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I don't understand why this map of Europe is used. It is true that in the south of Slovakia something like 500.000 Hungarians live but it is STILL Slovakia, not Hungary. So, on the map the southern part of Slovakia is cut off and added to Hungary. The area of Slovakia is 49.000 km2 and the area of Switzerland is 41.000 km2 but on the map Slovakia seems to be smaller than Switzerland. Could anyone replace the map, please?
Well, ok,. i was reading about the European Union and i read the official languages. But their is sometihng wrong. they said that English is the most foreign language people speak there. French is, also, pretty much every country now will teach French as a second language in School. In Enlgand, French is the most foreign language spoke. France is the main country of Europe, having Paris as the center of economic. FrankFurt is second (in Germany, Students learn french, and then English). Also, there is a big anti-American feeling in Europe, so why would they make English they 'official' language. With time, French is becoming more and more used in Europe, while english sits after French. Their is big chances that German language knocks off the Enlgish language also.
Another point; anti-Americanism doesn't relate to the English language. It is from England, afterall, and not America. Again, a POV point. And to add to that, English isn't the official language, it's just the most commonly spoken one (per the article).—Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])
May I guide you all to these images:
Now then, they are all more or less equally spoken across Europe. Emperor Jackal 11:42, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
The opening sentence states "The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 27 states." Yet the Supranationalism article argues that the EU is not considered to be supranational by most academics. I suggest this is too contentious for the opening sentence and should be reworded. Lumos3 09:00, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
Economic politics are clearly handled supranational. The EU institutions govern the EEC with directives without intergovernmental treaties. The article about Supranationalism is therefore inaccurate. Lear 21 10:25, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you mean by an example. There are thousands and thousands of regulations, all of which are binding. They are published in the official journal, and the database can be searched at EUR-LEX. A fairly random example would be COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 907/2004 of 29 April 2004 amending the marketing standards applicable for fresh fruit and vegetables with regards to presentation and labelling. It contains things like: ‘Stickers individually affixed on product shall be such as, when removed, neither to leave visible traces of glue, nor to lead to skin defects.’
The different binding nature of regulations and directives is explained at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.3:
1.3.2. Regulation
Adopted by the Council in conjunction with the European Parliament or by the Commission alone, a regulation is a general measure that is binding in all its parts. Unlike directives, which are addressed to the Member States, and decisions, which are for specified recipients, regulations are addressed to everyone.
A regulation is directly applicable, which means that it creates law which takes immediate effect in all the Member States in the same way as a national instrument, without any further action on the part of the national authorities.
1.3.3. Directive
Adopted by the Council in conjunction with the European Parliament or by the Commission alone, a directive is addressed to the Member States. Its main purpose is to align national legislation.
A directive is binding on the Member States as to the result to be achieved but leaves them the choice of the form and method they adopt to realise the Community objectives within the framework of their internal legal order.
If a directive has not been transposed into national legislation in a Member State, if it has been transposed incompletely or if there is a delay in transposing it, citizens can directly invoke the directive in question before the national courts.
A directive is binding on the national government, though there is room for interpretation. The national legislature has a date by which national legislation to implement the directive must be passed. I believe the UK and Denmark are the two states that most often keep to the deadline, whereas the Germans are often very tardy. AIUI, if the appropriate legislation is not passed, national or European courts may directly apply their own interpretation of the directive. Nationals may also sue their own government for losses resulting from their government's breach of the law. I believe this happened in Germany when the Federal Republic of Germany was late in implementing an EC directive protecting holidaymakers in case of bankcruptcy of holiday organisers. If I recall correctly, Germany was first convicted of a breach of the directive by the European Court, and a German court subsequently awarded damages against the German state to some holiday makers.-- Boson 14:00, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
A European framework law shall be a legislative act binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods.
-- Boson 20:28, 30 March 2007 (UTC)Legislative acts 1. European laws and framework laws shall be adopted, on the basis of proposals from the Commission, jointly by the European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure as set out in Article III-396.
