EYP VOCABULARY

p. 4TOPIC ARTICLES

p. 6-23

I LOVE YOU FROM ALL OVER EUROPE

p. 24

ASCHAFFENBURN

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EDITORIAL Brought to you by:

Manfredi Danielis (IT) Vaclav Huk (CZ)

Meropi Karakioulaki (GR) Flavius Eugen (RO)

Matteo Van Dijl (BE) Charlotta Lahnalahti (FI)

Lidiia Zhgyr (UA) Britta Thiemt (DE) Eva Ullman (DE)

Louise Van Benschop (NL)

Welcome to Aschaffenburg 2013, Regional Selec-tion Conference of EYP Germany! Welcome to your first EYP session. You might be confused now, you might not understand what’s go-ing to happen in this Bavarian school during these days. Don’t worry, everyone else feels like you and we felt the same some years ago. Maybe one day you will remember this feelings when you’ll tell your friends about “when I started EYP, in 2013”. It might be complicated at the beginning, but it’s something that you will remember forever, whether you will attend more sessions or not.Aschaffenburn is going to be the session’s paper. A crazy group of journalists will follow you in every step you’ll take and they will write about you all. They will try to make you understand your topics, to inspire you, but also make you laugh and have fun during the session.We know that everything seems very weird at this point, but the only thing you can do now is to get to know as many people as you can, have fun with them and share your opinions. You will become new persons, maybe better ones.

Enjoy Aschaffenburg 2013!

MonigrunMonica Mantovani (IT)Sigrun Fagerfjäll (SE)

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CONTENTPage 4: EYP Vocabulary

Page 5: What am I going to do?

Page 6-23: Topic Articles:

• Canwefeedtheworld(AGRI)• Takingahit(DEVE)• Seccession–Adangeroustrend(REGI)• ShouldtherebeanEU-army?(SEDE)• Passingaballofenergy(ITRE)• SavingthelifeofCappuccino(AFCO)• Iswaterpollutionreallyaproblem? (ENVI I) • Thinkingoutsidetheborders(AFET)• TheCO2tax–goodeffortoreconomic disaster? (ENVI II)

Page 24: I love you from all over EuropePage 25: Financial Horoscope Page 26: Cupid - Who is he?Page 27: What makes Europeans so special?

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At regional sessions, such as here in Aschaffenburg, one might come across with unfamiliar words that are used in EYP. To get started, here are gathered some words you will hear during the weekend.

Attack speech – Attack speech-es are held on resolutions that are found imperfect and incom-plete in GA. Time limit is set to 3 minutes and one or more del-egates from different commit-tees can share this time to attack.Committee work – Part of the-session when the topic is be-ing discussed in committees and resolution is being written. Defense speech – The defense speech is held in GA after the res-olution clauses are read. This is held to show the positive sides and main thoughts on the resolution. Forum –A Forum is a session with delegates from many differ-ent EYP countries but it is not as big as an International Session. GA – Initials for General As-sembly. Committees’ resolu-tions are presented, debated on and lastly voted for. Speeches are held and dress code is formal.International Session, IS – A ses-sion where delegates selected from all around Europe can attend. This year there are three IS held in Münich, Zürich and Tbilisi. The res-olutions passed from these sessions are sent to the European Parlament.

EYP vocabulary

National Session, NS – EYP countries hold one or more NSs every year. Delegations are chosen to International Ses-sions to represent the county. Placard - The placards are raised in GA when the committee mem-bers want to speak out. There are five kinds of placards: Commit-tee placard, Point of Information, Point of Direct Response, Point of Personal Privilege, Point of OrderPED – Post EYP Depression. Slight depression that occurs after sessions. Regional session, RS – EYP countries are divided into regions and each region provides a ses-sion every year for that area’s del-egates. At regional sessions, del-egations are chosen to represent the region in National Sessions.Resolution – The results of the com-mittee work. Committee’s opinion and cure for the problem discussed and typed to formal mode. The res-olutions are later presented in GA. Sum-up speech – Commit-tee’s answers to the last round of debate and quick conclusion of their resolution. All needs to be done in 3 minutes and can be shared between 2 delegates.Teambuilding – At the start of the session, where delegates get to know each other by playing games. This is followed my committee work.

by Charlotta

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Dear Delegates, welcome to the amazing session in Aschaffenburg. Since the confusion is a prevalent feeling of many first time dele-gates, I have prepared a short de-scription to make your 4 days of this astonishing experience at least a bit easier. No idea what am I talk-ing about? Then continue reading and you can learn more.

