More on Europe and Europeans (3)

The European institutions The building of Europe Speaking European The nightmare of languages

An economic power or a confederation ? The case of Turkey. More to come

The European institutions

There are many European institutions : some of them are part of the European Union, others are not and belong to another entity. here is a (partial) list.

More to come...

Institutions of the European Union (as of 2007)
Name	composed of	mission	functioning	chair	sits in	Comment
European Council (Conseil Européen)	heads of state and government		meets four times a year	chaired by a member state for 6 months		a purely political level
European Commission (Commission Européenne)	27 members	proposes European policies ("directives")		Jose Manuel Barroso (from Portugal)	Brussels	the management of Europe
Council of the European Union (Conseil de l'Union Europeenne)	the ministers of the 27 governments	the ministers of the same fields (finance, education, agriculture, transport, ) meet on a regular basis to propose and coordinate European policies	most decisions require a unanimous vote	its General Secretary (Javier Solana, from Spain) is in charge of the coordination of the European foreign policy	Brussels and Luxembourg	the tool to facilitate the implementation of European policies into each country
European Parliament (Parlement Européen)	785 delegates elected in member countries	the legislative power of the European Union	the deputies join one the transnational political groups (the most important are PPE : center right christian democrats, PES : center left social democrats)	Josep Borell, (from Spain)	Brussels and Strasbourg	the legislative power
The European Court of Justice (Cour Européenne de Justice)		controls the implementation of European laws		Vassillios Skouris (from Greece)	Luxembourg	the European supreme court
The European Central Bank (Banque Centrale Européenne)		the regulator of the European currency Euro		Jean-Claude Trichet (from France)	Frankfurt	the European central bank
Other entities, distinct from the European Union
Council of Europe (Conseil de l'Europe) -	42 countries including Russia		established 1949		Strasbourg	strongly focused on the Rights of Man in former Eastern countries
Cour Européenne des Droits de l'Homme			established 1959		Strasbourg
OECD	18 members (the richest countries of the world)		established 1948			initially the organization in charge of manging the funds of the Marschall Plan
Europol		coordination of European police forces	established 1995
European Investment Bank (Banque Européenne d'Investissement)	shareholders : the member states of the E.U.	finance infrastructure		Philippe Maestadt (from Belgium)	Luxembourg
NATO (OTAN)	includes non European countries : USA, Canada, Turkey		established 1949
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD)	shareholders : the member states of the E.U.	finance economic development and infranstructure in former communist countries	established 1992	Jean Lemierre (from France)	London

DID YOU KNOW THAT.....? The French European deputies (78 out of 732 members of the European parliament) are not as active and influential as they should (14th out of 15 for assiduity, 1,36 report per deputy compared to 3,45 for German deputies) ; they are active in the less powerful committees (Human Rights or Foreign Policy, instead of Economic Committee). Unlike other countries whose deputies join one of the two main European parliamentary groups (PPE : Right of PSE : Left), they are divided into 8 different minority groups. In a nutshell : they are very French....

The building of Europe.....

Why it is so difficult....

Reasons for hope...

Of course, the difficulties of the building of Europe are deeply grounded in history : the traditional rivalry between France and England the two World Wars caused by Germany Eastern countries feeling that the West abandonned them to Russia Spaniards still resent the French for the Napoleonic wars ! and many more The building of Europe is NOT the building of a federation (like the USA) : there is no common decision to fight against an external power, no common language, etc... The image of future Europe is not clear for everybody and is certainly not the same for the different countries. Typically (but national policies change too...), some countries expect only a large homegeneous free trade zone (U.K., Denmark, ...), others expect a political power which could challenge the USA or China (France, ...), Eastern countries want an economic booster and a protection against Russia (with a little help from the USA), etc... On most matters, resulting from existing treaties, any decision requires unanimity between the 27 countries : any of them can block anything. Nowadays, most of national legislation (more than 2/3) comes, in fact, from European legislation. All European countries must transpose European legislation into their own national legislation and France does not deserve more than a C- with a 12%+ backlog on European "directives" (Italy : 10%, other countries < 6%). France is particularly late on environmental and agriculture-related issues. The number of official languages (23 today) makes eveything more complicated ! Still under construction...