Debates about these sorts of little words are never ending, even if they are interesting. I think the technical answer to the question is "yes" and "no" - "supra" just means "above", so are there things where EU decision making is above nation states that are members? Yes. Is it always above? No. Countries are free to leave the EU, and they are the ones who create the treaties, so ultimately Member States are the highest if you like; but I think that to most people supra implies what the EU is ("albeit in limited fields" as the ECJ once said) and it's something that has not been done before. I wouldn't describe the US and Germany as Supranational entities, because nation states can't be above themselves (if you see what I mean) so these kinds of comparisons don't work. Academics like Weiler are talk about supranational simply as something contrasted to intergovernmentalism- the way that the UN works for instance. My own view is that the EU is a model that is breaking past and beyond the international system of the nation state and that's what really makes it "supra" "national". Wik idea 08:11, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
I have changed the opening sentence to 'sui generis' rather than 'both supra and intergov', as given the long discussion here, it is clearly contentious and ambiguous - an entire article could probably be written on the subject. I think sui generis fits better, and is the way the EU is described in a lot of the literature i have read. Suicup 14:24, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
I think its quite ridicolous when talking about the geography of Europe to use an image of a beach and believe it is somehow representative. I've placed a satellite composite of the European continent which is far more suitable. I've made two reverts, I'll leave it for others to decide. -- A.Garnet 13:03, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
The coastline is the most dominant geographical feature for the vast majority of member states. It influences especially the climate situation. It´s a standard image for this kind of section. It also avoids being a 'beach' in a touristic sense, because it lacks the people. Lear 21 21:47, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I would support another image (alpine region prefered), when written content is expanded as well. For now, a gallery or a second image would lead to an overload in this section. Lear 21 10:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
It is almost mirroring this article and could be used for expansion [1]. Lear 21 13:32, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
This is set up wrong, with my Firefox and Opera browsers the table covers up half the article. It needs to be fixed so it it readable. I don't know how to do it or otherwise I would
4.142.180.158 07:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)IJMS
better? Lear 21 12:02, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
I can't reproduce the display error with my Firefox, Safari and Opera (for Mac). Can you post a screenshot? Otherwise I'm reverting to my version, that is valid HTML and much cleaner. --
giandrea
13:48, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
This section is the result of a difficult compromise. Any change to this section is not minor, and needs a very, very good edit summary, or better an argument here, or even better consensus here. Any other edits will be reverted. Arnoutf 17:39, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I don't know if anyone else has found this but to me, despite the content being good, the ordering of the page seems a bit haphazard. I figure we could re-order a few things and prioritise things better. For example the pillars seem to have an undue amount of attention and such detailed information on the political workings should be kept on the politics page. The huge amount of detail on candidate countries could be slimmed down to talking generally about expansion. In addition, some areas seem unnecessarily split, for example; religion is also a matter of culture, environment is also a matter of geography, the CFSP is a also a matter of foreign relations. And so on. Here is a quick list I drew up of a possible way to organise it. Any thoughts?
1. Geography
1.1 Environment
2. History
3. Member states
3.1 Enlargement
4. Politics and Government
4.1 Institutions and bodies
4.2 Treaties
4.3 Three Pillars
4.4 Foreign Relations
4.5 Law
5. Economy
5.1 The euro
5.2 Infrastructure
5.3 Development
6 Culture and Demographics
6.1 Languages
6.2 Religion
6.3 Sport
6.4 Largest cities
7.1 Education and Science
7.2 Exchange programs
7.3 Technology Institute
7.4 Space policy
8. Footnotes
9. References
10. See also
11. External links
- JLogan 17:46, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
1. History
2. Politics and Government
2.1 Institutions and bodies
2.2 Structure --Treaties & Three Pillars--
2.3 Foreign Relations
2.4 Law
3. Member states
3.1 Enlargement
4. Geography
4.1 Environment
4.2 Schengen
5. Economy
5.1 The euro
5.2 Infrastructure
5.3 Agriculture and Development --CAP / eu grants to poorest areas--
5.4 Education & Science --Erasmus, Technology Institute etc. / Space Policy - Galileo--
6 Demographics --primarily stats--
6.1 Languages
6.2 Religion
6.4 Largest cities
7. Culture --Actually talk about European culture--
7.1 Cultural Capital
7.2 Sport
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by JLogan ( talk • contribs) 09:05, 15 April 2007 (UTC). - JLogan 09:06, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I know that there have been edit wars and vandalism around this issue before, but it's a matter of course that numbers in the EU infobox considers the EU "as a single unity". Before, there was a "if ranked" footnote instead. If the EU isn't ranked/considered as an ordinary country in another wikipedia article is totally irrelevant for this article. Let's get rid of this stupid compromise, and improve the infobox. +It looks better. S. Solberg J. 18:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
The "if ranked" is dispensable because the EU IS! already ranked in several references like the IMF statistics. Lear 21 11:44, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29
None of those statistics shows the GDP total at 14million as stated now. Perhaps someone should fix one or the other. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MitchKliev ( talk • contribs) 01:14, 17 April 2007 (UTC).