Who are all those important look-ing people?The President and Vice-Presi-dents: Trio of the most representa-tive and significant people for the 4 days to come. The driving force of the session, representative faces and heads of the officials team. They lead the officials teambuild-ing and are responsible for the aca-demic outcome of the session.The Editors: Two lovely ladies mostly hiding in the pressroom and working late, although the creators of those pages you are just reading through. Their tasks are to ensure the academic quality of the session paper and to lead the Journalists team. The Jury: Sometimes scary and solemn looking faces. They will observe your work and behaviour

WHAT am I going to do?

through the whole session. But do not be scared to talk to them, they are as friendly and congenial as all of us.The Chairs: Active, never tired and lively bunch of people. You will get them know them pretty well and they will make sure to do the same. Responsibility for you, ensuring outcomes of your work and typing of the resolutions – all those task they have to accomplish.The Journalists: Always running around with a camera, enthusiastic and sometimes even doing stupid things. That’s who we are. Authors of the articles, and creators of the main part of the paper. We will appreciate every funny story and make you (in)famous in a blink of eye.The Organisers: Hard-working and never sleeping team which runs the session. Their work lasted for many months and they did it for nobody else than you. Make sure that you smile every time you meet one. Still confused? Then it is exactly how it should be. There is no need to worry, you will know much more by Sunday!

by Vaclav

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Have you ever won-dered what it would be like if there was such a great shortage in di-etary staples, such as wheat, corn and rice that you would not be able to find flour, ce-reals, noodles or even bread to cover your basic nutrient needs? Well, this is not quite an assumption: the massive growth of the world’s population, together with the great decline in agricultural productions due to the sudden cli-mate change, will soon create a massive global food shortage that will make the mission: “Feed the world” impossible. In the beginning of the 19th century, Thom-as Malthus (1766-1834),

the great economist, claimed that the global food production follows an arithmetic growth, as the growth of the human population is geometric, implying that the food produced in our planet is not sufficient to feed every human being. To-day, we know that this is not true. The Food and Agriculture Organiza-tion (FAO) has proved that the food produc-tion is enough to feed sufficiently all 6 billion people of the Earth, providing that there is a global distributional plan that respects both the humans and the en-vironment. And that will be the answer to the great upcoming prob-lem of global hunger.

To begin with, in order to tackle the problem of food shortage we first-ly need to find ways to pause it, in other words, ways that will not allow it to expand any further. This will be done by re-ducing pollution and by controlling the growth of our population. Spe-cifically, by adopting eco-friendly habits and by enforcing penalties to nations that do not respect the environment (according to European Union’s environmen-tal legislation), we will eliminate phenomena like acid rain, erratic floods, abnormal heat, the Greenhouse Effect, the thinning of the ozone layer, waste and water pollution. In that way,

Can we feed the world?by Meropi

AGRI

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we will pause the sudden climate change that has done so much damage to the crops. Additionally, birth control will stop the massive growth of human population that threatens to make our planet incapable of cov-ering our basic needs. To move on, after pausing the problem we need to solve it. The challenge will not only be to produce more, but also to do this in a sus-tainable manner. A very ambitious start would be that the Common Agri-cultural Policy (CAP) of the EU would be based on a functional distri-bution plan that will include low prices and tariffs, and will be re-sponsible for distribut-ing equally agricultural products to all nations. It is crucial that we will not seek for those na-tions that are capable

of feeding the rest of the world, but to make this distribution plan a national issue, that is to say, ensure that every na-tion is provided with the means of feeding itself. Additionally, in order to increase the amount of agricultural products, the EU should invest into research and development. More spe-cifically, the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) “Agricultural Productivity and Sus-tainability” that aims to provide a working interface between ag-riculture, bio-economy and science within the EU, should introduce new methods of culti-vation that will include gene transfer, nanotech-nology, sensor tech-nology and robotics. This should be done in order to increase the production, enrich the

crops with nutrients and replace the -harm-ful to the land- synthet-ic chemical fertilizers. To conclude, it is ob-vious that agriculture, the fundamental source of global economy and diet, needs to become one of the first priori-ties of every nation. The upcoming problem of food shortage should be paused firstly, and then tackled, by introducing a global distributional plan that will respect both the environment and human rights.

