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Archive-name: european-union/basics Posting-Frequency: once every three weeks Last-modified: 19 December 1994 Version: 1.2.3 URL: http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): Table of Contents [IMAGE] EUROPEAN UNION BASICS (FAQ): TABLE OF CONTENTS ___________________________________ This file contains a list of basic questions and answers about the European Union, edited by Roland Siebelink <rcsiebel@vub.ac.be>. Please send me corrections/additions/comments and I will include them and your name in this list. Version 1.2.3 of 19 December 1994. Posted regularly to eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec, talk.politics.misc, alt.answers, talk.answers and news.answers. See "About this list"[1] in part E of this FAQ for ways to retrieve the most recent version. A. General European Union Questions[2] What is the European Union or EU?[3] When was it founded?[4] What countries are members of the EU?[5] What about the languages?[6] B. What is the difference between the European Union and...[7] The European Community?[8] The Common Market?[9] The Council of Europe?[10] The European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area?[11] The North American Free Trade Agreement?[12] The Western European Union?[13] C. Questions about European Union institutions[14] What is the European Commission?[15] General information[16] The Directorates-General of the Commission[17] What is the European Parliament?[18] Composition of the European Parliament[19] Powers of the European Parliament[20] What is the Council of Ministers?[21] What is the European Council?[22] Who is the President of the EU?[23] President of the European Parliament[24] President of the Council of Ministers and the European Council[25] President (chairman) of the European Commission[26] What is the European Court of Justice?[27] What is the Court of Auditors?[28] What is the Econonomic and Social Committee?[29] What is the Committee of Regions?[30] What is the European Monetary Institute?[31] D. Where to find EU-related information[32] EU infosystems on the Internet[33] EU infosystems on other networks[34] European Commission infosystems[35] European Parliament infosystems[36] EU institutions' email addresses[37] European Commission email addresses[38] European Parliament email addresses[39] Other European political resources on the Internet[40] Western European Union information[41] Referendum campaigns in Nordic countries[42] European Union Documents[43] Discussions on European integration and related topics[44] Miscellaneous resources[45] Representative Offices and Delegations[46] E. About the European Union Basics[47] Format of this document[48] Where to get the most recent version of this document[49] Author, contributors and sources[50] ___________________________________ Edited by Roland Siebelink.[51] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [1] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#e0 [2] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#a0 [3] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#a1 [4] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#a2 [5] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#a3 [6] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#a4 [7] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b0 [8] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b1 [9] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b2 [10] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b3 [11] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b4 [12] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b5 [13] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b6 [14] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c0 [15] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c1 [16] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c1a [17] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c1b [18] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c2 [19] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c2a [20] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c2b [21] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c3 [22] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c4 [23] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c5 [24] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c5a [25] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c5b [26] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c5c [27] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c6 [28] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c7 [29] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c8 [30] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c9 [31] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#c10 [32] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d0 [33] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d1 [34] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d2 [35] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d2a [36] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d2b [37] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d3 [38] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d3a [39] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d3b [40] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4 [41] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4a [42] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4b [43] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4c [44] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4d [45] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d4e [46] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#d5 [47] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#e0 [48] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#e1 [49] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#e2 [50] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#e3 [51] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): General Questions [IMAGE] A. GENERAL EUROPEAN UNION QUESTIONS ___________________________________ 1. What is the European Union or EU? `European Union' is the name of the organization for the member countries that have decided to co-operate on a number of areas ranging from a single market to foreign policy, and from mutual recognition of school diplomas to exchange of criminal records. This co-operation is in various forms, officially referred to as three `pillars': The [three] European Communities (supranational) The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP, intergovernmental) The Co-operation in the Fields of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA, intergovernmental) All member states but the UK also co-operate in the area of social policy, on the basis of the social chapter in the Maastricht Treaty. This could be considered a fourth pillar, although it was part of the EEC Treaty revisions in the drafts of the Maastricht Treaty. 2. When was it founded? The European Union as an umbrella organisation has come into existence only in November 1993, after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. Its constituent organisations were founded as below: 1952 The European Community for Coal and Steel (ECSC) was established by the Treaty of Paris (1951). 1958 The European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were established by the twoTreaties of Rome (1957). 1967 The institutions of the ECSC, EEC and Euratom were merged, with a single European Commission replacing the ECSC High Authority, EEC Commission, Euratom Commission etc. 1987 The Single European Act of 1987 provided the implementation provisions for the Single European Market[1], and it codified agreement on majority voting in the Council[2] on a range of questions. It also formally codified the European Co-ordination in the Sphere of Foreign Policy, which was known as European Political Cooperation and dating back to the 1970 Davignon report. 