The IMF figure is an estimation of September 2006 and is highly credible. The definite GDP figure will be calculated end of April 2007. Lear 21 12:59, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
I have strong reason to beleive that User:Andrew16 is User:Daniel_Chiswick sockpuppet:
The only difference is that User:Andrew16 gives SF as a place of residence/origin rather than LA. Something that he/she might have done to throw off supicious editors. The above are simply too many conicidences for me- The same agenda, the same type of edits, the same age with one account being opened just one day after the other got blocked. I have voiced my concern on the appropriate notice board as well. Regards, Signature brendel 06:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Basketball is hugely popular in Greece,Lithuania,Italy,Spain,Slovenia and enjoys varying levels of popularity in France,Germany,Latvia and elsewhere. Mentioning field hockey as popular and omitting basketball seems arbitrary. Please add basketball to the list,without it mentioned it is incomplete, plain and simple. XVA 12:47, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Arbitrariness is an issue. Field hockey shouldn't be mentioned over basketball. XVA 18:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Game attendances of the top club competition in europe, last season. It is in the millions. http://217.13.116.51/finalfour06/noticia.jsp?temporada=E05&jornada=24&id=659 Attendances in spain. http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/6012/180/item http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/17361/arti.html Worldwide tv coverage of 2006 world championship (gold and silver medalists are EU countries) http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/17894/arti.html Attendance of the Euroleague final (Champions League equivalent), more than 18.000 (sold out). http://www.euroleague.net/main/results/showgame?gamecode=230 In general,basketball is easily world's second most popular team sport, and huge in large parts of Europe (and EU). XVA 00:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
The map in the "Member States" section is incorrect. It shows the Turkish Bosphorus in EU Member State Blue, while the rest of Turkey is the correct green as a candidate country. I'd correct it myself, but I've got no time or graphics editing skills, so could some-one fix it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JavaJawaUK ( talk • contribs) 19:54, 24 April 2007 (UTC).-- JavaJawaUK 19:55, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
I suggest "in varietate concordia" be seperated from the European symbols article. -- WoodElf 09:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
I am a retired European Union official and the editor of ' http://www.europedia.moussis.eu/ ', a free, non-advertised based website that endeavours to explain the policies of the European Union institutions from a purely technical and legal point of view. Although Europedia is originally based on a book that is widely considered as a scholarly (encyclopaedic) reference on European Union policies, the website is considerably more up to date and is free to access by anyone. It permits direct links to the European legislation EUR-lex site and to hundreds of other sites of European and international institutions and organisations. As a specialist site on the European Union it can be of much use to Wikipedia readers, who want to learn more on subjects of their interest. Europedia links to many Wikipedia articles, which I consider worthwhile and I intend to place the Wikipedia url in the links of my homepage. For all these reasons I request that you allow me to place the Europedia url in the external links of some Wikipedia articles. Best regards —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.75.60.140 ( talk) 16:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC).
I was looking up some stuff about the United Kingdom, when I found out a bit about the upcoming Scottish elections. Apparently, the Scottish National Party's leader, Mr Salmond, has detailed plans that state that within 100 days of taking office, an SNP led Executive will issue a bill timetabling a referendum, proposing that the Scottish Executive enter into negotiations with the United Kingdom Government in order to repeal the Acts of Union 1707, thereby returning Scotland to its ancient status as an independent and sovereign state. It is proposed that such a referendum will be put to the Scottish electorate towards the end of the parliamentary session in 2010. Now, if this occurs, will Scotland remain a part of the European Union, or will they have to arrange for their own accession and membership into the European Union? Would they even want to become members? CeeWhy2 05:36, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
Algeria was a part of France and the EEC until 1962, when it left both. What happened back then? ( 212.247.11.153 15:10, 2 May 2007 (UTC))
The SNP are extremely unlikely to win a majority, they may become the largest party. This would enable them to enter talks with other parties to create a coalition, the parties they could form a coalition with (dependant on how many seats they win) to gain a majority are Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives have completely dismissed the idea of a coalition with any party, never in a million years will they form a coalition with Labour and the Liberal Democrats are on record as saying they couldn't form a coalition with the SNP unless they agreed that there wouldn't be a referendum. So this hypothetical question has absolutely no chance of happening.( 80.189.121.40 23:54, 2 May 2007 (UTC))
I think this needs amending per WP:CRYSTAL. Personally, I would argue for removal, but I suppose one could replace it with a section on the speculation about what might or might not happen (legally, politically, economically) if existing member countries, such as the UK, split up.-- Boson 17:21, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
From the article:
And the area is quoted in the infobox as 4,324,782 km². What definitions of "largest" and "economic and political entity" are being used here? It is indeed the largest economic entity (having a slightly higher GDP than the USA) but the geographical size and population are both lower than those of the People's Republic of China. Hairy Dude 15:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
-- Boson 19:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)In terms of GDP, the EU is the largest economic entity in the world, with a combined nominal GDP of €11.6 (US$14.5) trillion in 2006. With a population of 494 million, it is also one of the world's largest political entities.