“The FAO has proved that the food production is enough to feed

sufficiently all people on earth”

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As the European Union debates on whether to further liberalise its external trade policy it must struggle with an intense moral and eco-nomical dilemma. For many years the six hundredth million people in the western developed world were effectively sheltered from all of the additional labour that ex-isted on the planet. Sud-denly the iron curtain and the bamboo curtain lifted, the African world stood up and the new world counted 5 billion additional people. More markets, more competi-tion, a much harsher eco-nomic reality. Improved communications and cheaper transportation have made internation-

al competition possible. As international trade is becoming ever more liberalised, the EU has been repeatedly asked to reduce its external trade tariffs and eliminate its widespread subsidies in the fields of agriculture and primary manufac-turing. Currently, tariffs are not low, an average 6% import tax is estimat-ed for countries whose GDP is less than 5000 $ pro capita and subsidies are equally impressive, al-most 50% of the Union’s budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In more concrete terms a farmer in Uganda, even if work-ing for a much lower sal-ary cannot sell his prod-ucts in Europe because

he is unable to compete with his French col-leagues. The reason does not lie in transportation costs or faulty quality but only on subsidies and taxes. Still, how can we ex-pect the African conti-nent to develop if we de-facto negate any chance to approach Eu-ropean markets. On the other hand, if we reduce our tariffs, our agricultur-al and manufacturing ba-sis will be torn even more to shreds having to face competition from lower cost production coun-tries. There is no win-win situation in this scenario. Our heads or theirs. But the EU can’t simply avoid the subject, at least not for long. Especially

Taking a Hit

DEVE

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after the failure of the Doha rounds there has been huge pressure, both external, internal and from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for a Free Trade Agreement. Such an agreement could actually provide incen-tive for economic growth from the sectors that are immune to the competi-tion of developing coun-tries. As sanctions work on a reciprocal basis (i.e. if we set a 3% tax on goods coming from Ja-pan almost automatically Japan will do the same with us) experts argue that GDP would rise by 2% together with export. On the other hand, the effects of such lib-eralisation would dam-age our agricultural and primary manufacturing basis increasing the al-ready existing inequali-ties between the citizens in the union. No more

wine production in the French countryside, no more steel coming from the German industry, all gone. What to do then? Do we sacrifice some dying sectors of our economy to partially boost others and facilitate developing countries? The answer lies in the words damage control, the union cannot clearly counter the flow of 30 years of trade liberalisa-tion or continue subsidiz-ing an unsustainable in-dustry but what is can do is try to soften the dam-age from a WTO agree-ment. Push for interna-tional standardisation bodies, facilitate market access to investors, use alternative means to give incentives for local in-dustries and keep a close eye on social justice. The impact will not be gentle but with the support of

a strong, efficient and united Europe we can all emerge stronger than be-fore. Manfredi Danielis

“What do we do then? Do we sac-rifice some dying

sectors of our economy to par-tially boost oth-ers and facilitate developing coun-tries? The answer lies in the words damage control.”

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What would you do if the region you were liv-ing in decided to sepa-rate itself from the rest of the country? For the Scottish, the Flanders and the Catalans this is reality. Although the finan-cial crisis was expected to create stronger na-tional bonds within the EU, it has rather lead to growing separatist movements. It seems like economic motiva-tions are playing a major role in this new trend towards independence. The richer regions, for example Catalonia are fed up with subsidising the “poorer” rest of the country and feel like they would be better off alone. Or is it just a coin-

cidence that Scotland’s decision to cut the 300 years old ties with En-gland might be related to the oil in the North Sea? Therefore it needs to be investigated if a region’s desire to breakaway is not only a temporary, short time reaction to the fiscal decline of the country. Putting aside the fi-nancial aspect, what is it that really determines national or cultural iden-tity? In multilingual Belgium it is supposed to be the language. However, there are so many more factors in-fluencing our sense of “belonging”, i.e. shared history, customs, tra-ditions and lifestyles. Above all, we identify

ourselves through dis-tinguishing us from oth-ers. One can not be sure that this applies to all of the separatist regions. A real national conflict en-dangering the unity of a country, for example the slave question during the American civil war, is necessary to make se-cession reasonable. This does not seem to be the case in many of the sep-aratist regions. If the EU started sup-porting secession move-ments, it could possibly result in some kind of domino effect with an increasing number of regions demanding in-dependence. This could even take us back to the middle ages when Eu-rope was a patchwork

Secession - A Dangerous Trend

by Eva

REGI

11

of small and scattered duchies and counties. Moreover, extreme nationalism is always connected to some kind of potential threat and you have to be careful when it comes to the development of these new states. The peo-ple of Basque country in Spain, for example, are trying to become independent with the means of violence. You might consider allow-ing peacefully demon-strating regions to break off, but we should think twice about granting brutal separatists their wish. Contrary to the Scot-tish head of government, who is already planning the new national holi-day thinks, secession is something that can be achieved within a short period of time. It will be immensely complicated

and exhausting to agree upon debt, borders, cit-izenship, currency and EU membership and both the new state and the old “mother coun-try” will suffer from the consequences. To conclude, the EU should aim for a com-promise. A loose con-federation of federal states within one coun-try could satisfy the region’s desire for self-rule and at the same time guarantee control to the central government. In Germany this works just fine.