1993 The European Union was established by the Maastricht Treaty which came into force in November 1993. It created an explicit three-pillar structure with a new Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) replacing the Single Act provisions in this field, and codifying the Co-operation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). It also reexpanded the scope of the EEC, to include provisions for an Economic and Monetary Union with a single European currency from the end of the century onwards, and it re-baptised the EEC to simply European Community (EC). [Retrieve the full text of the Maastricht Treaty][3] 3. What countries are members of the EU? Original ECSC members (from 1952, EEC and Euratom from 1958) include Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. From 1973 they were joined by Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and the UK. In 1981 Greece joined, followed by Portugal and Spain in 1986. In 1991 the new German Ldnder (the former GDR) were also incorporated. In 1994, Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden agreed to join the EU from 1995 onwards. All countries organised consultative referenda about membership. Austria voted largely in favour of accession on June 12th. In Finland, a majority of 57% voted in favour of EU membership on October 16th. The Swedes voted narrowly (53%) in favour of accession as well, on November 13th. Norwegians, however, rejected accession by an equally narrow majority of 52% on November 28th. Norwegians have already rejected membership once, in 1972, then with a 53% majority. This means that from January 1st., 1995, the European Union will effectively consist of 15 member states. Six other countries, all former members of the `eastern bloc', are expected to include the next new members of the Union, though this will probably be only after the year 2000. In the meanwhile Bulgary, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are invited to one meeting of the European Council every year. 4. What about the languages? Like most international organisations, the EU has two sorts of languages: official languages and working languages. Official languages are used for official public documents, especially those with legal value. Working languages are the languages used internally. Since EU legislation is directly applicable in national law, all languages with official legal status in one or more of the member states must be official EU languages as well. This includes Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, French, English, Gaelic (Irish), Italian, Dutch and Portuguese; Finnish and Swedish will be added after January 1st. Luxembourg has recognised Letzebuergesch (formerly considered the local dialect) as an official national language since 1983, but this has not been reflected in EU use of the language. Council members have never been able to agree on a limit to the number of working languages within the institutions. Only Gaelic is not a working language; all other languages are considered equal in every way. It should be noted though that, in practice, some languages are more equal than others. The Commission has limited much of its internal translations to French, English and German; some informal meetings do not have interpreters at all and are conducted in English entirely. Nick Bernard[4] says the Court of Justice uses French as an internal working language. EU interpretation services have already noted that the current expansion to eleven working languages will already be virtually unworkable; an expansion to sixteen or more (with some former Eastern Bloc countries joining) will be technically impossible. It is therefore to be expected, in my view, that the number of working languages will be limited to three (English, French and German) or five (with Italian and Spanish), if only for passive use (languages to translate into). No official position has been taken on this matter though. ___________________________________ Go to Table of Contents[5] Edited by Roland Siebelink.[6] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html [1] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#singlemarket [2] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#qualifmaj [3] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#maastrichttext [4] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#nick-bernard [5] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [6] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): Differences with other organisations [IMAGE] B. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND... ___________________________________ 1. The European Community? The European Community, formerly known as European Economic Community, is by far the most important of the three Communities, who together form the first pillar[1] of the European Union. This is the only pillar in which there is a significant role for central institutions like the Commission and the European Parliament, and in which majority voting is used for a number of procedures. 2. The Common Market? The Common Market was one of the most important objectives of the original EEC Treaty. Within 12 years from the date of commencement (January 1st 1958) of the Treaty, the Member States were required to have formed a common market for products, services, persons and capital within a fully fledged customs union. No tariffs or quantitative barriers were to remain. The Common Market objective was effectively attained two years early, from 1968 onward. After this initial success, economic crises during the 1970s and 1980s induced Member State governments to keep or even reinforce numerous other, `qualitative' trade barriers (known as NTBs, Non Tarriff Barriers), such as health and safety regulations. Since this was a serious impediment to the development of a real internal market, business leaders of all member states (united in the so-called Round Table of Industrialists) as well as some EU political leaders started to lobby to continue on to a real Single European Market, in which `qualitative' trade barriers would be attacked as well. Member states finally embraced this goal in the Single European Act of 1987. The project was supposed to be completed by January 1st, 1993, but some of the new rules haven't yet been implemented, notably in the domain of free traffic for persons without border controls. Personal note: in another respect, the term `Common Market' used to be a common term in English/the UK (& USA) to refer to the EEC. It was abandoned only in the early 1990s, thereby reinforcing the impression, predominant among English-speakers, that the extension of the European Union to other areas than just economic activity is a very recent phenomenon and a radical change from the Europe they agreed to join in 1973. 