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| Dossier Europe | | | Recent articles: |
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| 25 January 2006
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The Club of Amsterdam organizes a Conference on how to improve your strategy and planning processes.
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| 10 October 2005
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by Alan Cafruny and Magnus Ryner
'Far from promoting greater integration, as its architects predicted, the European Monetary Union (EMU) serves to intensify conflict among and within member states by accelerating uneven development, dramatizing inequalities, and provoking demands for the renationalization of monetary policy.'
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In France, the referendum on the European Constitution is sparking more political discussions than most general elections in the last forty years. Reflections on a lively debate.
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| 25 February 2005
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The European Commission invites you to share your views and opinions on EU development policy.
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| 15 November 2003
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Author: Steve Peers (Statewatch)
The European Council is nearing the deadline of December 2003 set for agreement on a proposed Directive on asylum procedures.
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| 15 September 2003
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European officials set forth a European Constitution without consulting the rest of the E.U. citizenry. Here, some citizens respond with an alternative proposal.
RISQ Presents: The People's Constitution for the European Union (PCEU), an initiative of Murien and Oscar ten Houten, in co-operation with RISQ Associate John Morijn.
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As the Convention on the Future of Europe concludes with confusion among analysts and a fever of disinterest from the peoples of the continent, this Brussels-watcher insists that its president, Giscard d’Estaing, steered a well-judged if tightly-controlled course to a balanced outcome.
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At a meeting in the Egmont Palace in Brussels on 29 April 2003, the leaders of Germany, France, Luxembourg and Belgium agreed on giving new impetus to the construction of a Europe of Security and Defence. Among other things, they stated that the European Union must have a credible security and defence policy; called for a ‘general clause of solidarity and common security binding all member states’; and called on the Convention to consider the founding of a European Security and Defence Union (ESDU), for those member states that would want to speed up the strengthening of their defence cooperation.
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Improving the democratic character of the European Union was to be one of the main objectives of the Convention on the future of the EU. The Laeken declaration that set out its mandate underlined the need to bring the European institutions closer to the citizens: "The Union needs to become more democratic, more transparent and more efficient".
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In his widely received speech on 12 May 2000 at the Humboldt University in Berlin, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer characterised the debate on the future of the European Union as concerning the "finality" of European integration. While this expression may set the standards too high, the current Convention on the Future of the European Union seems determined to clear the ground for a revolutionary revision of the Union.
Paper presented at the research seminar of Advanced Research on the Europeanisation of the Nation-State (ARENA), University of Oslo, 11 march 2003
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On 1 March the work of the European Convention on the Future of Europe was one year underway. As an early birthday gift, on 28 February, three UK Conservatives wrote an open letter to its President, entitled "Doing Less and Doing it Better" (CONV 592/03)*. They attacked the Convention’s 'Magic Mantra of Simplification', detecting in the overwhelming focus on practicalities a covert attempt to push through an integrationist agenda.
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Laying building blocks or just window-dressing? - The First Half Year of the Convention on the Future of the EU.
Having started on the last day of February, the Convention on the Future of the EU has now finished its first half-year of work. Success of the Convention will be measured basically by two criteria. First of all, it will have to come up with innovative proposals that overcome the current deadlock on EU reform. Secondly, the Convention has to harness broad social support for the project, endowing its work with such political legitimacy. This would prevent the Intergovernmental Conference, which will draft the actual reform of the treaties, from circumventing its conclusions. Since the first half-year has been designated as 'a listening period', one should be cautious about issuing any statements about the Convention's prospects for success. Nevertheless, a work programme is emerging that provides clues on where the Convention is heading, and where it is not heading.
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