“Extreme nation-alism is always connected to some kind of potential threat and you have to be care-ful when it comes to the develop-ment of these new states. The people of Basque country in Spain, for ex-ample, are trying to become inde-pendent with the means of violence.

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The question of de-velopment of the ‘EU army’ has been raised due to the recent EU interventions into Af-rican uprisings – the so-called Arab spring. The conflicts, which took place in various forms in 18 countries of Arab world, have become the topic of strong concern for ma-jor political and eco-nomic powers of the world, the European Union and the Unit-ed States of America. Common interests in the outcomes of these conflicts encouraged both parties to become involved into the mili-tary operations, first in the form of humanitar-ian aid expecting to re-

ceive influence on these economically profitable areas. The American in-terventions were mainly made by their Europe-an NATO Forces. Un-expectedly for the EU side, during the sum-mation of the EU-US transatlantic coopera-tion, the US represen-tatives drew attention to shortfalls in the EU military capabilities and interpreted it as a threat that could jeopardize EU-NATO cooperation. Right after such claims from the US, the Weimar Group coun-tries have initiated the creation of a EU mil-itary operations head-quarters (OHQ), which was supported by 6 oth-er EU Member States.

The creation of such an institution would lead to the strengthening of EU standing army and could possibly become a blueprint for a federal European superstate. A similar request has al-ready been raised once, 2 years ago, but it was vetoed by Great Brit-ain and didn’t get into force as the EU Foreign Policy is based on una-nimity of the Member States representatives. Both requests (the cur-rent and the previous one) posed a threat to national sovereignty, following the idea of EU federalism. But the initi-ators of the request urge the EU to start acting more united in interna-tional relations with the

Should there be an “EU army”?

by Lidiia

SEDE

13

means of strengthening the Common Securi-ty and Defence Policy. Both British and US sides are strongly deny-ing the need of integra-tive reforms in the mil-itary sphere of the EU. That can be explained by the American antic-ipation of the develop-ment of a strong rival in the common Arab field of interest, which pre-viously used to perform as a partner in NATO. The United Kingdom is maintaining its spe-cial position in the EU through active separat-ism in the case of any unifying steps by the EU. The idea of an eco-nomic union was firstly set by the cooperation agreements in heavy industries, energy and economy, and step-by-step from the free mar-ket stage the European countries have devel-

oped into a full-fledged economic union. Fur-ther, the basis for it was stated in the Amsterdam Treaty on European Union of 1993, which underlined the preser-vation of national sov-ereignty. Establishment of the OHQ is a step to-wards federalism, which has not proved to be an essential move for the EU, as it has been de-veloping rapidly in the frame of an economic union. Thus, the idea of creation of a single reg-ular army reveals a con-tradiction with one of the basic concepts of the Eu-ropean Union – ensuring sovereignty of the mem-ber states. Every EU country should be able to determine their vision of the common foreign policy by themselves. Therefore, unless that is kept in mind, the idea of a regular EU army is

bound to fall short be-fore it even has started.

“The idea of cre-ation of a single regular army re-veals a contradic-tion with one of

the basic concepts of the European Union - ensuring the sovereignty of the member

states. Every EU country shoulc be able to determine their vision of the common foreign policy by them-

selves.”

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In EYP there is a game called “Street fight-er”. For those of you who do not know it, a brief explanation: all the players stand in a circle. One of them is holding an energy ball and has to pass it re-ally quickly by shout-ing commands like “Heiduken” or “Sonic Boom” on full blast to keep up the energy lev-el among the delegates. But the importance of being energised is not limited to participants of EYP-sessions: our in-dustrialised society de-pends on energy sources like the human body de-pends on food. Natural gas, one of the most im-portant energy sources in the EU, is imported

from Russia to a very large extent. Most of the pipelines connecting the EU and Russia run through Ukraine, Mol-dova and Belarus, the so-called transit countries. Since Russia depends on them to export its gas into the EU, it offers the transit countries cheap gas prices. But with the Nord Stream Pipeline directly connecting Rus-sia and the EU through the Baltic Sea, the tran-sit countries’ importance decreases and gas pric-es will rise. This could have serious conse-quences for all of them, but for Ukraine’s econo-my in particular because it is in recession already. Even though the economic situation in

