The Daily Newspaper of EUROsimA 2012

Volume 8, Issue 1

26 April 2012

WELCOME TO EUROsimA’12!

Are you ready for unforgettable moments of fun and hot debates with EUROsimA’12? It is a pleasure to

host to delegates and chairs from different parts of the world in Middle East Technical University (METU).

EUROsimA is a Model European Union conference which has been held by the Middle East Technical

University (METU) Foreign Policy and International Relations Club (FPIRC) since 2005. The participants

get the chance to take active roles on the basis of “representation” during the EUROsimA, especially

throughout the decision-making processes within the bodies of the European Union. EUROsimA gives participants an opportunity to experience what they have learned in theory and provides them a better

understanding of decision-making mechanisms of the European Union institutions and the functioning

of these institutions.

The agenda will be totally memorable. In other words, while exploring the historical deepness of Euro-

pean Union, you will get real chances to correlate it with the modern day. It means you will reach the peak of nostalgia during the hot debates of EUROsimA 2012. Additionally, between the European Parlia-

ment and one of the Councils, namely, Foreign Affairs Council, General Affairs Council, Justice and

Home Affairs Council, and Economic and Financial Affairs Council, we will implement the ‘co-decision

procedure’ for fruitful debates. This is not enough! Furthermore, the participants will experience the euro

summit in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. In this summit, in addition to the representatives

of the members of the European Union, there will be representatives of IMF, World Bank (WB), the United States of America (US), China, World Trade Organisation (WTO), European Central Bank (ECB) and, of

course Turkey who was not affected by the economic crisis as much as the members of the EU.

WELCOME TO EUROsimA’12!

PAGE 2

As both of organization team members and academic team members, we are

so excited for this unforgettable experience, let’s meet with Levent Kızılbağlı

(director-general of EUROsimA) and Erman Aksüt (deputy director-general

and academic director of EUROsimA), enthusiastic creators of EUROsi-

mA’12!

Levent KIZILBAĞLI Erman AKSÜT

Director - General Deputy Director-General

Academic Director

What was the biggest difficulty in front of you while preparing for or-

ganization?

Levent KIZILBAĞLI: As you know while preparing such big conferences, it

is very normal to face many problems. Similarly, there were many difficulties

in front of us; however, I could not easily differentiate them in terms of their

level of difficulty. I mean, they were equally important and equally and easily

overcome by highly concentrated team of EUROsimA 2012. Now, it is time to

forget all those difficulties and try to make EUROsimA 2012 as great as pos-

sible.

Erman AKSÜT: I should first thank God that I was not alone in this road.

Indeed, this year EUROsimA 2012 was divided into two, being academic and

organisation team, so that we could work more efficiently. At this point, I

would like to thank Levent Kızılbağlı, Director-General of EUROsimA 2012

and our organisation team, who did their best for that organisation. I think

Levent would touch upon the difficulties regarding organisational difficul-

ties. So I would like to comment on academic difficulties with which I and

our academic team tried to deal. When I first decided to include historical

content to our agenda, it was just one sentence: “Let’s add a historical con-

tent to our agenda”. But to implement the idea was not that easy. Indeed,

we had to investigate the whole European Union in order to involve the most

important topics of the EU experienced throughout the years from 1957 on-

wards. At this point, I would like to thank the members of my academic

team, who participated in our meetings in order to discuss the agenda. More

importantly, since the EU did not include 27 members from the beginning, it

was difficult to adopt the committees to the history by giving some countries

“member state” status while giving the others “observer” status.

MEMBERS OF

PRESS TEAM

DIRECTOR

Sibel DÜZ

REPORTERS

Zeynep AZİZOĞLU

Mehmet SABUNCU

Ahmet GÜRBÜZ

Tuğçe BALCI

Dilek UYANIK

Sultan ERBAŞ

Merve BOZ

Begüm ÇELİKTUTAN

Ece TATAROĞLU

Hande KAYMA

PHOTOGRAPHER

Onur Çağdaş ARTANTAŞ

PAGE 3

And what are your expectations about the organization?

Levent KIZILBAĞLI: It is really clear that our expectation from this unique conference and for all partici-

pants is the gaining of full enjoy. I think, nothing could be thought except that because we had aimed

this and now we are putting it into practise. In that respect, I wish each participant to have great times

and also for all members of EUROsimA 2012 Team to have rest.

