health grounds must relate to diseases with epidemic potential which have occurred less than 3 months from the date of arrival in the Member State where they seek entry. As from the 6 April 2015, the UK recognizes this document, the two lists are also adopted by Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania, even though the four countries are not yet part of the Schengen Area. Agreement between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is pending ratification but is applied on provisional basis, notes ^ Poland has suspended the border traffic agreements with Russia indefinitely from 4 July 2016. Recent EU visa waiver bilateral agreements are exempting holders of passports from a visa requirement. States may still maintain a different policy on these, denmark, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and only diplomatic passports of Kazakhstan, Tunisia and Ukraine. Estonia, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Morocco, Philippines, Turkey, Ukraine and only diplomatic passports of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand, Tunisia and Vietnam. Finland, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and only diplomatic passports of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Tunisia, latvia, Armenia, Cape Verde, Mongolia, Turkey, Ukraine and only diplomatic passports of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Lithuania, Cape Verde, Indonesia, Oman, Philippines, Turkey, Ukraine and only diplomatic passports of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, India, Kazakhstan and Morocco. Sweden, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and only diplomatic passports of Armenia, Azerbaijan, India, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine. Cyprus, Armenia, Cape Verde, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mongolia, Russia, Syria, Ukraine and only diplomatic passports of Azerbaijan, other Schengen Area, Iceland, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey. Norway, Bolivia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and only diplomatic passports of Armenia, Azerbaijan, India, Ukraine and Tunisia. This determines the State responsible for deciding on the Schengen visa application and therefore the embassy, if the main destination cannot be determined, the traveller should file the visa application at the embassy, high commission or consulate of the Schengen country of first entry
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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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
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Amsterdam Treaty
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Following the formal signing of the Treaty on 2 October 1997, the Member States engaged in an equally long and complex ratification process. The European Parliament endorsed the treaty on 19 November 1997, the treaty of Amsterdam comprises 13 Protocols,51 Declarations adopted by the Conference, and 8 Declarations by Member States, plus amendments to the existing Treaties set out in 15 Articles. Article 1 amends the provisions of the Treaty on European Union and covers the CFSP and cooperation in criminal. The next four Articles amend the EC Treaty, the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty, the Euratom Treaty, the final provisions contain four Articles. The new Treaty also set out to simplify the Community Treaties, deleting more than 56 obsolete articles, by way of example, Article 189b on the codecision procedure became Article 251. The most pressing concerns of ordinary Europeans, such as their legal and personal security, immigration, in particular, the EU became responsible for legislating on immigration, civil law or civil procedure, insofar as this is necessary for the free movement of persons within the EU. At the same time, intergovernmental co-operation was intensified in the police, the Union aims to establish an area of freedom, security and justice for its citizens. The Schengen Agreements have now incorporated into the legal system of the EU. The European Council will lay down common strategies, which then be put into effect by the Council acting by a qualified majority. In other cases, some Member States may choose to abstain constructively and these provisions make the Commission more politically accountable, particularly vis-à-vis the European Parliament. Finally, the new Treaty enables, under strict conditions. The Amsterdam Treaty did not settle all institutional questions, work was still in progress on reforming the institutions to make them capable of operating effectively and democratically in a much enlarged EU. The most pressing issues were the composition of the Commission and the weighting of Member States votes upon qualified majority voting and these questions were addressed in the Treaty of Lisbon
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Opt-outs in the European Union
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In general, the law of the European Union is valid in all of the twenty-eight European Union member states. However, occasionally member states negotiate certain opt-outs from legislation or treaties of the European Union, currently, four states have such opt-outs, Denmark and United Kingdom, Ireland and Poland. It is further distinct from Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification and permanent acquis suspensions, as of 2015, four states have formal opt-outs from a total of five policy areas. The Schengen Agreement abolished border controls between member states, Ireland only joined the UK in adopting this opt-out to keep their border with Northern Ireland open via the Common Travel Area. The opt-out has been criticised in the United Kingdom for hampering the United Kingdoms capabilities in stopping transnational crime through the inability to access the Schengen Information System. However, the protocol stipulates that if Denmark chooses not to implement future developments of the Schengen acquis, the EU and its member states will consider appropriate measures to be taken. In the negotiations for the Lisbon Treaty, Denmark obtained an option to convert its Area of freedom, security and justice opt-out, into a flexible opt-in modelled on the Irish and British opt-outs. The Protocol stipulates that if Denmark exercises this option, then it will be bound by the Schengen acquis under EU law rather than on an intergovernmental basis, in a referendum on 3 December 2015,53. 