Ukraine is certainly very alarming, the EU should not put its re-lationship with Russia at stake by supporting a country whose dem-ocratic system is more than questionable and that lacks the implemen-tation of human rights. Jeopardising an import-ant trade relationship as the one to Russia would send an incorrect mes-sage of support to the Ukrainian government. However, it would not be a sufficient solution to stay out of the conflict completely. Although a lot of gas is transported via the Nord Stream, there is still a significant amount of gas import-ed via transit countries. Hence being depen-

Passing a Ball of Energyby Britta

ITRE

15

dent of both Russia and Ukraine, it is in the EU’s best interest to avoid the disputes between them to get out of hand. Furthermore, one should bear in mind the people in Ukraine who are, aside from the econ-omy, mostly affected by gas shortcuts. Right now, with the aforementioned difficulties that Ukraine has to deal with, increas-ing gas prices would be just another strain put on the Ukrainian people. So it seems like enabling a fair re-negotiation of the gas prices between Russia and Ukraine with the EU acting as a neu-tral mediator that does not take sides would be a good compromise.Nevertheless, staying on good terms with Russia will only treat the symp-toms, but not the sick-ness itself: ultimately, the EU will have to fight

its dependency on en-ergy exports, or Russia might take an advantage out of the EU’s situa-tion. A possible solution would be to support the development of renew-able energy sources fur-ther to decrease the EU’s need for fossil fuels. Not only would this help the environment but also ensure the EU’s auton-omy in energy supply. When playing the street fighter game one feels a lot of excitement. That is perfectly natural – energy is something re-ally powerful. But more importantly, it is some-thing that we all depend on. The EU would face severe consequences if it could not count on the fossil fuel exports from Russia. As long as we are still so reliant of spe-cific energy sources, we have to act very consid-erately and responsibly.

Passing around the energy ball is fun, but at some point, every game has to come to an end.

“It would not be a sufficient solu-tion to stay out of the conflict com-pletely. Although

a lot of gas is transported via

the Nord Stream, there is still a sig-nificant amount of gas imported via transit coun-

tries.”

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When one is sitting in a random café in Ghent trying to get in-spired, he cannot help but think how difficult this would be without a “oh, so precious” Cap-puccino. It is a known fact that global warming has an effect on everything around us and even though one might not particularly care about the existence of the sea turtle or the tiger, when something endangers a coffee, it needs to be solved. There have been numerous international climate change summits such as in Copenhagen in 2009. But just like this summit, they have

often resulted into a disappointment. This is why successful treaties would be easier to make by co-operating on in in-ter-governmental level like the European Union (EU). Unfortunately, just like a lot of things in the EU, this is a lot hard-er than one would first think. There is still a very thin line between what is the Member State’s re-sponsibility and what is the EU’s responsibility. One might normally be extremely pro-Europe centralisation, but in the case of the environmen-tal policy, there should be a very good balance between the EU and the

Member States. As some Member States already have an excellent envi-ronmental policy, like Sweden or even Germa-ny, they should be able to keep on doing so. In general, this would mean that the Member States still have the final responsibility. The EU can be seen more as an organ that checks the Member States and if necessary punishes them with a system of for example fines. This also means that the system of emis-sion trading should be banned as it as an easy way for countries not to reach their maximum quota. Furthermore, the

Saving the Life of Cappuccino

by Matteo

AFCO

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EU should become a platform for the Mem-ber States to share their expertise and to solve inter-regional environ-mental problems like smog. Together, it is a lot easier to look for environmental friendly ways of producing en-ergy. A very recent ex-ample of this is the De-sertec intiative founded in 2009. This initiative is funded by several Eu-ropean investors (e.g. Deutsche Bank) and the goal is to produce ener-gy, intended for the Eu-ropean market, by using solar power based ener-gy plants in the Sahara. In conclusion, if we want to keep on giving people a good cappuc-cino (preferably with some coco on the foam as it looks and tastes good), Member States will have to sacrifice

some competences, but most of all they will have to take their re-sponsibility. The EU will check them and as-sist them when possible. This way, everyone can have Cappuccino.

“In conclusion, if we want to keep on giving people a good cappuci-no (preferable with some coco

on the foam as it looks and tastes good), Member States will have to sacrifice some competences but most of all they will have to take their responsibil-ity. The EU will check them and

assist them when possible. This way, everyone

can have Cappuc-cino.”