Erman AKSÜT: I hope our respected guests will like the agenda of EUROsimA 2012. We have tried to do

our best so as to make them feel as if they are in an academia. Other than that, I hope they will like the

social events and our Istanbul trip which were organised by our organisation team. At this point, I would

want to use this opportunity to thank our organisation team and Director-General Levent Kızılbağlı, who

did their best for this conference. Without them, this conference would not have become that successful.

Both of you have experiences in such organizations; what are your feelings about participating

as directors instead of being ordinary participants?

Levent KIZILBAĞLI: In this context, being a director is meaningless if you have no adequate team. Here,

I need to state that our team has controlled all the issues related with the conference and managed the

possible crises successfully. When I need them, they have taken the responsibility as a whole and they

behave as a real team. So, being a director of a conference now means everything for me. Also, having

such experienced participants does bring you many special feelings that you have never felt before. Be-

cause, this shows us that all the topics of EUROsimA 2012 that was chosen carefully will be discussed

very well.

Erman AKSÜT: Let us not call them ordinary :). They are the most important parts of such organisa-

tions; without them, there would not be any need to direct anything :). Regarding the question, if you are

a director, you have more responsibilities. If you do not work, everything stops. So, you do not have a

luxury to say “I will not organise my team to finish the study guides of EUROsimA 2012”. From a differ-

ent perspective, directing is like making politics, in which I am not that good. Indeed, you might need to

tell lies so as to keep the team together. At this point, it was difficult to be a director without making poli-

tics :).

You brought a lot of innovations to the EUROsimA 2012, what was your aim by bringing co deci-

sion procedure and European nostalgia?

Erman AKSÜT: Co-decision was not that new. Indeed, it was implemented in our previous conference as

well. However, as far as I remember, there was not a proposal coming from the Commission. In our simu-

lation, however, as the academic team, we prepared a proposal for our Justice and Home Affairs Council

and the European Parliament beforehand, to which they can make amendments. By doing so, we wanted

our honourable delegates to feel the EU’s decision making process entirely. On the other hand, the Euro-

pean nostalgia is our humble innovation. Indeed, last year, there was a Futuristic European Council. We

saw the future of the EU last year; now, we want to see the history of the EU :).

What makes EUROsimA 2012 special for you?

Levent KIZILBAĞLI: First of all, this will be the biggest EUROsimA conference among its predecessors;

this is a huge thing that makes EUROsimA 2012 special. Also, after tremendous work to prepare this

conference, hosting people from all over the world is another important point that makes EUROsimA

2012 special for me.

Erman AKSÜT: Since 2007, I have attended EUROsimA as staff member, admin, press member, delegate

and so on. In other words, this year, I will graduate not only from METU but also from EUROsimA. This

makes EUROsimA very special for me. Also, EUROsimA is a product of Foreign Policy and International

Relations Club (FPIRC), of which I am a member from the beginning of my years at METU. I remember

myself coming to this club with Esra. She is now the chairperson of FPIRC and I am a board member of

FPIRC. I also hereby thank her for her efforts for EUROsimA 2012 :).

Thank you very much!

WELCOME TO EUROsimA’12!

PAGE 4

The European Council was created in 1974 with the intention of establishing an informal forum for dis-cussion between Heads of State or Government. It rapidly developed into the body which fixed goals for the Union and set the course for achieving them, in all fields of EU activity. It acquired a formal status in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, which defined its function as providing the impetus and general political guidelines for the Union's development. On 1 December 2009, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, it became one of the seven institutions of the Union. The European Council defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union. The European Council consists of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, together with its President and the President of the Commis-sion. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy takes part in its work. When the agenda so requires, the members of the European Council may decide each to be assisted by a minister and, in the case of the President of the Commission, by a member of the Commission. Except where the Treaties provide otherwise, decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus. In some cases, it adopts decisions by unanimity or by qualified majority, depending on what the Treaty provides for. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION: CURRENT TOPIC: European Neighbourhood Policy towards Arab Spring The recent developments in the Middle East, namely, Arab Spring have reflected their consequences not only in that region but all over the world, including the European Union. That is why the question of ‘how to implement European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) so that the negative effects of Arab Spring would be felt at a minimum level in the EU’ will be at the heart of the discussion in the European Council. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Copenhagen (Accession) Criteria For the historical topic, we will go back to 1993 and discuss the Copenhagen criteria. In 1993, these criteria were determined with regard to the Central Eastern European (CEE) countries’ future membership to the EU. In our committee, however, our delegates are expected to focus on these CEE countries’ situation in 1990s while bearing today’s candidates’ situation in mind at the same time so that they can come up with a more reliable one.