3. The Council of Europe? The Council of Europe is quite a different organisation from the EU. It is a purely intergovernmental organisation much more like the United Nations; unlike EU legislation, its treaties are not directly applicable in national law, unless ratified by the normal parliamentary procedures of the member state concerned. The Council of Europe (Conseil de l'Europe, Europarat) should not be confused with the European Council[2] (Conseil europien, Europdische Rat), which is an EU institution. Even through these limited powers, the CoE has achieved some remarkable results since its founding in 1949. Apart from stimulating grassroots European integration through cultural and educational projects, the CoE is probably best known for the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Personal Freedoms and its associated European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg (not to be confused with the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg). CoE members actually allow their nationals to challenge national legislation and jurisdiction before this court, which has thus become a sort of guarantee for human rights, even for countries which do not have a written constitution (such as Britain) or a supreme court. Current CoE members include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 4. The European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area? The European Free Trade Association or EFTA was founded in 1960 as an intergovernmental alternative to the supranational aspirations of the EEC. The EFTA was not intended as a customs union: member countries did not have common custom tariffs but just abolished custom tariffs between them. There was no common external tarriff, a number of commodities and products were excluded from free trade. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Republic of Ireland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the UK were all members of EFTA once, but many of these countries joined or applied for the EC/EU afterwards. If all prospective EU members actually join from January 1995, the EFTA will just consist of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. To complicate matters even more, EFTA members have signed a far- reaching agreement with the then EEC in 1992, to create a common European Economic Area. This confers upon EFTA members that ratify it the four free traffics of the EU (of products, services, persons and capital) without decision-making power but with guaranteed consulting. Unfortunately for the designers of this Treaty, the Swiss rejected the EEA in a referendum. This may have been a boost for the attempts to join the EU for other EFTA member countries. Iceland and Liechtenstein did approve of the EEA, but all other remaining EFTA members seem to have chosen full EU membership instead. For both EFTA and the EEA, it remains to be seen what they will actually account to, in practice, over the next couple of years. Note: as Jozef van Brabant[3] notes, Liechtenstein got into a particularly messy situation when the Swiss rejected the EEA Treaty that Liechtenstein itself had already approved, since Liechtenstein was in a customs union with Switzerland. Because of this, Liechtenstein will join the EEA only on January 1st., 1995. 5. The North American Free Trade Agreement? The North American Free Trade Agreement obviously affects different countries than the EU does, but it may be interesting to compare the two on other points as well. NAFTA has much more in common with EFTA than with the EU: it is a free trade agreement, not a customs union, and most certainly no attempt to create anything more substantial in political integration than just a free trade area. There are no common political institutions and member states' sovereignty is left intact. Personal note: it remains to be seen if NAFTA will not run into the same problems that the EEC has had in the 1970s: a replacement of now forbidden quantitative trade barriers and tariffs with non-quantitative ones. To counter this, member states will either have to accept each other's standards in health, safety, environmental and consumer protection, or institute a common body which accounts for common standards. That will mean a loss of sovereignty for the individual states however. 6. The Western European Union? The Western European Union was founded in 1954 as a defense alliance between the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Italy, after the European Defense Community Treaty of 1952 was rejected by the French Assemblie Nationale in 1954. It was more or less dormant until the beginning of the 1990s, when it was revived as a sort of common intermediary solution between an organisation of the European NATO members and Defense aspirations of the European Union. Spain, Portugal and Greece have joined the WEU since, and both Denmark and theRepublic of Ireland (which is not a member of NATO) have observer status. ___________________________________ Go to Table of Contents[4] Edited by Roland Siebelink.[5] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html [1] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#pillars [2] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#eu-council [3] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#jvbrabant [4] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [5] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): Questions about institutions [IMAGE] C. QUESTIONS ABOUT EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS ___________________________________ Personal note: you will notice that in all EU institutions, there is an assymetry between the number of inhabitants of member states and the number of representatives they have in the various institutions (eg one Commissioner for 300.000 Luxemburgers compared to two for 80 million Germans). This is a compromise between the supranational princple of one-inhabitant-one-vote and the intergovernmental principle of one-government-one-vote, and thus an illustration of the general ambiguity between supranational and intergovernmental principles that so characterises the European Union. 1. What is the European Commission? A. GENERAL INFORMATION The European Commission is the body with the formal and exclusive power to initiate all EU legislation, and that is supposed to represent the interest of the Union as a whole, both in the political processes within the EU as in negotiations with the outside world. Also, it is the main body with a duty to look after correct implementation of the treaties and subsequent legislation. Its members are nominated by their national governments and must be acceptable to all the government leaders of the member states. Small member states each have one Commissioner, while the larger ones (Germany, France, Italy, UK, Spain) each have two. That makes a total of 17 Commissioners now. The new Member States would each get one Commissioner. From 1995 Commissioners will serve for a fixed term of five years, with the possibility of reappointment. Generally, every Commission is more or less balanced in party affiliation (Britain always appoints a Tory and a Labour candidate, the Benelux countries always see to it that one of their Commissioners is a socialist, one a christian-democrat and one a `liberal' [which is more rightwing than a christian-democrat in the Benelux].) Since the Maastricht Treaty,[1] the European Parliament must approve both of the President of the Commission and of the Commission in full. It can also make the Commission resign with a 2/3 majority. It cannot sack individual Commissioners. The EP is the only institution with this power; the Commission is not accountable to national governments or parliaments. B. THE DIRECTORATES-GENERAL OF THE COMMISSION David Lauder[2] provided the following list of Directorates-General within the European Commission: DG I External relations DG II Economic and financial affairs DG III Industry DG IV Competition DG V Employment, industrial relations and social affairs DG VI Agriculture DG VII Transport DG VIII Develoment DG IX Personnel and administration DG X Information, communication and culture DG XI Environment, nuclear safety and civil protection DG XII Science, research and development DG XIII[3] Telecommunications, information market and exploitation of research DG XIV Fisheries DG XV Internal market and financial services DG XVI Regional policy DG XVII Energy DG XVIII Credit and investments DG XIX Budgets DG XX Financial control DG XXI Customs Union and indirect taxation DG XXII Coordination of structural policies DG XXIII Enterprise policy, distributive trade, tourism and cooperatives It might be worth pointing out that the relationship between the Commission Members themselves and the staff of the European Commission is similar to that between Government ministers and the permanent civil service, in the sense that the former have no security of tenure, and inevitably with a different number of Commission Members and DGs their "portfolios" don't necessarily correspond directly to the DG structure. 