European Union
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- Profile views: 11,987
- Group created: July 2007
- www.bebo.com/European-Union
- Tagline
- United in diversity
- Me, Myself, and I
- The EU is a close grouping of states in Europe. Scholars argue over whether it is a single federal state or a classic intergovernmental organisation. It has a complex structure to allow member states cooperate closely in some areas and retain some independence in other areas.
The EU's most federal section is the Common market. This is an economic zone of all members, plus some others. The common market is already very advanced in agriculture, fisheries, goods and labour. National markets in services, capital and energy are also beginning to merge. The common market is the largest market in the world today.
Apart from the Common Market there are also other areas of cooperation. Especially in judicial, domestic, foreign and security policies. In these policy areas, members can choose to agree common policies on a case by case basis.
Beyond these policies, the EU tries to coordinate action in many policy areas, but has little effect e.g. transport, health etc.
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EU Population declining!
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Lisbon in a nutshell
The Lisbon treaty is a relatively modest revision to the EU's legal code and institutions.
Its main provisions are;
1, Agreement on how future enlargements are to effect the structure of Europe. -currently there has to be a new treaty signed every single time a new country joins the union. With a total of 7 candidate/potential candidate countries already applying to join the EU, and perhaps more afterwards, it is now necessary to decide a system to allow new countries to join, rather than relying on the ad hoc agreements that we have used up until now.
2, Updating the legal basis of the Union. -Currently the Union negotiates internationally as the European Communities. In several (mainly older)international agreements this refers only to the old EU-15. In such cases our partners have always recognised that the Community speaks for the entire EU, but it is messy and takes a lot of pointless legal work to draft agreements. A new legal basis will allow the EU to sign agreements regardless of how many countries join or leave the Union.
3, Fundamental rights. -The charter of fundamental rights will occasionally be enforceable through law. This charter does not add tremendously to the existing rights of people living in ireland, but it does copper-fasten them.
4, Representation at the Commission. -Under the terms of the Nice treaty, Ireland will soon have to give up her commissioner for one term out of every three. The big states are not obliged to do this. However, under Lisbon all member states will have exactly the same representation at the commission regardless of whether they are big or small.
5, Movement of Areas to QMV. -Some council decisions will no longer have to be unanimous. In all 30 areas of policy will move to voting. None of the areas is sensitive to ireland. Most concern procedural matters that do not affect the lives of citizens. The only significant areas to move to QMV is space and energy policy. However, ireland has long advocated a more integrated energy policy to safeguard us from external shocks, and we are a long way from having an independent space policy.
5, Creation of new jobs. -These 'new' jobs aren't actually new at all. The President of the Council already exists, it is the leader of the country that holds the presidency. Currently it is the leader of Slovenia. This worked well when there were only a few countries, but now this means that each member state will only be president every 13 years. The Lisbon treaty will create a non-rotating, dedicated president to draft the council agenda and chair the meetings. The power in the council will as always remain with the member states.
The foreign minister also already exists. In fact there are currently three of them -the foreign minister of the presidency country, the commissioner for external relations and Mr. CFSP. The Lisbon treaty will unite these three roles. As with the president, the chair will be able to speak for the council, but does not have authority to make decisions -this authority resides only with the member states.
6, More democratic scrutiny by the Parliament of the Commission and more power to block the Council. -The President of the Commission will be answerable to the parliament and so will his commissioners. Currently the commissioners only answer collectively to Parliament.
The Parliament will also have shared power in some areas with the Council, including: the common market, Space and the stability and growth pact.
As always, you can't go wrong if you read this http://www.robert-schuman.org/doc/di...
2 Comments 531 days
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Oh I love Europe. lol
Borat says:'hypocracy....NOT!'
1. Play fair
Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly or dishonestly. Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure. Playing fair requires courage and character. It is also more satisfying. Fair play always has its reward, even when the game is lost. Playing fair earns respect, while cheating only brings shame. Remember: it is only a game. And games are pointless unless played fairly.
above, the first sentence of FIFA's own fair play protocol.
hypocrisy - much.