I don't see why all image sizes should be coherent. In the seemingly perfectionated USA and UK articles, the size of every image is adjusted for the image itself. Some carries more information and details than others. Some images deserves more pixels than others. And the image-overdose of this article is currently being undelined by the every second image on each side-layout--└ S. SOLBERG J. / talk ┐ 16:42, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
There is no dogma in image size, see Largest cities section. A majority of horizontal images have 200 px and should´nt have more than 220 px for layout reasons. Vertical images should range from 150 - 180px. Note that a much bigger image size would also emphasize the importance of a certain picture. Lear 21 14:12, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
The division of Europe into two heavily armed and diametrically opposed camps was a bigger influence for peace than its union into a single entity? Whoever wrote that needs to read their world history 1945-1991. I'm getting rid of that and replacing it with a broader statement about possible causes.
It is a bit long. Perhaps if the bulk of the politics section, such as the subtitle areas like the pillars, be moved to the Politics page? - JLogan 07:30, 19 May 2007 (UTC)
The borders of Europe stretch from The Ural mountains and Ural river, then through the Caspian Sea, along the river Araks seperating Armenia and Azerbaijan from Iran and Turkey, through to the Black sea. Cut through the Dardanelles and the Straights of Gibraltar, and INCLUDES ALL ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN! Look in a map or Google Earth at the Greek islands of Rhodes, Lesbos, Chios and even Samos which is a European island yet is lees than 1 mile away from Asiatic Turkey (Asia Minor). Look up Kastelorizo in Wikipedia and you will see that even though it is 110 Km away from the nearest Greek island, and only 1.3 Km away from Asia Minor, however it is still part of Europe! All islands in the Mediterranean are considered part of Europe. If you say that Cyprus is part of Asia, then you must also say that Malta is part of Africa, and you will have to make something up for the Greek islands, as well as Imbros and Tenedos -- Waterfall999 03:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
In my opinion, the statement "Another factor is decolonization, which removed a major source of conflict between European powers" is -- however plausible it might seem at first glance -- conjecture (or, at best, original research). It could equally be argued that it is common knowledge that powerful empires or blocs that have divided the world up into spheres of influence are generally regarded as a source of stability and peace. It could also be argued that the power vacuum created by the disintegration of an empire is much more likely to be a source of conflict.-- Boson 15:56, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
-G
It is my impression the EU wants to supress just how close the EEA-countries are to a real membership in the EU. So do the EFTA-members of the EEAs politicians. Should this go better into the article? I mean, my impression is, the three EEA-members not being in the EU, are just second-rate members of the EU, and nothing else. I know the rule about original research, but surely, this obvious thing must have been noted by others than me? Greswik 17:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Image:Eurocoin 1.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 06:56, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
The image of London used in the Demographics-Largest Cities subsection has changed a number of times recently between these two images:
.
It needs to be agreed upon which image to use; personally the left image is quite dark and not recognisable as London, so I would opt for using the image on the right, with St Paul's and 30 St Mary Axe ('the gherkin') in it.
Rossenglish
08:58, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
This image was added recently to the demographics section.
Although I agree the fall of the Berlin wall / Iron curtain was essential for the growth of the EU, I would place this image under the heading Enlargement of EU, rather than under Demographics; as the image and text in themselves have no direct relation with the demographics.
Arnoutf
17:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
And the text "HOTTIE by Germany (Angela Merkel, Chancellor)" under one of the images looks strange. ( Stefan2 14:16, 7 June 2007 (UTC))
May be a bit much, but what do people think about using the South African method of displaying country names in the infobox? - J Logan t/ c: 11:25, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
The
References to this article have recently been formatted inside a fixed height scrollbox. The associated
template:scrollref is relatively new. What do you guys think about this template being implemented on the EU site (please discuss here) or about the template in general (please discuss at its
talkpage).