2. What is the European Parliament? A. COMPOSITION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The European Parliament represents the peoples of the member states. It is elected once every five years, through direct universe suffrage in every member state. The last general EP election was held between 9 and 12 June 1994. The next will be in June 1999, although there will also be EP elections before, in new member states. There are currently 567 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): 99 elected in Germany 87 each in France, Italy, the UK 64 in Spain 31 in the Netherlands 25 each in Belgium, Greece, Portugal 16 in Denmark 15 in the Republic of Ireland 6 in Luxembourg MEPs don't usually vote by country of origin. Instead, they organise in political groups according to ideology and/or party affiliation. Currently, MEPs are organised in the following groups (Note: Parties marked with an asterisk are present in more than one EP political group): Party of European Socialists (198 seats), leader Ms Pauline Green (UK) 62 Labour (UK) 40 Socialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (DE) 22 Partido Socialista Obrero Espaqol (ES) 16 Partido democratico della Sinistra (IT) 15 Europe Solidaire (Parti Socialiste) (FR) 10 Partido Socialista (PT) 10 Panellinio Socialistiko Kinima (GR) 8 Partij van de Arbeid (NL) 3 Parti Socialiste (BE) 3 Socialdemokratict (DK) 3 Socialistische Partij (BE) 2 LSAP - d'Sozialisten (LU) 2 Partito socialista italiano-Alleanza democratica (IT) 1 Labour Party (IE) 1 Social Democratic and Labour Party (UK) European People's Party (157 seats),leader Mr Wilfried Martens (BE) 39 Christlich-Demokratische Union (DE) 28 Partido Popular (ES) 18 Conservative and Unionist Party (UK) 13 Union pour la Dimocratie Frangaise/Rassemblement pour la Ripublique* (FR) 10 Christendemocratisch Appel (NL) 9 Nea Demokratia (GR) 8 Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (DE) 8 Partito popolare italiano (IT) 4 Christelijke Volkspartij (BE) 4 Fine Gael (IE) 3 Konservative Folkeparti (DK) 3 Patto Segni (IT) 2 Chrkslich-Sozial Vollekspartei (LU) 2 Coalicisn Nacionalista (ES) 2 Parti Social-Chritien (BE) 1 Christlich Soziale Partei (BE) 1 Partido Social Democrata* (PT) 1 S|dtiroler Volkspartei (IT) 1 Ulster Unionist Party (UK) European Liberal, Democratic and Reformist Group (43 seats), leader Mr Gijs de Vries (NL) 8 Partido Social Democrata* (PT) 6 Lega Nord (IT) 6 Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (NL) 4 Democraten '66 (NL) 4 Venstre (DK) 3 Parti Riformateur Libiral/Front Dimocratique des Francophones (BE) 3 Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (BE) 2 Convergencia y Unio* (ES) 2 Liberal Democrats (UK) 1 Demokratesch Partei (LU) 1 Independents (IE) 1 Partito reppublicano italiano (IT) 1 Radikale Venstre (DK) 1 Union pour la Dimocratie Frangaise/Rassemblement pour la Ripublique* (FR) Confederal Alliance of the European Left (28 seats),leader Mr Alfonso Puerta Gutierrez (ES) 9 Izquierda Unida (ES) 7 Parti Communiste (FR) 5 Rifondazione comunista (IT) 3 Coligagao Democratica Unitaria (PT) 2 Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (GR) 2 Synaspismos tis Aristeras kai tis Proodou (GR) Forza Europa (27 seats), leader Mr Giancarlo Ligabue (I) 27 Forza Italia (IT) European Democratic Alliance (26 seats), leader Mr Jean-Claude Pasty (FR) 14 Union pour la Dimocratie Frangaise/Rassemblement pour la Ripublique* (FR) 7 Fianna Fail (IE) 3 Centro Democratico Social/Partido Popular (PT) 2 Politiki Anixi (GR) The Greens in the EP (23 seats), leaders Ms Claudia Roth (DE) & Mr Alexander Langer (IT) 12 B|ndnis 90/Die Gr|nen (DE) 3 Federazione dei Verdi (IT) 2 Green Party (IE) 1 Agalev (BE) 1 Dii Gring GLEI-GAP (LU) 1 Ecolo (BE) 1 Groen Links (NL) 1 La Rete-Movimento democratico (IT) 1 Socialistik Folkeparti (DK) European Radical Alliance (19 seats), leader Ms Catherine Lalumihre 13 Energie Radicale (FR) 2 Panella-Riformatori (IT) 2 Scottish National Party (UK) 1 Convergencia y Unio* (ES) 1 Volksunie/Vlaamse Vrije Democraten (BE) Europe of the Nation States (19 seats), leader Mr Jimmy Goldsmith (FR) 13 Majoriti pour l'autre Europe (FR) 2 Folkebevfgelsen mod EF (DK) 2 Junibevfgelsen (DK) 2 Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij/ Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond/ Reformatorisch-Politieke Federatie (NL) 27 Independent members (`non-inscrits') 11 Alleanza nazionale (IT) 11 Front National (FR) 2 Vlaams Blok (BE) 1 Democratic Unionist Party (UK) 1 Front National (BE) 1 Partito socialista democratico italiano (IT) B. POWERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The powers of the European Parliament are very complicated and vary considerably with the policy area under consideration. In all respects it is significantly lacking in formal powers compared with the position of national parliaments in functioning de mocracies. In some policy areas and procedures, the European Parliament has the right to amend or reject Commission proposals before the Council takes the final decision. There are two weaknesses to this power, which make the EP much less powerful than its national counterparts: The Commission can freely reject EP amendments, without any sanction; unlike national governments which face a choice between accepting the will of parliament or resigning, when major questions are considered a matter of confidence. Therefore, the EP's `Right to Amendment' is in fact not much more than a `Right to Advise'. Also, the Commission's opinion of EP amendments is crucial to their adoption since the final decision in the Council can only depart from the Commission's final proposal by unanimous vote. Under the Co-operation and Assent Procedures, EP amendments and rejections are valid only if 60% of votes are in favour and if the MEPs voting in favour constitute at least half of all MEPs. Especially the latter requirement makes it quite difficult to influence the political process, and personally I think that democratically perverse situations arise when an amendment is declared rejected even if 90% of votes are in favour of it, just because only 50% of MEPs have turned up for the vote. It would be better, in my view, to require a high quorum of MEPs turning up before a vote can take place; MEP votes are the only example I know where a quorum is applied to the result of the vote instead of to the vote itself. Please note that this paragraph has aroused considerable discussion whether this rule is undemocratic or not. Most people seem to disagree with me. 3. What is the Council of Ministers? The Council of Ministers (or simply Council) represents the member state governments. The Council is composed of member state ministers: depending on the matter under discussion, either the ones responsible for specific policy areas (environment, transport, treasury) or the foreign ministers for general affairs. In principle, the Council decides unanimously on major policy decisions as laid down