1% rejected exercising this option. All member states, other than Denmark and the United Kingdom, have adopted the euro or are legally bound to do so. During the negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 the UK secured an opt-out, while a protocol gave Denmark the right to decide if, the purpose of the agreement was to assist in its approval in a second referendum, which it did. In the UK, the Labour government of Tony Blair argued that the UK should join the euro, contingent on approval in a referendum, however, the assessment of those tests in June 2003 concluded that not all were met. The policy of the 2010s coalition government, elected in 2010, was against introducing the euro prior to the 2015 general election. In 2000 the Danish electorate voted against joining the euro in a referendum by a margin of 53. 2% to 46. 8% on a turnout of 87. 6%. The Edinburgh Agreement of 1992 included a guarantee to Denmark that they would not be obliged to join the Western European Union, additionally, the agreement stipulated that Denmark would not take part in discussions or be bound by decisions of the EU with defence implications. The Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997 included a protocol which formalised this opt-out from the EUs Common Security, as a consequence, Denmark is excluded from foreign policy discussions with defence implications and does not participate in foreign missions with a defence component. After the Civic Platform won the 2007 parliamentary election in Poland, it announced that it would not opt-out from the Charter, shortly after the signature of the treaty, the Polish Sejm passed a resolution which expressed its desire to be able to withdraw from the Protocol. Tusk later clarified that he may sign up to the Charter after successful ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon has taken place. However, after the treaty entered into force a spokesperson for the Polish President argued that the Charter already applied in Poland and he also stated that the government was not actively attempting to withdraw from the protocol
14.
Member state of the European Union
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The European Union comprises 28 member states. Each member state is party to the treaties of the union and thereby subject to the privileges. Unlike members of most international organisations, the states of the EU are subjected to binding laws in exchange for representation within the common legislative. Member states must agree unanimously for the EU to adopt policies concerning defence, subsidiarity is a founding principle of the EU. In 1957, six core states founded the EUs predecessor, the European Economic Community, the remaining states have acceded in subsequent enlargements. On 1 July 2013, Croatia became the newest member state of the EU, Enlargement of the Union is also contingent upon the consent of all existing members and the candidates adoption of the existing body of EU law, known as the acquis communautaire. There is disparity in the size, wealth and political system of member states, while in some areas majority voting takes place where larger states have more votes than smaller ones, smaller states have disproportional representation compared to their population. No member state has withdrawn or been suspended from the EU, in June 2016, the UK held a referendum on membership of the EU, resulting in 51. 89% of votes cast in favour to leaving. Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 on 29 March 2017 to formally initiate the withdrawal process, notes Enlargement is, and has been, a principal feature of the Unions political landscape. The EUs predecessors were founded by the Inner Six, those willing to forge ahead with the Community while others remained skeptical. It was only a decade before the first countries changed their policy and attempted to join the Union, French President Charles de Gaulle feared British membership would be an American Trojan horse and vetoed its application. Applying in 1969 were the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, however, declined to accept the invitation to become a member when the electorate voted against it, leaving just the UK, Ireland and Denmark to join. But despite the setbacks, and the withdrawal of Greenland from Denmarks membership in 1985, in 1987, the geographical extent of the project was tested when Morocco applied, and was rejected as it was not considered a European country. The year 1990 saw the Cold War drawing to a close, meanwhile, the members of the former Eastern Bloc and Yugoslavia were all starting to move towards EU membership. Ten of these joined in an enlargement on 1 May 2004 symbolising the unification of East. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007, the year 2013 saw the latest member, Croatia, accede to the Union, and the EU has prioritised membership for the rest of the Balkans – namely Western Balkans. Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey are all formal, turkish membership, pending since the 1980s, is a more contentious issue but it entered negotiations in 2005. According to the Copenhagen criteria, membership of the European Union is open to any European country that is a stable, free market liberal democracy that respects the rule of law and human rights
15.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%
16.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
17.
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
18.