My personal opinion is that as the references are at the back of the article a lengthy list is no problem for legibility of the body text. Hiding part of the list through application of this scrollbox obscures first glance assessment of the sources. Therefore I am against implementing this template
Arnoutf
13:10, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
...is there a "1" next to the words "European Union" in the infobox? It's not linked to anywhere explaining its presence. -- Islomaniac 973 18:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 5 | ← | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | Archive 12 | Archive 13 | Archive 14 | Archive 15 |
I don't understand why this map of Europe is used. It is true that in the south of Slovakia something like 500.000 Hungarians live but it is STILL Slovakia, not Hungary. So, on the map the southern part of Slovakia is cut off and added to Hungary. The area of Slovakia is 49.000 km2 and the area of Switzerland is 41.000 km2 but on the map Slovakia seems to be smaller than Switzerland. Could anyone replace the map, please?
Well, ok,. i was reading about the European Union and i read the official languages. But their is sometihng wrong. they said that English is the most foreign language people speak there. French is, also, pretty much every country now will teach French as a second language in School. In Enlgand, French is the most foreign language spoke. France is the main country of Europe, having Paris as the center of economic. FrankFurt is second (in Germany, Students learn french, and then English). Also, there is a big anti-American feeling in Europe, so why would they make English they 'official' language. With time, French is becoming more and more used in Europe, while english sits after French. Their is big chances that German language knocks off the Enlgish language also.
Another point; anti-Americanism doesn't relate to the English language. It is from England, afterall, and not America. Again, a POV point. And to add to that, English isn't the official language, it's just the most commonly spoken one (per the article).—Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])
May I guide you all to these images:
Now then, they are all more or less equally spoken across Europe. Emperor Jackal 11:42, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
The opening sentence states "The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 27 states." Yet the Supranationalism article argues that the EU is not considered to be supranational by most academics. I suggest this is too contentious for the opening sentence and should be reworded. Lumos3 09:00, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
Economic politics are clearly handled supranational. The EU institutions govern the EEC with directives without intergovernmental treaties. The article about Supranationalism is therefore inaccurate. Lear 21 10:25, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you mean by an example. There are thousands and thousands of regulations, all of which are binding. They are published in the official journal, and the database can be searched at EUR-LEX. A fairly random example would be COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 907/2004 of 29 April 2004 amending the marketing standards applicable for fresh fruit and vegetables with regards to presentation and labelling. It contains things like: ‘Stickers individually affixed on product shall be such as, when removed, neither to leave visible traces of glue, nor to lead to skin defects.’
The different binding nature of regulations and directives is explained at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.3:
1.3.2. Regulation
Adopted by the Council in conjunction with the European Parliament or by the Commission alone, a regulation is a general measure that is binding in all its parts. Unlike directives, which are addressed to the Member States, and decisions, which are for specified recipients, regulations are addressed to everyone.
A regulation is directly applicable, which means that it creates law which takes immediate effect in all the Member States in the same way as a national instrument, without any further action on the part of the national authorities.
1.3.3. Directive
Adopted by the Council in conjunction with the European Parliament or by the Commission alone, a directive is addressed to the Member States. Its main purpose is to align national legislation.
A directive is binding on the Member States as to the result to be achieved but leaves them the choice of the form and method they adopt to realise the Community objectives within the framework of their internal legal order.
If a directive has not been transposed into national legislation in a Member State, if it has been transposed incompletely or if there is a delay in transposing it, citizens can directly invoke the directive in question before the national courts.
A directive is binding on the national government, though there is room for interpretation. The national legislature has a date by which national legislation to implement the directive must be passed. I believe the UK and Denmark are the two states that most often keep to the deadline, whereas the Germans are often very tardy. AIUI, if the appropriate legislation is not passed, national or European courts may directly apply their own interpretation of the directive. Nationals may also sue their own government for losses resulting from their government's breach of the law. I believe this happened in Germany when the Federal Republic of Germany was late in implementing an EC directive protecting holidaymakers in case of bankcruptcy of holiday organisers. If I recall correctly, Germany was first convicted of a breach of the directive by the European Court, and a German court subsequently awarded damages against the German state to some holiday makers.-- Boson 14:00, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
A European framework law shall be a legislative act binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods.
-- Boson 20:28, 30 March 2007 (UTC)Legislative acts 1. European laws and framework laws shall be adopted, on the basis of proposals from the Commission, jointly by the European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure as set out in Article III-396.