in the treaty provisions. Some matters (often decisions filling in the details of earlier - unanimous - decisions on principle, eg Single Market provisions) are approved of by qualified majority votes. For this purpose, each member states' votes are weighted (less-than-proportionally to the number of inhabitants) and cast in a block: 10 votes each for France, Germany, Italy, the UK 8 votes for Spain 5 votes each for Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal 3 votes each for Denmark and the Republic of Ireland 2 votes for Luxembourg Prospective members Austria and Sweden would each get 4 votes; Finland and Norway 3 each. A qualified majority decision is valid if 54 out of 76 votes are in favour of it (in other words: a 70% majority vote is required). In some cases the majority in favour must also include at least eight countries. Note: In April 1994, the UK tried to oppose an extension of the 70% rule to the prospective EU of 16 member states, arguing that the blocking minority should remain on 23 votes (out of 90) to retain a powerful blocking mechanism for minority states. Britain's arguments were not accepted, but it was agreed that a blocking minority of 23-26 votes would cause a proposal to be reconsidered and delayed for some time. As Andrew MacMullen[4] notes, "This should not be confused [but often was, especially in the British press, RS] with the so-called national veto arising out of the 1965 French inspired crisis and boycott and the amigu ous Luxembourg accords of 1966. This has allowed countries to claim the right to a veto where they consider their vital national interests are involved. There is no clear definition of what this involves since it is simply a flexiblee political instrument . A classic instance was the German government invocation in 1985 to block a 1% cut in cereal prices which German farmers found objectionable." And Nick Bernard[5] wrote in eunet.politics: "There are in fact two different issues: the question of the so-called veto properly speaking, which is a reference to the Luxembourg accords of 1966 (and the UK understanding thereof) and the issue of the weighting of votes in Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) with enlargement of the EU. In the UK, politicians (on all sides) did little to clear this ambiguity. it often sounded as if they either did not have a clue as to what they were talking about or did have a clue but pretended not to. Nothing new here ( -:))" 4. What is the European Council? The European Council was formally established in 1974, building on the practice of holding Summits of EC Heads of Government, but its existence was only legally recognized in the Single European Act of 1987. The European Council is a special meeting of the Council of Ministers, in which the representatives of the Member States are the political heads of government themselves (11 PMs and the President of France, plus his PM if in a situation of cohabitation). The Foreign Ministers and three members of the Commission, including its President, also participate. The European Council should not be confused with the Council of Europe,[6] which is a totally separate interntional organisation independent of the EU. The European Council convenes twice a year, in the last month of each member state's presidency of the Council.[7] In addition to some powers of its own (mainly institutional ones), in theory it has all the legal powers of the Council of Ministers. However, it does not normally operate in this mode. The heads of government prefer to meet relatively informally, without being tied to a bureaucratic agenda, but with plenty of photo-opportunities and press conferences. Its meetings and statements are often very important in providing political impetus or laying down guidelines in areas of prime importance to the EU, but it leaves the day-to-day legislative work to the ordinary Council meetings. The European Council also has the main responsibility for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Note (from the booklet by Emile Nokl)[8]:Unlike the Council of Ministers, the European Council convenes in the absence of experts, senior civil servants or other supporting staff (except interpreters). This plays a major part in its political effectiveness [and puts a great burden on personal skills of the politicians present], but may often cause problems with subsequent implementation of its decisions. 5. Who is the President of the EU? The EU has no president; only its institutions have presidents. A. PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEPs elect the President (or chair) of the European Parliament and his/her bureau from their midst, with a mandate of two and a half years. Subsequent EP presidents since the first direct elections were: 1979-1982 Ms Simone Veil (LDR[9], France) 1982-1984 Mr Piet Dankert (PES[10], Netherlands) 1984-1987 Mr Pierre Pflimlin (EPP[11], France) 1987-1989 Sir Henry Plumb (Conservative, UK) [Tory MEPs were in the former European Democrats group during Lord Plumb's presidency; they were the last party to leave this group in 1992, when they joined the EPP[12] on a personal basis.] 1989-1992 Mr Enrique Baron Crespo (PES[13], Spain) 1992-1994 Mr Egon Klepsch (EPP[14], Germany) 1994-1997 Mr Klaus Hdnsch (PES[15], Germany) B. PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL The Council has a rotating presidency, with each member state being chair for six months only. These are the presidencies of the latest and following years: 1991 Luxembourg, the Netherlands 1992 Portugal, United Kingdom 1993 Denmark, Belgium 1994 Greece, Germany 1995 France, Spain 1996 Italy, Republic of Ireland C. PRESIDENT (CHAIRMAN) OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION The function of President (or chair) of the Commission has undoubtedly become much more important in the last ten years. This has much to do with the personal style of the man who has held the job for the last ten years, the French socialist Jacques Delors, and the extension of the EU's powers during his presidency. Mr. Delors predecessors were mainly considered top civil servants, but the political profile of the function has become much stronger. These are the Commission presidents since the 1967 merger[16]: 1967-1970 Mr Jean Rey (Liberal, Belgium) 1970-1972 Mr Malfatti (Christian Democrat, Italy) 1973-1976 Mr Frangois Ortoli (Gaullist, France) 1977-1980 Mr Roy Jenkins (Socialist [now LibDem], UK) 1981-1984 Mr Gaston Thorn (Liberal, Luxembourg) 1985-1994 Mr Jacques Delors (Socialist, France) 1995-2000 Mr Jacques Santer (Christian Democrat, Luxembourg) The Commission president is chosen in consensus by the European Council[17], which has shown to be quite a difficult task to accomplish now that the function has become highly politicised. On July 15th, the European Council agreed upon the Luxembourg PM, Mr Jacques Santer, as the new Commission president. This followed the UK government veto on the Belgian PM, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene. The EP approved Mr.Santer by a margin of only 22 votes on July 21st. In the coming months, it is planning to organise hearings modelled on those in the US Senate before it will vote on the collective approval of the new Commission. 