Moselle
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The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Moselle through the Sauer, the Moselle twists and turns its way between Trier and Koblenz along one of Germanys most beautiful river valleys. It flows through a region that has influenced by mankind since it was first cultivated by the Romans. Today, its hillsides are covered by terraced vineyards where some of the best Rieslings grow, Traben-Trarbach with its art nouveau architecture and Bernkastel-Kues with its traditional market square are two of the many popular tourist attractions on the Moselle river. The name Moselle is derived from the Celtic name form, Moseal, via the Latin Mosella, a form of Mosa, the Latin description of the Meuse. So the Mosella was the Little Meuse, the Moselle is first recorded by Tacitus in Book 13 of his Annals and in Book 4 of his Histories. The Roman poet, Decimius Magnus Ausonius, made it a theme as early as the 4th century. In his poem dated A. D. Ausonius describes flourishing and rich landscapes along the river and in the valley of the Moselle, the river subsequently gave its name to two French republican départements, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle. The source of the Moselle is at 715 metres above sea level on the Col de Bussang on the slopes of the Ballon dAlsace in the Vosges. After 544 kilometres it discharges into the Rhine at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz at a height of 59 metres above NHN. The length of the river in France is 314 kilometres, for 39 kilometres it forms the border between Germany and Luxembourg, and 208 kilometres are solely within Germany, the Moselle flows through the Lorraine region, west of the Vosges. Further downstream, in Germany, the Moselle valley forms the division between the Eifel and Hunsrück mountain regions. The average flow rate of the Moselle at its mouth is 328 m³/s, making it the second largest tributary of the Rhine by volume after the Aare and bigger than the Main and Neckar. The section of the Moselle from the Franco-German-Luxembourg tripoint to its confluence with the Saar near Konz shortly before Trier is in Germany known as the Upper Moselle. The section from Trier to Pünderich is the Middle Moselle, the section between Pünderich and its mouth in Koblenz as the Lower Moselle or Terraced Moselle. Characteristic of the Middle and Lower Moselle are its wide meanders cut deeply into the highlands of the Rhenish Massif, also typical are its vineyard terraces. From the tripoint the Moselle marks the entire Saarland-Luxembourg, the catchment area of the Moselle is 28,286 km² in area
19.
Benelux
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The Benelux Union is a politico-economic union of three neighbouring states in western Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It is now used generally to refer to the geographic, economic. In 1951, these countries joined West Germany, France, and Italy to form the European Coal and Steel Community, the Benelux General Secretariat is located in Brussels. It is the central pillar of the Benelux Union. It handles the secretariat of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Economic Union, a Benelux Parliament was created in 1955. This parliamentary assembly is composed of 21 members of the Dutch parliament,21 members of the Belgian national and regional parliaments, in 1944, exiled representatives of the three countries signed the London Customs Convention, the treaty that established the Benelux Customs Union. Ratified in 1947, the treaty was in force from 1948 until it was superseded by the Benelux Economic Union, under the Treaty the Union implies the co-operation of economic, financial and social policies. The Benelux Union involves an intergovernmental co-operation and they only become legally valid after having been incorporated into national law, with the exception of Belgium. The Belgian court of cassation decided in 1971 that any self-executing treaties have priority over laws by the Belgian parliament, the Treaty establishing the Benelux Union has provided the Committee of Ministers with the following legal instruments, decisions, conventions, recommendations and directives. The Committee of Ministers can promulgate decisions in the fields for which it has competence - those fields are set down in the Union Treaty or the additional conventions. When the Committee of Ministers adopts a decision, it immediately becomes binding on the three governments, for a decision to be also applicable to the citizen, it must be transposed into national law. The Union Treaty is not exhaustive, for this reason, Article 19 of the Treaty provides that the Committee of Ministers may conclude additional conventions. These therefore constitute extensions of the Union Treaty and they are submitted to the national parliaments for approval in keeping with the ratification procedure applied in each of the Member States. Thus there are a number of Benelux conventions in a wide range of subject matters. In 1965, the treaty establishing a Benelux Court of Justice was signed and it entered into force in 1974. The Court, composed of judges from the highest courts of the three States, has to guarantee the uniform interpretation of legal rules. This international judicial institution is located in Brussels, the Benelux is particularly active in the field of intellectual property. The three countries established a Benelux Trademarks Office and a Benelux Designs Office, both situated in The Hague, in 2005, they concluded a treaty establishing a Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property which replaced both offices upon its entry into force on 1 September 2006
20.