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In a world that is fac-ing imminent dangers, from solar storms and possible asteroid im-pacts, to famine and water pollution, the contemporary society is presenting a rath-er passive attitude to-wards making a change and saving the environ-ment. However, water pollution is by far the most pressing prob-lem at the moment, due to the fact that the amount of potable as well as drinkable water is decreasing. The general pub-lic in Europe does not care about the environ-ment problems sim-ply because of sheer commodity. This leads to those small acts of

pollution that multi-plied by thousand and has become, especially in the past few years, a tremendous concern. For instance, a favour-ite past time for people in Romania is barbecu-ing out in the open, es-pecially near a lake or a river. After each out-ing, mountains of trash (plastics in particular) are left behind and find their way in the water. Environmental agen-cies and authorities are following a certain kind of rules, most of which are usually flawed. Even though Europe has laws and rules, there are few specialists to enforce them, and those specific agencies have unclear objectives and are over-

flowed with corruption. What is more, re-activity also plays a cer-tain role in water pollu-tion; this is linked to the causes presented above. Authorities react to cri-sis; however, they do not proactively work on pre-venting crisis. This is a consequence of indiffer-ence as well as flawed policies (the means of proactive action are vir-tually non-existent). For example the floods that occur annually are dealt with after they have caused devastation, when it would be sim-pler to relocate the pop-ulation, or, even better, to come up with a strat-egy in order to prevent this kind of calamities. Some years back,

Is Water Pollution Really a Problem?

by Flavius

ENVI I

19

in 2010 namely, a toxic red sludge spill from a metals plant has wiped out all life from one Hungarian river and has entered the Danube, one of Europe’s largest waterways. Dead fish were sighted in the Mo-soni-Danube, a southern branch of the river, and officials said that the Marcal, a tributary to the waterway, had been dev-astated by the sludge. The sludge - which had high alkaline levels and had contained heavy metals - was considered to have long-term im-plications for the 1,775-mile Danube, which flows through Croa-tia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before empty-ing into the Black Sea. The British also have problems with water pollution, according to a EU Commission report.

The EU report claims leading resorts such as Brighton and Torbay fall short of standards laid down more than a decade ago by pumping untreat-ed sewage into rivers and the sea. The Com-mission’s survey states there are more offenders in Britain than in any of the EU other member states. Only the southern European countries of Spain, Italy and Greece are in the same league. Other locations on the blacklist include Ports-mouth, Hastings, Dover, and Folkestone in the south, and Bebington, near Liverpool, Sun-derland, Middlesbrough and Hull in the North.The Intelligence Com-munity Assessment re-port recommends that improved water manage-ment and investments in water-related sectors, such as agriculture, will

afford the best solutions for water problems. The report says technology that reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops will offer the greatest potential for re-lief from water scarcity.

“For instance, a favourite past

time for people in Romania is bar-

becuing out in the open, especially near a lake or a river. After each outing, moun-

tains of trash are left behind”

20

Thinking outside bor-ders: taking into con-sideration the scep-ticism on both the European and the Turkish side regarding the slow progress of Turkey’s accession to the EU, should the cur-rent negotiations to-wards full membership be continued or should these plans be abol-ished in favour of an extended partnership agreement between the EU and Turkey? There have been made many and many more efforts trying to make Turkey eligible to join the EU – it is not that Turkey is not want-ed; it is just not ready yet. While Turkey has adopted more than 300

common EU laws there has been thousands of working hours spent on trying to find solutions for Turkey’s challenges. This shows that interest is still mutual. The negotiations became to a halt after a couple of years. Now, there are still some 20 chapters for Turkey to fill to become a full member and last year the extended partnership came into consideration. Andrew Duff, a British member of the Euro-pean Parliament, told SETimes: “If Turkey is not to join the EU as a full member, would a form of associate mem-bership be more accept-able? If so, what would this be based on - com-

mon market, trade and foreign policy or some-thing more? These are the issues which should inform the new EU-Tur-key dialogue.” I am also in favour for an extended partnership for Turkey. The country has made gigantic leaps towards becoming an EU country but there is still a lot to work with and negotiations have been on for 10 years. Ten rough years of set-tling and fitting in, but the goal is still in the horizon. The negotia-tions can be held in the background to accom-plish it later - the ex-tended partnership is a good way to start. Also, if the parties during the partnership time decide

Thinking Outside the Borders

by Charlotta

AFET

21

not to continue further, no solid agreements have been made. The EU needs Tur-key. Turkey would be-come the second largest military in NATO and it is very powerful on the economic side. Good re-lationships with Turkey are important to keep remain the gateway to Asia and keep the Mid-dle East from the Euro-pean continent. If Tur-key is fully excluded from the EU, it might turn to the East instead of the West and maybe become a threat. Keep-ing Turkey interested in EU can be partially fulfilled by presenting the extended partnership again and in the side of continuing negotiations to become a full mem-ber. For Europe’s and Turkey’s best, it would be ideal to head for the

full membership of Tur-key, step by step. It will be a long process but great empires were nei-ther built in weeks.