6. What is the European Court of Justice? The European Court of Justice can be compared to the supreme court of the European Union. It has the task of interpreting the Treaties or secondary EU legislation when disputes arise. [Note:This is a very important task, since final compromises reached within the Council are often deliberately fuzzy to reach any agreement at all.] It has no general jurisdiction over the courts and laws of the member states. The European Court of Justice consists of thirteen Judges (one from each member state and one at large) and six Advocates-General who assist the Court by making preliminary recommendations which are almost invariably followed.The Court's rulings are directly applicable in all member states concerned. The European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, is not to be confused with the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg, which is only competent for issues arising from the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Personal Freedoms, and is recognised by all member states of the Council of Europe[18]. 7. What is the Court of Auditors? The Court of Auditors checks whether the accounts of all EU institutions are in accordance with legislation and jurisdiction, and it can comment on EU institutions' financial management. It is intended as a safeguard against abuse of the financial arrangements involved in EU policies, including questions of improper expenditure, fraud, as well as waste and value for money. It has twelve members (one from each member state), supported by a permanent profess ional staff of some 335. Its resources are generally considered inadequate to carry out its important functions. 8. What is the Economic and Social Committee? The Economic and Social Committee consists of representatives of the major interest groups from different sectors of economic and social life, notably of industry, trade unions, farmers, transporters and other sectors affected directly by the EU's economic and social policies. They must be consulted for policies in several areas defined in the treaties; they can be consulted by the Council or the Commission in other areas as well. There is little evidence of the ESC playing a significant role in the policy process. The ESC has 186 members (MESCs): 24 each from Germany, France, Italy and the UK 21 MESCs from Spain 12 each from Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal 9 each from Denmark and the Republic of Ireland 6 from Luxembourg 9. What is the Committee of Regions? The Committee of Regions is a new advisory body established by the Maastricht Treaty,[19] to take into account the views of regional and local government in European decision making. The advisory Committee of Regions is a compromise between the aspirations of powerful regions in federally organised member states (such as Germany, Spain and Belgium), which have long asked for direct influence on EU decision making, and the views of much more centralised member states (such as the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands) whose regional governments have only derived powers from a strong central government. The CoR has the same numeric composition as the ESC: totalling 186 members (MCoRs). It is important to note that the MCoRs are appointed by their national governments, not directly by any regional authority. 10. What is the European Monetary Institute? The Maastricht Treaty[20] inlcudes provisions for the establishment of a Economic and Monetary Union by the end of this century. This was not the first try: attempts (to codify the objective) failed in 1962, 1970 and 1978. The European Monetary Institute (based in Frankfurt) has the task of co-ordinating monetary policy of the central banks of the member states within the European System of Central Banks(ESCB), and to prepare the so-called third stage of Economic and Monetary Union, in which a single European currency will be introduced. This stage is intended to start in 1999. At the start of the third stage, the EMI will be renamed to European Central Bank (ECB). The director of the EMI is Mr Alexandre Lamfalussy (Belgium). ___________________________________ Go to Table of Contents[21] Edited by Roland Siebelink.[22] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html [1] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#maastricht [2] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#lauder [3] http://www.echo.lu/dg13/en/dg13tasks.html [4] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#andrew-macmullen [5] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#nick-bernard [6] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#coe [7] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#councilpres [8] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#emile-noel [9] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#ldr [10] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#pes [11] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#epp [12] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#epp [13] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#pes [14] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#epp [15] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#pes [16] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#merger [17] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#eu-council [18] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#coe [19] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#maastricht [20] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-a.html#maastricht [21] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [22] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): Where to find further information [IMAGE] D. WHERE TO FIND EU-RELATED INFORMATION ___________________________________ New Internet users read this please: All information sources on the Internet are represented in Uniform Resource Locator (URL) format throughout this document. Although this may look incomprehensible to you at first, it is a very convenient standard way to describe almost anything you can get from the Internet in any possible way. If you have access to a WorldWideWeb client such as Mosaic, MacWeb, WinWeb, Lynx or NetScape, you may enter the URL directly (use the `Load URL' command or type the URL in the URL box and press Enter), or simply use a link if you are browsing through this document in your WorldWideWeb client. If you don't have access to the WorldWideWeb, you may still retrieve the URLs through electronic mail. To do this, send a message to <listserv@info.cern.ch> with the command send "<URL>" (without the <> characters, but with the double quotes) in the body. This works for all URLs under 5000 lines, though you may encounter problems with binary files. Using this service, you may follow the hyperlinks listed at the end of this document's text version as if you had a real WWW client. [You may have to try several times though, even if the server says it cannot retrieve the requested URL]. Intermediate users:If you know how to use gopher and/or anonymous FTP, you may retrieve the URLs starting with "gopher://" resp. "ftp://" or "file://" at the host mentioned directly behind the "://" characters. Thus "ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/documents/text.txt" means anonymous ftp to host info.cern.ch, chdir to /pub/documents, file text.txt. 1. EU infosystems on the Internet Like most other European governmental institutions, EU institutions are only just beginning to connect themselves to the Internet. This seems due at least partly to a historical preference for ISO networking protocols (such as X.25, X.400) over IP protocols. The European Commission's Directorate-General XIII[1] has set up an experimental WorldWideWeb server, I'M Europe[2] as of September 1994. It contains information related to the Information Market, especially the Commission's IMPACT programme, as well as a copy of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union.