Enhanced cooperation
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As of February 2013 this procedure is being used in the fields of divorce law and patents, property regimes of international couples and is approved for the field of a financial transaction tax. This is distinct from the EU opt-out, that is a form of cooperation between EU members within EU structures, where it is allowed for a number of states to refrain from participation. It is further distinct from Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification and permanent acquis suspensions, Enhanced cooperation was introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam for community, judicial cooperation and criminal matters. The Treaty of Nice simplified the mechanism and forbade opposition to the creation of enhanced cooperation and it also introduced cooperation for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, except for defence matters. The Treaty of Lisbon extended cooperation to include defence and additionally envisions the possibility for establishment of a permanent structured cooperation in defence, the Schengen Agreement adoption is considered a historical inspiration for formalising the mechanism of Enhanced cooperation. With its integration into general EU law it was transformed from a precursor Enhanced cooperation into an opt-out, Enhanced cooperation allows for a minimum of nine member states to co-operate within the structures of the EU without all member states. This allows them to move at different speeds, and towards different goals and it is designed to overcome paralysis, where a proposal is blocked by the veto of an individual state or a small group who do not wish to be part of the initiative. It does not however allow for an extension of powers outside those permitted by the treaties of the European Union and is allowed as a last resort where objectives cannot be achieved normally. It may not discriminate against members, it must further the objectives in the treaties, the mechanism needs a minimum of one-third of Member States, who file a request with the European Commission. If the Commission accepts it then it has to be approved by a majority of all member states to proceed. A member may not veto the establishment of enhanced cooperation except for foreign policy, with the rise in cross border divorce in the EU, common rules were put forward to settle the issue of under which law trans-national couples can divorce in the EU. However Sweden blocked the new rules, fearing the loss of its liberal divorce law, belgium, Germany, Lithuania and Portugal were considering joining them. On 24 March 2010, when the law was proposed by the commission, Bulgaria was the tenth state to join the aforementioned eight. Belgium, Germany and Latvia formally joined them on 28 May 2010 and these states were then authorised by the Council to proceed with enhanced cooperation on 12 July 2010. Following the adoption of Council Regulation No 1259/2010 on 20 December 2010, also known as the Rome III Regulation, other EU Member state are permitted to sign up to the pact at a later date. Lithuania became the first state to join the agreement when they were approved by the Commission on 21 November 2012, the provisions of the agreement applied to Lithuania as of 22 May 2014. Greeces participation was approved by the Commission on 27 January 2014, making them the 16th country to join the regulation, estonias participation was approved by the Commission in August 2016, and the regulation will apply to the country as of 11 February 2018. The unitary patent, formally a European patent with unitary effect, is the case of enhanced cooperation adopted by the European Commission
21.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
22.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
23.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
24.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
25.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
26.
Acquis communautaire
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The term is French, acquis meaning that which has been acquired or obtained, and communautaire meaning of the community. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development introduced the concept of the OECD Acquis in its Strategy for enlargement and outreach, official Journal of the European Union EUR-Lex, European Union Law. JRC-Acquis, Aligned multilingual parallel corpus,23,000 Acquis-related texts per language, translation Memory of the EU-Acquis, Up to 1 Million translation units each, for 231 language pairs
27.
European Union legislative procedure
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The European Union adopts legislation through a variety of legislative procedures. The procedure used for a legislative proposal depends on the policy area in question. Most legislation needs to be proposed by the European Commission and approved by the Council of the European Union in order to become law. An exception to this are so-called passerelle clauses in which the procedure used for a certain policy area can be changed without formally amending the treaties. The European Parliaments 751 members are elected every five years by universal suffrage. It organises itself as a normal multi-party parliament in conducting most of its work in its committees, however, its political groups are very weak due to their status as broad ideological groups of existing national parties. The Parliaments powers have grown considerably since the 1950s as new legislative procedures granted more equality between Parliament and Council and it also has gained greater powers over the appointment of the Commission, which has always been responsible to it. As such, it does not sit according to political groups and rather than conducting most of its work in committees, under the ordinary legislative procedure, the negative opinion from the Commission also forces the Council to vote by unanimity rather than majority. There are also limited instances where the Commission can adopt legislation on its own initiative, if a majority do so – an orange card – then the Council or Parliament can vote it down immediately. The ordinary legislative procedure is the legislative procedure by which directives. Article 294 TFEU outlines ordinary legislative procedure in the following manner, the Commission submits a legislative proposal to the Parliament and Council. At the first reading Parliament adopts its position, if the Council approves the Parliaments wording then the act is adopted. If not, it shall adopt its own position and pass it back to Parliament with explanations, the Commission also informs Parliament of its position on the matter. At the second reading, the act is adopted if Parliament approves the Councils text or fails to take a decision, the Parliament may reject the Councils text, leading to a failure of the law, or modify it and pass it back to the Council. The Commission gives its opinion once more, where the Commission has rejected amendments in its opinion, the Council must act unanimously rather than by majority. If, within three months of receiving Parliaments new text the Council approves it, then it is adopted, if it does not then the Council President, with the agreement of the Parliament President, convenes the Conciliation Committee composed of the Council and an equal number of MEPs. The committee draws up a joint text on the basis of the two positions, if within six weeks it fails to agree a common text, then the act has failed. If it succeeds and the committee approves the text, then the Council, if either fails to do so, the act is not adopted
28.
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
29.