Debates about these sorts of little words are never ending, even if they are interesting. I think the technical answer to the question is "yes" and "no" - "supra" just means "above", so are there things where EU decision making is above nation states that are members? Yes. Is it always above? No. Countries are free to leave the EU, and they are the ones who create the treaties, so ultimately Member States are the highest if you like; but I think that to most people supra implies what the EU is ("albeit in limited fields" as the ECJ once said) and it's something that has not been done before. I wouldn't describe the US and Germany as Supranational entities, because nation states can't be above themselves (if you see what I mean) so these kinds of comparisons don't work. Academics like Weiler are talk about supranational simply as something contrasted to intergovernmentalism- the way that the UN works for instance. My own view is that the EU is a model that is breaking past and beyond the international system of the nation state and that's what really makes it "supra" "national". Wik idea 08:11, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
I have changed the opening sentence to 'sui generis' rather than 'both supra and intergov', as given the long discussion here, it is clearly contentious and ambiguous - an entire article could probably be written on the subject. I think sui generis fits better, and is the way the EU is described in a lot of the literature i have read. Suicup 14:24, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
I think its quite ridicolous when talking about the geography of Europe to use an image of a beach and believe it is somehow representative. I've placed a satellite composite of the European continent which is far more suitable. I've made two reverts, I'll leave it for others to decide. -- A.Garnet 13:03, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
The coastline is the most dominant geographical feature for the vast majority of member states. It influences especially the climate situation. It´s a standard image for this kind of section. It also avoids being a 'beach' in a touristic sense, because it lacks the people. Lear 21 21:47, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I would support another image (alpine region prefered), when written content is expanded as well. For now, a gallery or a second image would lead to an overload in this section. Lear 21 10:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
It is almost mirroring this article and could be used for expansion [1]. Lear 21 13:32, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
This is set up wrong, with my Firefox and Opera browsers the table covers up half the article. It needs to be fixed so it it readable. I don't know how to do it or otherwise I would
4.142.180.158 07:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)IJMS
better? Lear 21 12:02, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
I can't reproduce the display error with my Firefox, Safari and Opera (for Mac). Can you post a screenshot? Otherwise I'm reverting to my version, that is valid HTML and much cleaner. --
giandrea
13:48, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
This section is the result of a difficult compromise. Any change to this section is not minor, and needs a very, very good edit summary, or better an argument here, or even better consensus here. Any other edits will be reverted. Arnoutf 17:39, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I don't know if anyone else has found this but to me, despite the content being good, the ordering of the page seems a bit haphazard. I figure we could re-order a few things and prioritise things better. For example the pillars seem to have an undue amount of attention and such detailed information on the political workings should be kept on the politics page. The huge amount of detail on candidate countries could be slimmed down to talking generally about expansion. In addition, some areas seem unnecessarily split, for example; religion is also a matter of culture, environment is also a matter of geography, the CFSP is a also a matter of foreign relations. And so on. Here is a quick list I drew up of a possible way to organise it. Any thoughts?
1. Geography
1.1 Environment
2. History
3. Member states
3.1 Enlargement
4. Politics and Government
4.1 Institutions and bodies
4.2 Treaties
4.3 Three Pillars
4.4 Foreign Relations
4.5 Law
5. Economy
5.1 The euro
5.2 Infrastructure
5.3 Development
6 Culture and Demographics
6.1 Languages
6.2 Religion
6.3 Sport
6.4 Largest cities
7.1 Education and Science
7.2 Exchange programs
7.3 Technology Institute
7.4 Space policy
8. Footnotes
9. References
10. See also
11. External links
- JLogan 17:46, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
1. History
2. Politics and Government
2.1 Institutions and bodies
2.2 Structure --Treaties & Three Pillars--
2.3 Foreign Relations
2.4 Law
3. Member states
3.1 Enlargement
4. Geography
4.1 Environment
4.2 Schengen
5. Economy
5.1 The euro
5.2 Infrastructure
5.3 Agriculture and Development --CAP / eu grants to poorest areas--
5.4 Education & Science --Erasmus, Technology Institute etc. / Space Policy - Galileo--
6 Demographics --primarily stats--
6.1 Languages
6.2 Religion
6.4 Largest cities
7. Culture --Actually talk about European culture--
7.1 Cultural Capital
7.2 Sport
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by JLogan ( talk • contribs) 09:05, 15 April 2007 (UTC). - JLogan 09:06, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I know that there have been edit wars and vandalism around this issue before, but it's a matter of course that numbers in the EU infobox considers the EU "as a single unity". Before, there was a "if ranked" footnote instead. If the EU isn't ranked/considered as an ordinary country in another wikipedia article is totally irrelevant for this article. Let's get rid of this stupid compromise, and improve the infobox. +It looks better. S. Solberg J. 18:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
The "if ranked" is dispensable because the EU IS! already ranked in several references like the IMF statistics. Lear 21 11:44, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29
None of those statistics shows the GDP total at 14million as stated now. Perhaps someone should fix one or the other. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MitchKliev ( talk • contribs) 01:14, 17 April 2007 (UTC).