[3] ECHO DG-XIII also offer a telnet connection to their ECHO (European Commission Host Organisation) system. This infosystem contains some free databases, mostly related to research and development activities within the European Union. You will find virtually no information about the EU itself though. Some of ECHO's databases require subscription fees, but you can get a free access code for all public information. Information: ECHO help desk, tel. +352.3498.1200; fax +352.3498.1234. Try `telnet echo.lu[4]' and login as `echo' if you want to try. Alternatively, you may try the unofficial ECHO/WWW gateway[5] which offers access to some of ECHO's information without getting into a telnet session, such as Eurodicautom[6] (a glossary of mainly technical terms in all EU languages). No other EU institution offers any service on the Internet for now. 2. EU infosystems on other networks There are several other databases available for people logging in through the public access X.25 network, Videotex systems or through a simple PSTN connection (modem connection via the Public Service Telephone Network; obviouslylong-distance charges for most users). Every host has its own command language or structure; there is no universal interface. Most of these systems are not for free, and require previous registration. We will thus limit ourselves to very basic information about them. A. EUROPEAN COMMISSION INFOSYSTEMS In addition to the Internet connection, ECHO is also available via X.25, PSTN and (very limited) national videotex services. See above for telephone and fax numbers. Eurobases is available via X.25 and PSTN. It contains several interesting databases, among which the CELEX database with EU legislation and jurisdiction. Most information is available in any of the nine EU languages. There is a per-kB-fee in addition to the ECU100 administration charges. Information: tel.+352.49928.2563, fax +352.407877. ARCADE is DG-XII[7]'s free two-way, interactive infosystem with specific information about the European Commission's R&D programmes. It is available in nine languages, via X.25, PSTN and national videotex services. Information: tel.+32.2.2950745, fax +32.2.2960626. B. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT INFOSYSTEMS The European Parliament offers news and general press information in its menu-based EPISTEL system, available via X.25 and PSTN. Subscription is free for accredited journalists; others pay ECU 100/month. Information: tel.+32.2.2842128, fax +32.2.2305808. EPOQUE is a documentary database produced by the European Parliament. Its first objective is to make information easily accessible internally, but it is also intended to provide information on the EP activities to the outside world. Access is free, but requires previous registration; EPOQUE is available through PSTN in Luxembourg and through X.25. Information: fax +352.439317. 3. EU institutions' email addresses A. EUROPEAN COMMISSION EMAIL ADDRESSES Most people working at the European Commission should now be reachable though the Internet at the address <given_name_initial.surname@mhsg.cec.be>. The example of <J.Santer@mhsg.cec.be> is purely fictional because this address system applies only to the Commission's staff (civil servants), rather than the Commissioners (politicians). Indeed, rumour goes that the authors of the Bangemann Report used faxes (not e-mail) to exchange drafts and comments ;-) Some of the DG's have their own Internet domain as well, but their users should still be reachable under the scheme described above. Thanks to Alan Fraser Reekie[8] for providing this information. B. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT EMAIL ADDRESSES The European Parliament has a simple MX (mail exchange) record for (old-fashioned?) UUCP connections: ditbxl.eppe.be. Mail sent to <postmaster@eppe.be> or <root@ditbxl.eppe.be> usually arrives, but in my experience, nobody answers. 4. Other European political resources on the Internet A. WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION INFORMATION Several documents[9] from the Western European Union[10]'s parliamentary assembly are available. B. REFERENDUM CAMPAIGNS IN NORDIC COUNTRIES Both the Norwegian and the Finnish "NO" campaigns (against accession to the European Union, for the October resp. November referenda) have their own World Wide Web pages. The Norwegian "NO" page[11] is in the national language only (I can't tell whether it is Nynorsk or Bokmel, sorry), while the Finnish one is available in Finnish[12] and Swedish.[13] In contrast, in Sweden it is the "YES"-side of the campaign[14] that has a home page, in Swedish only. C. EUROPEAN UNION DOCUMENTS Apart from the Maastricht Treaty[15] mentioned above, basic EU treaties are not available. This is especially regretful since the Maastricht Treaty refers to them constantly. Just the EEC and Euratom Treaties[16] are available, but only for those with an understanding of Norwegian! The same site offers an hypertext version of the Maastricht Treaty in Norwegian[17] too. If the same resources are available in other (potential) EU languages, please let me know. There is some electronic documentation from DGXIII[18] available via the Universitdt Stuttgart: ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/org/cec/ The Bangemann Report[19] (or European Council report on specific measures to be taken by the European Community and the Members States for information infrastructures) is available on the WorldWideWeb. D. DISCUSSIONS ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND RELATED TOPICS Discussion about European Union politics takes place on Netnews , in eunet.politics[20] and alt.politics.ec[21]. Neither of these groups are carried by all sites, since none of them is in the official Usenet feed. Most regulars in the discussions try to post all articles both to eunet.politics and alt.politics.ec, so that reading one of the two groups should be sufficient. Those of you who can't post to the groups directly can use the mail-to-news gateway at the Demon site: simply send your message to <newsgroup@news.demon.co.uk>, eg eunet.politics@news.demon.co.uk[22]. This works for all newsgroups carried locally at the Demon site. There are two mailing lists concerned with European Union issues: The EU list discusses all issues pertaining to the European Union. To subscribe to EU, send a message to <listproc@knidos.cc.metu.edu.tr>[23] with the command `SUB EU <your name>' as the first line in the body of the mail, not the `Subject:' line. EU is maintained by Egemen Metin TURAN <metin@knidos.cc.metu.edu.tr>[24]. EURO-LEX (All European Legal Information Exchange List) will allow the exchange of and mutual assistance with legal information research in all European countries. Especially invited to participate in EURO-LEX are members of law faculties and law library staffs at European universities and other academic institutions. Experts in specialized legal fields are as welcome as "allrounders" in legal documentation and information. To subscribe to Euro-Lex, send a message to <listserv@vm.gmd.de>[25] with the command `sub euro-lex <your name>' as the first line in the body of the mail, not the `Subject:' line. Euro-Lex is maintained by Renate Weidinger) <bbweidin@dnkurz1.bitnet>[26] E. MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES Jonathan Slater[27] has created a graphical collection of European resources[28] in WebWorld, with references to i.a. a collection of European countries' (cultural) home pages,[29] and to the file you are reading now of course ;-) If you can wait a few minutes for retrieval, the Internet can also provide you with the current ECU rate[30]: gopher://gopher.uni-paderborn.de:4324/echofind info ECU An example of the `Europe of the Citizens' is provided by AEGEE (Association des Etats-Giniraux des Etudiants de l'Europe),[31] a paneuropean student organization. Finally, there is a WWW page giving access to several sizes of the European flag[32] in monochrome and colour graphical files. I think the blue should be darker though. 