European migrant crisis
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And a small number of hostile agents including Islamic State militants. Of the unauthorized entrants arriving in Europe by sea in 2015, 58% were adult males over 18 years of age, 17% were adult females over 18 years of age, and 25% were minors under 18 years of age. According to Eurostat, EU member states received over 1.2 million first-time asylum applications in 2015, four states received around two-thirds of the EUs asylum applications in 2015, with Hungary, Sweden, and Austria being the top recipients of asylum applications per capita. Countries may reinstate internal border controls for a maximum of two months for public policy or national security reasons, by default, the first member state that an asylum seeker entered and in which they have been fingerprinted is responsible. If the asylum seeker then moves to another state, they can be transferred back to the member state they first entered. Further clauses on this topic are found in EU directive 2001/51/EC and this has had the effect that migrants without a visa are not allowed on aircraft, boats or trains going into the Schengen Area, so migrants without a visa have resorted to migrant smugglers. Humanitarian visas are in general not given to refugees who want to apply for asylum, the laws on migrant smuggling ban helping migrants to pass any national border if the migrants are without a visa or other permission to enter. This has caused many airlines to check for visas and refuse passage to migrants without visas, after being refused air passage, many migrants then attempt to travel overland to their destination country. The foreign-born population residing in the EU in 2014 amounts to 33 million people, by comparison, the foreign-born population is 1. 63% of the total population in Japan,7. 7% in Russia, 13% in the United States, 20% in Canada and 27% in Australia. Between 2010 and 2013, around 1.4 million non-EU nationals, excluding asylum seekers and refugees, immigrated into the EU each year using regular means, prior to 2014, the number of asylum applications in the EU peaked in 1992,2001, and 2013. According to the UNHCR, the EU countries with the biggest numbers of recognised refugees at the end of 2014 were France, Germany, Sweden, no European state was among the top ten refugee-hosting countries in the world. Prior to 2014, the number of border crossings detected by Frontex at the external borders of the EU peaked in 2011. According to the UNHCR, the number of displaced people worldwide reached 59.5 million at the end of 2014. Of these 59.5 million,19.5 million were refugees, the rest were persons displaced within their own countries. The 14.4 million refugees under UNHCRs mandate were around 2.7 million more than at the end of 2013, among them, Syrian refugees became the largest refugee group in 2014, overtaking Afghan refugees, who had been the largest refugee group for three decades. Six of the ten largest countries of origin of refugees were African, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, developing countries hosted the largest share of refugees, the least developed countries alone provided asylum to 25% of refugees worldwide. The largest single recipient of new asylum seekers worldwide in 2014 was the Russian Federation, with 274,700 asylum requests, 99% of them lodged by Ukrainians fleeing from the war in Donbass. In 2012, immigrant influx into Greece by land decreased by 95% after the construction of a fence on that part of the Greek–Turkish frontier which does not follow the course of the Maritsa River
30.
UEFA Euro 2004
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The final tournament was hosted for the first time in Portugal, from 12 June to 4 July 2004, after their bid was selected on 12 October 1999, over those of Spain and Austria/Hungary. A total of thirty-one matches were played in ten venues across eight cities – Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Lisbon and Porto. As in the 1996 and 2000 editions, the tournament was contested by 16 teams – the hosts plus the 15 teams that successfully overcame the qualification round. Latvia secured their first participation in a tournament after overcoming Turkey in the play-offs. The tournament was rich in surprises and upsets, Germany, Spain and Italy were eliminated in the stage, while France. The Portuguese team recovered from a defeat against Greece to reach the final, eliminating England. For the first time in a football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match. Portugal was defeated by Greece with a goal from Angelos Charisteas, Greeces triumph was unexpected, considering that they had only qualified for two other major tournaments, the UEFA Euro 1980 and the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they failed to win a single match. In the closing ceremony, Portuguese-Canadian singer Nelly Furtado performed her single and official tournament theme song, Group A opened with a shock as Greece, ranked outsiders from start, defeated the hosts 2–1. Giorgos Karagounis put the Greeks ahead after only seven minutes, an injury time goal from Cristiano Ronaldo proved no more than a consolation. Greece then drew with Spain, before losing to Russia in their last group stage game, Portugal, meanwhile, recovered from their opening defeat by defeating Russia 2–0, who had their keeper Sergei Ovchinnikov sent off. Nuno Gomes scored the goal against Spain, which ensured Portugal finished first place in Group A. Greece advanced to the quarter-finals as runners-up, ahead Spain on goals scored, France, the holders, and England ended their Group B encounter in furious fashion as the French scored twice in injury time to go from 1–0 down to 2–1 winners. Zinedine Zidane scored in the first minute of time and two minutes later, an error by the English defence gave a France penalty and Zidane fired in the winner. Englands other two games were memorable for the performances of their young star Wayne Rooney, only 18 at the time, Rooneys goal-scoring ability proved instrumental in victories over Switzerland and Croatia. France and England qualified from the group as winners and runners-up, Group C featured a three-way tie between Sweden, Denmark and Italy for first spot. All matches between the three sides had ended in draws and all three had beaten Bulgaria, Italy were ultimately eliminated on the number of goals scored between the three sides, after Sweden and Denmark drew 2–2 and qualified to the quarter-finals as group winners and runners-up. The Italians went so far as to accuse Sweden and Denmark of fixing their match, the Czech Republic took the first place in Group D after becoming the only team to win all three of their group matches
31.