“The EU needs Turkey. Turkey would become

the second larg-est military in

the NATO and it is very powerful on the economic side. Good rela-tionships with Turkey are im-

portant to remain the gateway to

Asia and keep the Middle East from

from the Euro-pean continent.

If Turkey is fully excluded from the EU, it might turn

to the East in-stead of the West and maybe be-come a threat ”

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The EU emission trad-ing system is undergo-ing one of the biggest changes in its history. Aviation emissions tax-es, stronger expansion efforts and move from allocating permits to auctioning them. It seems that things are starting to roll. But is it what we really want? Isn’t it time to analyse what have been done since 2005 and recon-sider our future ac-tions? Europe is facing one of its biggest crises since 1990. After a long period of growth and welfare, something has changed. We are losing our com-petitiveness. Credit rankings of countries even as big and strong

such as France and Italy drop all the time. Unem-ployment rates are ris-ing, people are rioting. Controversial questions arise: is it the best time to implement regulating measures such as the Carbon tax? Whenever compa-nies have to pay our “special” taxes, it forces them to move their pro-duction abroad. This is a simple economic fact. Just compare how much industry we had 50 years ago to how much we produce now. We can-not be so selfish. Our citizens and their jobs are what matters. Dis-putatious steps taken in order to “save the Earth” have to wait. At least until we find out how to

take them, not to harm ourselves at a time. However, there is also another side of the coin. Are we sure that CO2 is the main factor influ-encing climate change? It may seem that legis-lators are, but scientists are not. For sure, there are a lot of catastrophic studies proving that it does. The sad fact is that studies are usually sus-ceptible to mainstream sentiments. Try to think outside the box; correla-tion between the rise of temperature and ascend-ing carbon emissions does not necessarily im-ply causation.Moreover, the EU Emis-sion Trading System proved its tendency to-wards unstable prices

The CO2 tax – good effort or economic disaster?

by Vaclav

ENVI II

23

of permits and showed how unreliable it can be. During its operation price of one tonne of car-bon oscillated between 29.20 Euro in April 2005 to 0.10 Euro in Septem-ber 2007. Today’s value is about 4 Euro per tonne and it is still significant-ly changing every day. And what’s the reason for this unprecedented instability? Permits are issued by government. Nobody can predict how much will the market need. Trust me, states of the Eastern Bloc tried statism for 40 years and it did not work. Nevertheless, during the third phase of EU ETS the percentage of auctioned permits will be increased. Offsets will rise and big pos-sibilities will emerge. Time to invest in sourc-es with a great potential comes. New kinds of

nuclear fusion could be a good field to start. Do not get me wrong, reduction of carbon emissions is not a bad idea. We have only one environment and we have to protect it. But we cannot ruin ourselves just to fulfil unreason-able criteria or to make populist steps. Unem-ployment and social dis-turbances are issues we are facing now. Do not be green at all costs and start being reasonable.

“Whenever com-panies have to pay our “special taxes, it forces them to move their production abroad. This is a simple economic fact. Just com-pare how much industry we had 50 years ago to how much we produce now. We cannot be so selfish. Our citi-zen and their jobs are what matters. Disputatious steps taken in order to “save the Earth” have to wait.”

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I love you from all over Europe

As we march into this somewhat controversial holiday which is Val-entine’s Day, we can be sure that today of all days the “L” word is much in use (and I’m not talking about Laryngitis here). Old fashion Love is in the air tonight, though all of Europe! Still having different languages we can indulge in view-ing how Love is expressed and demonstrated all over Europe:

“Ti amo Fabrizio, have a big slice amore mio.” (Italy)“Ich Liebe dich, Frau, doctor, professor, magister, aktitekt….“ (Austria)“Gráím thú. Who is my favourite keg? Who is my favourite keg? You are!” (Ireland)“Je t’aime, Je t’adore, Tu es l’amour de ma vie, Je veux être avec toi pour toujours, blah blah…“ (France) “Ik hou van jou. Ok, now party!” (Holland)“Te quiero mucho mi amor! How about I sing you my song while you get… ehm, caliente?” (Spain)

“Σ΄αγαπώ, here is a dime.” (Greece)“Kocham Cię. What? Only 4 Zloty?” (Poland)“Jag älskar dig, they were out of roses so I got you this chair.” (Sweden)“Miluji tě. They were all out of beer so I got you roses.” (Czech Republic)“I ha Di garn (yes, apparently this is considered “German”).” (Swit-zerland)“Godverdomme. All hail Flan-ders!” (Belgium) “Love thee, you wicked old ghastly of a scallywag. Cheerio!” (U.K.)“Rakastan sinua, whatever, steam it up and pass the Teerenpe-liluomuolut.” (Finland) “Я вас люблю! All three of you if you know what I mean.” (Ukraine)

And Germany? We have no clue on how Germans express their love; this is for left you to share people.

by Manfredi

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Financial HoroscopeThe sovereign debt crisis has left European economies strug-

gling. Bad luck is often associated with number 13.Will 2013 help the Euro back on its feet or make it crumble even more?