What European peoples want to build is still unclear but what the Thirteen American Colonies wanted to build in 1776 was unclear too ! The days of wars are over : as a symbol of it, a first textbook of History common for French and German junior and senior year High School students was published in 2006 The Erasmus program is very succesful and for many young people Europe does mean something. The whole Europe is now a free trade region and a region without borders The common currency, the Euro, is a success : more budgetary discipline (even for France...), easier for foreign investors, ... More to come...

USEFUL TIPS .. Do you speak European ? Some European concepts are familiar to most people in Europe. Here are some examples : CEE or EEC (European Economic Union) = the relation between countries before the Treaty of Maastricht 1992, now forming the UE or EU (European Union) " Espace Schengen " : this is the name for the countries which have decided to adopt the same procedures and police controls regarding the access to their territory for non-European foreigners : therefore there is absolutely no police control between them (France, Germany, Italy etc.. are in, U.K. is out " Eurocrate " : a member of the bureaucracy in Brussels the "principe de subsidiarité" means that can be taken at the supra-national level only actions that cannot be taken more efficiently at the national levels  PAC ("Politique Agricole Commune") : a financial system of compensation to protect European farmers from the competition of lower prices on the world market and maintain an active agriculture " Directive " is an European law ; to be enforced, it must be transposed (" transposée ") into each national legal system, which can take time A "traité" is a agreement between all European countries and carrying out a major step in the building of Europe. For instance : Treaty of Maastricht (1992, leading to the monetary union), Nice (2001, entry of Eastern countries), Roma (1957, the common market), etc... More to come

Europe : an economical power or a future confederation ?

Europe and Turkey : For most Americans, what is the problem? Turkey should be part the European Union, that's all. For Europeans, it is not that simple. The facts : Turkey is a large country, with a population of more than 60 million (comparable to the largest European countries : Germany, France, UK and Italy) ; it is a promising and fast-growing country economically, it is very close to Europe. However : it is a 100%-Muslim country, with a strong secular tradition created by Atatürk (in the 1920s) and supported by the army ; as a member, it would carry a lot of weight in Europe : culturally, is it in Europe ? geographically, Turkey, with borders with Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia, is NOT in Europe buy in the Middle-East historically, Turkey has been for centuries a major threat to Europe, with the conquest and occupation of the Balkans (until the 19th century), the last attack being the siege of Vienna in 1683 Europeans are deeply divided about the admission of Turkey , both between them (the most favorable being the closest to US foreign policy) and inside each country. In France and in many other other countries, there is no doubt that, if submitted to a referendum, the admission of Turkey would be refused. My personal opinion : by persistently pushing for the admission of Turkey, successive US governments have acted in an extremely irresponsible way, making Turkey frustrated and Europeans upset. Turkey is a solid ally and a good economic partner, but culturally and politically it is not a European country. What if the European Union was pushing for Mexico to become a US state ?

The nightmare of languages in Europe : - 23 official languages - 2,500 translators for the Commission (only) : total cost 302 million Euros (1,1 billion Euros for all European Institutions) - the most spoken language within the European Union is English 51% (13% as native speakers, 38% as foreign langage), French comes third with 26% (12% n.s., 14% f.l.) ; see detailed figures - only 51% of the French speak a foreign language : an average position between the best (Finland, Germany : almost 70%) and the worst European countries (Ireland, UK : 35%) : see detailed figures More to come...

DID YOU KNOW THAT.....? For decades, France has been, by far, the most irritating country in the life of the European Union (un-cooperative, always alone against all the others, often threatening to step out, ...), but now her position is seriously challenged by a more recent member country, Poland.

To table of contents To facts & figures More on Europe Back to home page	Harriet Welty Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French. Order her books : "French Toast, An American in Paris Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press, New York, 1999 "French Fried, The Culinary Capers of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001 More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming events, testimonials, etc..)	site still under construction
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