2010 Lisbon summit
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The 2010 Lisbon summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 19 and 20 November 2010. The member states adopted a new Strategic Concept, the alliances new ten-year plan following the expiration of the plan adopted at the 1999 Washington summit. In addition to accepting the Strategic Concept that addressed the alliances modern challenges such as terrorism and cyber attacks, the members met with President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai regarding the groups operations in the country. They agreed to withdraw combat forces from the country with a completion date of 2014. NATO reaffirmed their commitment to remain in Afghanistan to provide training and advice to Afghan forces, the summit took place in the Feira Internacional de Lisboa in Parque das Nações. It was the first summit presided over by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, source, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai, addressed the summit on 20 November. Armenia – Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Georgia has been at the Intensified Dialogue stage of accession to NATO since 2006, jordan – Prime Minister Samir Rifai. Malaysia – Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, new Zealand – Foreign Minister Murray McCully. Russia – President Dmitry Medvedev, was the first Russian to attend since strained relations because of the 2008 South Ossetia war, singapore South Korea Sweden – Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. United Arab Emirates United Nations – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Going into the summit, prior to the summit, Secretary General Rasmussen personally prepared a draft of the plan. Rasmussen said the goal of the new Strategic Concept must reconfirm Natos core task – territorial defence – but modernise how we do it, including cyber defence, a group of experts led by former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright drafted a report to help prepare the plan. At meetings prior to the summit, officials said that the plan was 98% there, during the first day of the summit on Friday 19 November, the member states agreed to the new Strategic Concept that will serve as the alliances mission plan for the next 10 years. The document addressed the importance of evolving threats to international security, the 11-page document is titled Active Engagement, Modern Defence. President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai addressed the summit on Saturday 20 November, Karzai had said that he wants NATO to return control of the country by the end of 2014. Before the summit, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the NATO Summit in Lisbon is set to mark the point for passing responsibility for security progressively to Afghan forces. While meeting with Karzai, the agreed to a gradual phase-out of combat operations until 2014. After that date, NATO states would continue to contribute to training and advising the Afghan National Army, Secretary-General Rasmussen said we will launch the process by which the Afghan government will take leadership for security throughout the country, district by district
32.
Pope Francis
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Pope Francis is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City. He chose Francis as his name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technologist and he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentinas provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and he led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina, and the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on Gods mercy, concern for the poor, populist causes and commitment to interfaith dialogue. He maintains that the church should be open and welcoming. He does not support unbridled capitalism, Marxism, or Marxist versions of liberation theology, Francis maintains the traditional views of the church regarding abortion, euthanasia, contraception, homosexuality, ordination of women, and priestly celibacy. He opposes consumerism, irresponsible development, and supports taking action on climate change, in international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936 in Flores and he was the eldest of five children of Mario José Bergoglio and Regina María Sívori. Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro in Italys Piedmont region, Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian origin. Mario Josés family left Italy in 1929, to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, María Elena Bergoglio, the Popes only living sibling, confirmed that their emigration was not for economic reasons. His other siblings were Alberto Horacio, Oscar Adrián and Marta Regina, two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles and he attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N°27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past President of Argentina, and graduated with a chemical technicians diploma. He worked for a few years in that capacity in the section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where his boss was Esther Ballestrino. Before joining the Jesuits, Bergoglio worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors, in the only known health crisis of his youth, at the age of 21 he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards, Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club. Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello, neorealism, Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood while he was on his way to celebrate the Spring Day. He passed by a church to go to confession, and was inspired by the priest
33.