5. Representative Offices and Delegations The first version of this list included telephone and fax numbers of the EP's and EC's representative offices and delegations. I have excluded them from version 1.1 on, because I think it would be much more useful to have complete lists (including postal addresses) posted separately. As soon as I have the complete files ready (ie until my OCR setup is finally working), I will make it another periodical posting connected to this file. Up to then , please contact me if you need an address. ___________________________________ Go to Table of Contents[33] Edited by Roland Siebelink.[34] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html [1] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#dg13 [2] http://www.echo.lu/ [3] http://www.echo.lu/eudocs/en/maastricht/mt_top.html [4] telnet://echo@echo.lu/ [5] http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~felix/echo.html [6] http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~felix/eurodictautom.html [7] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-c.html#dg12 [8] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#afreekie [9] ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/doc/world/AWEU [10] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-b.html#b6 [11] http://www.oslonett.no/nteu/index.html [12] http://www.kaapeli.fi/~veu/ [13] http://www.kaapeli.fi/eu.html [14] http://www.nada.kth.se/~f91-gal [15] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-d.html#maastrichttext [16] http://www.uio.no/tekst/roma-avtalen/1.INNLEDNI.html [17] http://www.uio.no/tekst/maastricht/traktat.html [18] ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/org/cec/ [19] http://www.earn.net/EC/bangemann.html [20] news:eunet.politics [21] news:alt.politics.ec [22] mailto:eunet.politics@ne ws.demon.co.uk [23] mailto:listproc@knidos.cc.metu.edu.tr [24] mailto:metin@KNIDOS.CC.METU.EDU.TR [25] mailto:listserv@vm.gmd.de [26] mailto:BBWEIDIN@DKNKURZ1.bitnet [27] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#jslater [28] http://sailfish.peregrine.com/wb/ww/m(80,92,0,0) [29] http://s700.uminho.pt/cult-europ.html [30] gopher://gopher.uni-paderborn.de:4324/echofind info ECU [31] http://www.uni-konstanz.de/studis/aegee/ [32] http://www.adfa.oz.au/CS/flg/col/none/xx-eur.html [33] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [34] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be --xxxSECTIONxxx Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 European Union Basics (FAQ): About... [IMAGE] E. ABOUT THE EUROPEAN UNION BASICS (FAQ) ___________________________________ 1. Format of this document From version 1.1 of this document, the original version is in HTML and available on the web. The text version is a screen dump from the CERN Line Mode Browser[1]. Please appreciate that some accented characters will probably be lost (and falsely translated) in the process of posting this document to the different newsgroups, especially for those of you whose sites haven't converted to 8-bit character sets yet. If you have a WWW browser, you may prefer to look at the original file (see next paragraph). 2. Where to get the most recent version of this file The latest version of this document[2] is available in hypertext format at <http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html>. The text version of the file is available at the following gopherlink: Type=0 Name=European Union Basics (FAQ) text version Path=0/LocalProjects/CSMINC/extern/eubasics.txt Host=gopher.vub.ac.be Port=70 URL: gopher://gopher.vub.ac.be:70/00/LocalProjects/CSMINC/extern/eubasics.t xt It is also posted monthtly to the EC mailing list and the newsgroups eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec, talk.politics.misc, alt.answers, news.answers. If you think other newsgroups should be included in this posting, don't hesitate to suggest this to the author. You can also retrieve the most recent version of this file in text format via anonymous FTP to rtfm.mit.edu [18.181.0.24], as file `basics' in the /pub/usenet/news.answers/european-union directory. Many mirror sites are available. If you do not have anonymous ftp access, you can access the MIT archives by mail server as well. Send an E-mail message to <mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu> with the command send usenet/news.answers/european-union/basics in the body. Alternatively, you may retrieve the file directly from the WorldWideWeb through email: send a message to <listserv@info.cern.ch> with the command send "http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html" in the body. This works for other URLs too, so you may follow the hyperlinks listed at the end of the text version as if you had a real WWW client. 3. Author, contributors and sources This list was edited by Roland Siebelink <rcsiebel@vub.ac.be>. Please contact me by e-mail if you have any questions, corrections, contributions or remarks about this list. Several people contributed to the information contained in this list, thus making it more complete, accurate and up-to-date. I would like to thank specifically: Malte Lewan[3] <cml@df.lth.se> Alan Fraser Reekie[4] <aree@dg13.cec.be> Nick Bernard[5] <bernn@essex.ac.uk> Jozef van Brabant[6] <Jozef_van_Brabant_at_UNHQ3@un.org> David Lauder[7] <ddl1@unix.york.ac.uk> Jonathan Slater[8] And finally, Andrew Macmullen[9] who helped me a lot in sending many minor corrections and additional i nformation. Andrew[10] also writes: "Most of the infomation contained here could be found in greater depth in basic text books on the EU. Three excellent up to date works (and all available in paperback editions) are: NUGENT (N.) 1994. The Government and Politics of the European Union. London, Macmillan. DINAN (D.) 1994. An Ever Closer Union? London, Macmillan. ARCHER (C.) 1994. Organizing Europe: the Institutions of Integration. Edward Arnold. The leading academic journal carrying excellent material on all aspects of the EU is, in spite of its rather out-dated title: Journal of Common Studies (Blackwells, Oxford). This includes an invaluable annual supplement The European Union Annual Review of Activites." Some of the (paper) sources I used to find the answers on the questions in this list are: NOEL (E.) 1994. Working Together--The Institutions of the European Community.Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 66pp. STEIN (M.) & VON WITZLEBEN (A.), eds., 1994. Europe Info. Directory of important information sources in the European Union. Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 161p. The European Parliament Factsheets. The Treaties of Paris, Rome and Maastricht and the Single European Act. Various brochures published by the European Commission and the European Parliament. ___________________________________ Go to Table of Contents[11] Edited by Roland Siebelink.[12] Corrections and suggestions welcome. *** References from this document *** [orig] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html [1] http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Status.html [2] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [3] mailto:cml@df.lth.se [4] mailto:aree@dg13.cec.be [5] mailto:bernn@essex.ac.uk [6] mailto:Jozef_van_Brabant_at_UNHQ3@un.org [7] mailto:ddl1@unix.york.ac.uk [8] mailto:jhs335@ulst.ac.uk [9] mailto: a.l.macmullen@durham.ac.uk [10] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics-e.html#andrew-macmullen [11] http://www.vub.ac.be/CSNMIT/eubasics.html [12] mailto:rcsiebel@vub.ac.be