It just goes to show where fifa' REAL priorities lie.and it was the french PM,not sarkozy,who issued that statement.which is laughable seeing as how under french law he holds little to no power,with the president being the main go too guy.
sarkozy tells cowen to stay out of the replay argument and then gets involved himself by scorning any suggestion of cheating....
we will not get a replay and france will go to the world cup on the back of cheating and cowardice, this is the precedent of FIFA whose hypocrisy and arrogance reflects the notion that we do not matter on the world stage
"F*CKIN HUNS!!! "
that kind of bigotted mind set belongs in the middle ages,not twenty-first century ireland.
COME ON & HELP IRELAND OUT WITH THE F*CKIN HUNS!!! WHAT ARE THEY MORE IMPORTANT THEN US?!!
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And correction my friend,they're nothing but a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Im in favour of launching a bombing campaign against the french after that farce.not only was it offside to begin with,but they blatantly handled the ball TWICE before gallas headed it into the back of the net.and not a single official saw this.and of course fifa will completely ignore it seeing as how their biggest market has safely made it too the world cup.its absolutely disgusting to think that one the the teams could only get there through blatant cheating and corruption at the very top.
i told you lot ages ago, the french are nothing more than big nosed cheating bastards
you really need to take time and read my comments, maybe google sarcasm when you're at it.
like i really believe "the eu is going to invade the country and station in gunships in monaghan."
blatant lie, hmmmmm, just because a member of a untruthful, deceiving government says something contrary i become the liar?
do you live on the border tomas? obviously not as then you might see minister aherns lies in action.
so, the eu cannot decide on a protocol for climate change as most of it's member states are broke?
speaks volumes.
"as fianan fail are closing border garda stations"
that is a blatant lie.minister ahern has already said that he won't be going through with that particular McCarthy recommendation,as he was able to find the necessary savings elsewhere.and you do realise the government won't be implementing all of the recommendations yes?i love fianna fail bashing as much as the next guy,but there is enough ammunition out there to have to resort to making shit up.
"will the eu have eu gunships stationed in cavan, monaghan"
how can i put this exactly?am,NOOOOOOOOOO!!by cross border crime i mean co-ordinating seizures of drugs between various member states and to tackle terrorism.something you must surely be in favour of?
"already we are seeing how futile their attempts are as the main stumbling block has been the financial worries, typical"
that might have something to do with the fact that the eastern block,the main opposition to a deal at the moment,are in a similar finacial situation to us.heck,latvia is lucky to still be going as it is.it's understandable that they're wary of any deal to combat climate change because if the cost in meeting this challenge is too high for them,they will simply go bankrupt,which will benefit no one,least of all their citizens.
"i really think you lot have no idea outside the usual "jobs/economy" lies "
says the one who thinks the eu is going to invade the country and station in gunships in monaghan.
"cross border crime"
will the eu have eu gunships stationed in cavan, monaghan, etc etc?
such a idiotic pretence that the eu will stop cross border crime seeing as fianan fail are closing border garda stations.
3 sentences made up the combined text of economic/green/climate change issues within the treaty, already we are seeing how futile their attempts are as the main stumbling block has been the financial worries, typical.
the green party opposed the eu constitution as it said damn all about the green issues but the lisbon treaty had the exact same text.
i really think you lot have no idea outside the usual "jobs/economy" lies
i think we'll be beat 1-0 by a nicholas anelka deflected shot
on a much needed lighter note,who thinks ireland will pull off the double this weekend?
"discuss the rest of it"
bring up what other grieveances you have and let's discuss them.
"more interference in sovereign states"
yes,the greater role it places on our national parliaments as well as the combined effort to counter climate change and cross border crime is such a bad thing isn't it?
why don;t you offer some information shane.
you seem to have all the answers regarding lisbon, but this time try state the facts and not rely on the false promises of economic growth,
in fact try stay away from the tired economic argument that makes up less than 10% of the treaty.
discuss the rest of it.
hi ryan, before you look at the eurosceptics' views. Try to get some unbias information. That's the best way