European Neighbourhood Policy
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The European Neighbourhood Policy is a foreign relations instrument of the European Union which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the Union. These countries, primarily developing countries, include some who seek to one day become either a state of the European Union. Russia has a status with the EU-Russia Common Spaces instead of ENP participation. This process is normally underpinned by an Action Plan, as agreed by both Brussels and the target country, the ENP does not cover countries which are in the current EU enlargement agenda, the European Free Trade Association or the western European microstates. The EU typically concludes Association Agreements in exchange for commitments to political, economic, trade, in exchange, the country may be offered tariff-free access to some or all EU markets, and financial or technical assistance. The European Unions European Neighbourhood Policy aims at bringing Europe and its neighbours closer and it was conceived after the 2004 enlargement of the European Union with 10 new member countries, in order to avoid creating new borders in Europe. It is also designed to prevent the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours, the vision is that of a ring of countries, drawn into further integration, but without necessarily becoming full members of the European Union. The policy was first outlined by the European Commission in March 2003, russia has a special status with the EU-Russia Common Spaces instead of ENP participation. It was initiated on 27–28 November 1995 through a conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, besides the 28 member states of the European Union, the remaining Mediterranean Partners are all other Mediterranean countries including Libya. It represents the Eastern dimension of the ENP and strengthens bilateral relations between the EU and its partners, in March 2015 the European Commission launched a review of the principles on which the policy is based as well as its scope and how its instruments should be used. The consultation follows four priorities, differentiation, focus, flexibility, ownership, a Communication setting out proposals for the future direction of the ENP will follow in autumn. It has a budget of €15.4 billion and provides the bulk of funding through a number of programmes, the ENI, effective from 2014 to 2020, replaces the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument – known as the ENPI. This cooperation instrument continues to be managed by DG Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid, ENPI funding approved for the period 2007-2013 was €11.2 billion. Kazakhstans Foreign Ministry has expressed interest in the ENP and some MEPs have also discussed Kazakhstans inclusion in the ENP, the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre was launched in January 2009 by the European Commission to make more known the relationship between the EU and its Neighbours. In recent history, such agreements are signed as part of two EU policies, Stabilisation and Association process and European Neighbourhood Policy, the countries of the Mediterranean and the East European EU neighbours are covered by ENP through the External Relations directorate-general. Both the SAA and ENP AP are based mostly on the EUs acquis communautaire, of course the depth of the harmonisation is less than for full EU members and some policy areas may not be covered. This division is obvious in the two groups for activities that are meant to supplement the bilateral ENP Action Plans—the Eastern Partnership. Association Agreements have to be ratified by all the EU member states, AA signed with the Mediterranean states also include a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the third country
34.
European Single Market
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It is also intended to drive economic integration whereby the once separate economies of the member states become integrated within a single EU-wide economy. Half of the trade in goods within the EU is covered by legislation harmonised by the EU, the creation of the internal market as a seamless, single market is an ongoing process, with the integration of the service industry still containing gaps. It also has an international element, with the market represented as one in international trade negotiations. One of the core objectives of the European Economic Community was the development of a common market offering free movement of goods, service, people. Free movement of goods was established in principle through the union between its then-six member states. However the EEC struggled to enforce a single due to the absence of strong decision making structures. It was difficult to remove intangible barriers with mutual recognition of standards, in the end, it was launched on 1 January 1993. The new approach, pioneered at the Delors Commission, combined positive and negative integration, negative integration consists of prohibitions imposed on member states of discriminatory behaviour and other restrictive practices. Positive integration consists in approximation of laws and standards, especially important in this respect is the adoption of harmonising legislation under Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Thus harmonisation was largely used to basic health and safety standards were met. By 1992 about 90% of the issues had been resolved and in the year the Maastricht Treaty set about to create an Economic. Work on freedom for services did take longer, and was the last freedom to be implemented, mainly through the Posting of Workers Directive, in 1997 the Amsterdam Treaty abolished physical barriers across the internal market by incorporating the Schengen Area within the competences of the EU. The Schengen Agreement implements the abolition of border controls between most member states, common rules on visas, and police and judicial cooperation, even as the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009 however, some areas pertaining parts of the four freedoms had not yet been completely opened. Those, along with work on the economic and monetary union. The European Union is also a customs union and this means that member states have removed customs barriers between themselves and introduced a common customs policy towards other countries. By agreement between the Union and the states concerned Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Turkey also participate in the EU Customs Union, Article 30 TFEU prohibits member states from levying any duties on goods crossing a border, both goods produced within the EU and those produced outside. Neither the purpose of the charge, nor its name in domestic law, is relevant, since the Single European Act, there can be no systematic customs controls at the borders of member states. The emphasis is on post-import audit controls and risk analysis, physical controls of imports and exports now occur at traders premises, rather than at the territorial borders
35.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
36.