The IMF figure is an estimation of September 2006 and is highly credible. The definite GDP figure will be calculated end of April 2007. Lear 21 12:59, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
I have strong reason to beleive that User:Andrew16 is User:Daniel_Chiswick sockpuppet:
The only difference is that User:Andrew16 gives SF as a place of residence/origin rather than LA. Something that he/she might have done to throw off supicious editors. The above are simply too many conicidences for me- The same agenda, the same type of edits, the same age with one account being opened just one day after the other got blocked. I have voiced my concern on the appropriate notice board as well. Regards, Signature brendel 06:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Basketball is hugely popular in Greece,Lithuania,Italy,Spain,Slovenia and enjoys varying levels of popularity in France,Germany,Latvia and elsewhere. Mentioning field hockey as popular and omitting basketball seems arbitrary. Please add basketball to the list,without it mentioned it is incomplete, plain and simple. XVA 12:47, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Arbitrariness is an issue. Field hockey shouldn't be mentioned over basketball. XVA 18:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Game attendances of the top club competition in europe, last season. It is in the millions. http://217.13.116.51/finalfour06/noticia.jsp?temporada=E05&jornada=24&id=659 Attendances in spain. http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/6012/180/item http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/17361/arti.html Worldwide tv coverage of 2006 world championship (gold and silver medalists are EU countries) http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/17894/arti.html Attendance of the Euroleague final (Champions League equivalent), more than 18.000 (sold out). http://www.euroleague.net/main/results/showgame?gamecode=230 In general,basketball is easily world's second most popular team sport, and huge in large parts of Europe (and EU). XVA 00:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
The map in the "Member States" section is incorrect. It shows the Turkish Bosphorus in EU Member State Blue, while the rest of Turkey is the correct green as a candidate country. I'd correct it myself, but I've got no time or graphics editing skills, so could some-one fix it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JavaJawaUK ( talk • contribs) 19:54, 24 April 2007 (UTC).-- JavaJawaUK 19:55, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
I suggest "in varietate concordia" be seperated from the European symbols article. -- WoodElf 09:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
I am a retired European Union official and the editor of ' http://www.europedia.moussis.eu/ ', a free, non-advertised based website that endeavours to explain the policies of the European Union institutions from a purely technical and legal point of view. Although Europedia is originally based on a book that is widely considered as a scholarly (encyclopaedic) reference on European Union policies, the website is considerably more up to date and is free to access by anyone. It permits direct links to the European legislation EUR-lex site and to hundreds of other sites of European and international institutions and organisations. As a specialist site on the European Union it can be of much use to Wikipedia readers, who want to learn more on subjects of their interest. Europedia links to many Wikipedia articles, which I consider worthwhile and I intend to place the Wikipedia url in the links of my homepage. For all these reasons I request that you allow me to place the Europedia url in the external links of some Wikipedia articles. Best regards —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.75.60.140 ( talk) 16:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC).
I was looking up some stuff about the United Kingdom, when I found out a bit about the upcoming Scottish elections. Apparently, the Scottish National Party's leader, Mr Salmond, has detailed plans that state that within 100 days of taking office, an SNP led Executive will issue a bill timetabling a referendum, proposing that the Scottish Executive enter into negotiations with the United Kingdom Government in order to repeal the Acts of Union 1707, thereby returning Scotland to its ancient status as an independent and sovereign state. It is proposed that such a referendum will be put to the Scottish electorate towards the end of the parliamentary session in 2010. Now, if this occurs, will Scotland remain a part of the European Union, or will they have to arrange for their own accession and membership into the European Union? Would they even want to become members? CeeWhy2 05:36, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
Algeria was a part of France and the EEC until 1962, when it left both. What happened back then? ( 212.247.11.153 15:10, 2 May 2007 (UTC))
The SNP are extremely unlikely to win a majority, they may become the largest party. This would enable them to enter talks with other parties to create a coalition, the parties they could form a coalition with (dependant on how many seats they win) to gain a majority are Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives have completely dismissed the idea of a coalition with any party, never in a million years will they form a coalition with Labour and the Liberal Democrats are on record as saying they couldn't form a coalition with the SNP unless they agreed that there wouldn't be a referendum. So this hypothetical question has absolutely no chance of happening.( 80.189.121.40 23:54, 2 May 2007 (UTC))
I think this needs amending per WP:CRYSTAL. Personally, I would argue for removal, but I suppose one could replace it with a section on the speculation about what might or might not happen (legally, politically, economically) if existing member countries, such as the UK, split up.-- Boson 17:21, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
From the article:
And the area is quoted in the infobox as 4,324,782 km². What definitions of "largest" and "economic and political entity" are being used here? It is indeed the largest economic entity (having a slightly higher GDP than the USA) but the geographical size and population are both lower than those of the People's Republic of China. Hairy Dude 15:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
-- Boson 19:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)In terms of GDP, the EU is the largest economic entity in the world, with a combined nominal GDP of €11.6 (US$14.5) trillion in 2006. With a population of 494 million, it is also one of the world's largest political entities.