Spain: there’s still a long way ahead, but don’t give up. Em-ployment will get better after another decline, be patient. The labour market reform will have positive impacts on the wages. However dependency on energy imports slows down recov-ery. Another challenge you have to face is the weak domestic demand. Rely on your exports to foster growth.

Greece: the crisis hit you the hardest, but time is said to heal all wounds. It will take a lot of time. However there’s a slight chance for recovery in 2014. Adjusting employment is painful, but the structural labour market reform might help. Unfortu-nately, your reputation is already ahead of you and prevents potential investments from being made.

France: the crisis has left some scratches, but no really deep cuts on your economy. Tax increases for high incomes have not only made Gérard Depardieu leave but, combined with unemployment will harm private consumption. You need to focus on investments and labour creation, which are going to continue challenging you.

Italy: you are expected to reach a positive trade balance since your export is growing. However, complete recovery will be delayed by high unemployment. Although the wages remain moderate domestic demand decreases. Some other southern countries might consider following your example.

Germany: you are the one that got away comparably well.Private consumption has proven to be robust and is further enhanced by low interest rates. This will improve import. But no time to relax there’s still work to do. Although the employ-ment situation could be worse, labour will stagnate. Moreover, the uncertain environment reduces investments.

by Meropi

26

Cupid, also known as Cupido or Eros, is most commonly recog-nised in many places as a little naked boy with a bow and magi-cal arrows, piercing through hearts. On Valentine’s Day, he flies around with the help of his wings, looking for possible vic-tims of his love arrows. At a certain point in life, every-one has wondered who Cupid ac-tually is. For youngsters, it is that magical being which helps them find love at first sight; for grown-up people, it is just a simple leg-end about a boy with wings, who is supposed to represent love and desire. Either if it is a legend or a supernatural being, one thing is certain: Eros is the nexus of the Valentine’s Day. On one hand, despite being called by different names in many parts of the world, the concept of Cupid is well-known by all the cultures. Even though he is said to have lived in ancient Greece along with all the almighty Gods, his love still spreads all around the globe.

Regardless of his origins, his name or even his age, every nation’s Cu-pid is the key factor which makes this magnificent month magical. On the other hand, it is safe to say that Cupid has become just a tool for the mass-media, a concept through which they can manipu-late people to buy their products. Being so intense mediatised in the last couple of years, the concept of Eros is losing its charm one year after year. Therefore, from an iconic figure, Cupid is becoming just a simple commercial tool. Ultimately, whether he is real or not, whether he is an iconic figure or a media tool, Eros still embodies desire and cheerfulness, the ever-lasting Valentine’s Day symbols. Ergo, as long as lovers exist – peo-ple who enjoy the magical, dream-like day of the 14th of February, people who are open to any kind of possibilities – then the concept of Eros will never vanish.

CUPID - Who is he?

by Flavius

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The first thing every young Eu-ropean learns at school is that his country belongs to the European Union, “a great economic power of the world”. However, despite learning by heart the glorious his-tory of the Union and the great ben-efits it provides to its members (not to mention the annual GDP and the population of every country), the majority of Europeans are unaware of the substance of the matter: “What does it truly mean to be a European citizen?”The answer to the question can-not be given by historical or eco-nomic terms. Luckily, it is a mat-ter of values. Only the values can determine the European identity. In other words, a “proper” European is a person that believes in peace, democracy, human rights, sover-eignty and prosperity. A European citizen together with his national identity would have a “European identity”. That is to say, he would feel a member of a great-er community, in which national benefits and boarders are invisible.

He would defend democracy and human rights and protest when any sort of power violates them. He would act in the sake of the com-mon good, because he would be aware that his personal prosperity can only be achieved through the creation of a prosperous commu-nity. The list goes on and on. What really matters is that we, the Euro-peans, should stop facing our Un-ion as an economic treaty, and re-alize that the benefits we can gain from Europe can be remarkable, providing that we fight for democ-racy, equal rights and tolerance. A European citizen is special, only if he keeps the European values at a special place in his heart.

What Makes Europeans so Special?

by Meropi

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