Council of the European Union
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The Council of the European Union is the third of the seven institutions of the European Union as listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is part of the essentially bicameral EU legislature and represents the governments of the EUs member states. It is based in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, Belgium, the Council meets in 10 different configurations of 28 national ministers. The continuity between presidencies is provided by an arrangement under which three successive presidencies, known as Presidency trios, share common political programmes, the Foreign Affairs Council is however chaired by the Unions High Representative. Its decisions are made by qualified majority voting in most areas, usually where it operates unanimously, it only needs to consult the Parliament. In a few limited areas the Council may initiate new EU law itself, the Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union. The Secretariat is divided into seven directorates-general, each administered by a director-general, the Council first appeared in the European Coal and Steel Community as the Special Council of Ministers, set up to counterbalance the High Authority. The original Council had limited powers, issues relating only to coal and steel were in the Authoritys domain, as a whole, the Council only scrutinised the High Authority. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome established two new communities, and with two new Councils, the Council of the European Atomic Energy Community and the Council of the European Economic Community. However, due to objections over the power of the Authority, their Councils had more powers. In 1965 the Council was hit by the empty chair crisis, due to disagreements between French President Charles de Gaulle and the Commissions agriculture proposals, among other things, France boycotted all meetings of the Council. This halted the Councils work until the impasse was resolved the following year by the Luxembourg compromise, although initiated by a gamble of the President of the Commission, Walter Hallstein, who later on lost the Presidency, the crisis exposed flaws in the Councils workings. In 1993, the Council adopted the name Council of the European Union and that treaty strengthened the Council, with the addition of more intergovernmental elements in the three pillars system. However, at the time the Parliament and Commission had been strengthened inside the Community pillar. The Treaty of Lisbon abolished the system and gave further powers to Parliament. It also merged the Councils High Representative with the Commissions foreign policy head, the development of the Council has been characterised by the rise in power of the Parliament, with which the Council has had to share its legislative powers. The Parliament has often provided opposition to the Councils wishes and this has in some cases led to clashes between both bodies with the Councils system of intergovernmentalism contradicting the developing parliamentary system and supranational principles. The primary purpose of the Council is to act as one of the two chambers of the EUs legislative branch, the chamber being the European Parliament
37.
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
38.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
39.
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
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Ideas of European unity before 1945
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The idea of European unity is a historically recent concept. It was the Greek civilisation that first used these names in their modern senses, the first proposal for peacefully unifying Europe against a common enemy emerged after the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. George of Podebrady, a Hussite king of Bohemia, proposed in 1464 a union of European, Christian nations against the Turks. However, his proposal was based on the shared religious ideology. The idea of Germany and Europe being coterminous was taken to its conclusion by Adolf Hitler. Kikuchi Yoshio of Meiji University suggested that the notion of Holy Roman Empire as a political entity influenced the later structural ideas of the European Union. In 1728, Abbot Charles de Saint-Pierre proposed the creation of a European league of 18 sovereign states, with common treasury, no borders, some suggestion of a European union can be inferred from Immanuel Kants 1795 proposal for an eternal peace congress. In the 1800s, customs union under Napoleon Bonapartes Continental system was promulgated in November 1806 as an embargo of British goods in the interests of French hegemony, felix Markham notes how during a conversation on St. In the conservative reaction after Napoleons defeat in 1815, the German Confederation was established as an association of thirty-eight sovereign German states formed by the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon had swept away the Holy Roman Empire and simplified the map of Germany, in 1834, the Zollverein was formed among the states of the Confederation, to create better trade flow and reduce internal competition. An extension of this union may have been become the model for a unified Europe. The then current ideas of geopolitics and a Mitteleuropa were also influential in providing a framework for European Union in Germany. United States of Europe was also the name of the concept presented by Wojciech Jastrzębowski in About eternal peace between the nations, published 31 May 1831, the project consisted of 77 articles. The envisioned United States of Europe was to be an international rather than a superstate. Italian writer and politician Giuseppe Mazzini called for the creation of a federation of European republics in 1843 and this set the stage for perhaps the best known early proposal for peaceful unification, through cooperation and equality of membership, made by the pacifist Victor Hugo in 1847. Hugo used the term United States of Europe during a speech at the International Peace Congress, organised by Mazzini, a day will come when we shall see. The United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, however, he was laughed out of the hall, yet returned to his idea again in 1851. Victor Hugo planted a tree in the grounds of his residence on the Island of Guernsey he was noted in saying that when this tree matured the United States of Europe would have come into being
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Belgium
France
West Germany
Luxembourg
Netherlands