I don't see why all image sizes should be coherent. In the seemingly perfectionated USA and UK articles, the size of every image is adjusted for the image itself. Some carries more information and details than others. Some images deserves more pixels than others. And the image-overdose of this article is currently being undelined by the every second image on each side-layout--└ S. SOLBERG J. / talk ┐ 16:42, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
There is no dogma in image size, see Largest cities section. A majority of horizontal images have 200 px and should´nt have more than 220 px for layout reasons. Vertical images should range from 150 - 180px. Note that a much bigger image size would also emphasize the importance of a certain picture. Lear 21 14:12, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
The division of Europe into two heavily armed and diametrically opposed camps was a bigger influence for peace than its union into a single entity? Whoever wrote that needs to read their world history 1945-1991. I'm getting rid of that and replacing it with a broader statement about possible causes.
It is a bit long. Perhaps if the bulk of the politics section, such as the subtitle areas like the pillars, be moved to the Politics page? - JLogan 07:30, 19 May 2007 (UTC)
The borders of Europe stretch from The Ural mountains and Ural river, then through the Caspian Sea, along the river Araks seperating Armenia and Azerbaijan from Iran and Turkey, through to the Black sea. Cut through the Dardanelles and the Straights of Gibraltar, and INCLUDES ALL ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN! Look in a map or Google Earth at the Greek islands of Rhodes, Lesbos, Chios and even Samos which is a European island yet is lees than 1 mile away from Asiatic Turkey (Asia Minor). Look up Kastelorizo in Wikipedia and you will see that even though it is 110 Km away from the nearest Greek island, and only 1.3 Km away from Asia Minor, however it is still part of Europe! All islands in the Mediterranean are considered part of Europe. If you say that Cyprus is part of Asia, then you must also say that Malta is part of Africa, and you will have to make something up for the Greek islands, as well as Imbros and Tenedos -- Waterfall999 03:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
In my opinion, the statement "Another factor is decolonization, which removed a major source of conflict between European powers" is -- however plausible it might seem at first glance -- conjecture (or, at best, original research). It could equally be argued that it is common knowledge that powerful empires or blocs that have divided the world up into spheres of influence are generally regarded as a source of stability and peace. It could also be argued that the power vacuum created by the disintegration of an empire is much more likely to be a source of conflict.-- Boson 15:56, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
-G
It is my impression the EU wants to supress just how close the EEA-countries are to a real membership in the EU. So do the EFTA-members of the EEAs politicians. Should this go better into the article? I mean, my impression is, the three EEA-members not being in the EU, are just second-rate members of the EU, and nothing else. I know the rule about original research, but surely, this obvious thing must have been noted by others than me? Greswik 17:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Image:Eurocoin 1.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 06:56, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
The image of London used in the Demographics-Largest Cities subsection has changed a number of times recently between these two images:
.
It needs to be agreed upon which image to use; personally the left image is quite dark and not recognisable as London, so I would opt for using the image on the right, with St Paul's and 30 St Mary Axe ('the gherkin') in it.
Rossenglish
08:58, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
This image was added recently to the demographics section.
Although I agree the fall of the Berlin wall / Iron curtain was essential for the growth of the EU, I would place this image under the heading Enlargement of EU, rather than under Demographics; as the image and text in themselves have no direct relation with the demographics.
Arnoutf
17:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
And the text "HOTTIE by Germany (Angela Merkel, Chancellor)" under one of the images looks strange. ( Stefan2 14:16, 7 June 2007 (UTC))
May be a bit much, but what do people think about using the South African method of displaying country names in the infobox? - J Logan t/ c: 11:25, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
The
References to this article have recently been formatted inside a fixed height scrollbox. The associated
template:scrollref is relatively new. What do you guys think about this template being implemented on the EU site (please discuss here) or about the template in general (please discuss at its
talkpage).
My personal opinion is that as the references are at the back of the article a lengthy list is no problem for legibility of the body text. Hiding part of the list through application of this scrollbox obscures first glance assessment of the sources. Therefore I am against implementing this template
Arnoutf
13:10, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
...is there a "1" next to the words "European Union" in the infobox? It's not linked to anywhere explaining its presence. -- Islomaniac 973 18:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)