The European Parliament is the directly elected representative body of the European Union. It is one of the oldest institutions within EU. When European Economic Community was established, it was formed as Common Assembly, whose members were elected by national parliaments, until 1979 when first direct elections for EP held based on universal suffrage. For many years EP was a consultative organ, whose decisions were simply not-binding legally, and whose involvement into European politics were either ig-nored or despised by the big falcons of EU. Considering the initial form of EP, it is a good example of the Union’s well-planned institutional integration, for EP gained more democratic character over decades and gradually involved in broader areas of policy making with the consecutive treaties of the European Union. Constitutional Treaty of 2004, or later revised form of it as Lisbon Treaty of 2009, by introducing co-decision procedure into the almost all areas of policy-making, brings ultimate form of EP as one of the most important legislative organ within EU shared with the Council of the European Union, which is rep-resented as the ‘committee’s of our simulation. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION:

CURRENT TOPIC: Illegal Immigration With the accelerating and strengthening impact of Arab Spring on the Mediterranean region, illegal immigration has become a crucial problem to be solved by the European Union. In order to solve this problem, the academic team of EUROsimA 2012 has prepared a proposal (which can be found in the study guide). Within the context of ordinary (co-decision) procedure, the European Parliament will amend this proposal. Then, it will be sent to Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHAC). If the amendments made by the European Parliament are accepted by JHAC, then the proposal will be binding. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Drafting a constitution for the EU In the historical part, we will go back to 2002 and be simulating the European Convention, an ad hoc institution created in order to draft a constitution for the EU. In addition to the delegates of the EP, we will have other representatives from 13 candidate countries of that time and representatives from the institutions of the EU, such as European Commission, Economic and Social Committee and European Social Partners.

EUROPEAN COUNCIL

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

EC & EP

PAGE 5

At its sessions on General Affairs, the Council deals with dossiers that affect more than one of the Union's policies, such as negotiations on EU enlargement, preparation of the Union's multi-annual budgetary perspective or institutional and administrative issues. It co-ordinates preparation for and follow-up to meetings of the European Council. It also exercises a role in co-ordinating work on different policy areas carried out by the Council's other configurations, and handles any dossier entrusted to it by the European Council. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION: CURRENT TOPIC: Accession of Turkey

Turkey’s negotiation process started in 2005, when Turkey completed the political criteria of Copenhagen. However, from 2005-onwards, out of 35 chapters, Turkey was only able to provisionally close one chapter, namely, chapter on Research and Science. The reasons behind this were both political (like Cyprus issue) and technical (deadlock of the process of the chapters, which resulted from the political reasons). The delegates of General Affairs Council are thus expected to discuss these political and technical reasons by bearing in mind that Turkey’s accession to the EU is not a simple one, but a unique one due to the uniqueness of Turkey’s cultural, political and geostrategic situation. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Accession of Cyprus In the historical part, we will go back to 1990s and early 2000s in order to discuss Cyprus’ accession. As it is known, Cyprus’ accession was just a part of accession of 9 other countries in 2004. Hence, it is necessary to analyse Cyprus’ accession with a holistic perspective by bearing those 10 countries’ situation in mind. Furthermore, it is necessary to focus on the political situation in Cyprus at those times as well. Lastly, the delegates had better consider the legality of Cyprus’ accession because according to the Zurich and London Agreements, the island cannot apply for a membership of an international organisation, of which the guarantors (Greece and Turkey) are not members.

The Foreign Affairs Council is a configuration of the Council of the European Union and meets once a month. Meetings bring together the Foreign Ministers of the Member States. External political relations, however, have been outside the EC framework, under the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU (CFSP - previously second pillar). The Union defines and implements CFSP by inter-governmental methods. Within CFSP, the Union has also developed a European Security and Defense policy (ESDP) that could eventually lead to the creation of a common defense structure. By establishing the Foreign Affairs Council, the Lisbon Treaty separates external relations from general affairs, a separation which implies that all aspects of the EU's external relations, including development cooperation, external trade, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and humanitarian aid fall under the competence of Foreign Affairs Council. This position merges the two existing roles of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the External Relations Commissioner. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION: CURRENT TOPIC: EU’s Mediterranean Policy towards the developments in Arab Spring ‘What priorities does the EU need to address in order to assist the pro-democracy forces and encourage peace, democracy and growth in the countries of Middle East and North Africa, and how should it adapt its Mediterranean policy to that end’ is the main question that we raise for the delegates of Foreign Affairs Council. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Dissolution of Yugoslavia (EU-NATO SUMMIT) For the historical part of FAC, we will go back to early 1990s and try to answer the following question: In the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, to what extent can the EU’s performance in the Western Balkans between 1991 and 1995 be regarded as the indication of its readiness for the crisis management? The representative of NATO will also be simulated in order to discuss the issue from a larger perspective.

GENERAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL

FOREIGN AFFAIRS COUNCIL

GAC & FAC

Justice and Home Affairs Council is an important body of the EU. Justice and Home Affairs is one of the three pillars of the European Union. After the end of the Cold War, opening borders had increased the rate of crimes across the Europe. In this sense, human and drug trafficking, illegal migration as well as terrorism had been committed at that time. In turn, in 1992the treaty of Maastricht set up “Justice and Home Affairs” in order has an intergovernmental cooperation between the member states. This des-ignated asylum policy and immigration, as well as judicial, customs and police cooperation, as 'areas of common interest'. The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) went further, giving EU insti-tutions full control over some areas of JHA policy. During 2005-09, JHA policy was guided by a document released by the Commission called the Hague Program. The program gave importance on creating a Common European Asylum System as well as a Common EU Immigration Policy, to strengthen policing of the new ex-ternal borders of the EU, and to increase the exchange of police information. The Hague Pro-gram was replaced with the Stockholm Program which is guiding JHA policy for 2010-14 to establish a visa policy, as well as cooperation on rescue services, and criminal and civil law. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION: CURRENT TOPIC: Illegal Immigration (Same as the topic of European Parliament) With the accelerating and strengthening impact of Arab Spring on the Mediterranean region, illegal immigration has become a crucial problem to be solved by the European Union. In order to solve this problem, the academic team of EUROsimA 2012 has prepared a proposal (which can be found in the study guide below). This proposal, after being amended by the European Parliament (EP), will be sent to Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHAC) within the context of co-decision (ordinary) procedure. The delegates of JHAC will either accept or reject the amendments made by the EP and make their own contributions. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Schengen Agreement The historical part of JHAC will be a chronologic simulation. In other words, we will go back to the year of Schengen Agreements, i.e., 1985, and the time will pass throughout the sessions and the delegates will act accordingly. For example, before 1995, the representatives of Austria, Finland and Sweden will be

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council is, together with the Agriculture Council and the General Affairs Council, one of the oldest configurations of the Council. It is commonly known as the Ecofin Council, or simply "Ecofin" and is composed of the Economics and Fi-nance Ministers of the Member States, as well as Budget Ministers when budgetary issues are discussed. It meets once a month. The Ecofin Council covers EU policy in a number of areas including: economic policy coor-dination, economic surveillance, monitoring of Member States' budgetary policy and public finances, the euro (legal, practical and international aspects), financial markets and capital movements and economic relations with third countries. It decides mainly by qualified major-ity, in consultation or codecision with the European Parliament, with the exception of fiscal matters which are decided by unanimity. The Ecofin Council also prepares and adopts every year, together with the European Parlia-ment, the budget of the European Union which is about 100 billion euros. The Eurogroup, composed of the Member States whose currency is the euro, meets normally the day before the Ecofin meeting and deals with issues relating to the Economic and Mone-tary Union (EMU). It is an informal body which is not a configuration of the Council. AGENDA DURING THE ORGANIZATION: CURRENT TOPIC: Euro zone Crisis (EURO SUMMIT) Unsurprisingly, the current part of Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) will be focusing on the Euro zone crisis. While doing that, there will also be representatives from International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), World Trade Organisation (WTO), China, Turkey, European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Central Bank (ECB). In other words, the discussion will be in the form of EURO SUMMIT. HISTORICAL TOPIC: Creation of a name and a symbol for European Currency Unit (ECU) In the historical part, we will go back to the period before 1995, when there was no name (which is Euro today) and no symbol (which is € today) for European Currency Unit (ECU). The delegates are expected to create a name and symbol for ECU. They will decide on three alternatives for the name of ECU and three for the symbol of it. Then, these alternatives will be sent to the other committees of EUROsimA 2012 in order for them to be voting for these alternatives. Then, the name and symbol of ECU will have been determined.

PAGE 6

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL

JHAC & ECOFIN

PAGE 7

April 26, 2012 - Thursday;

09.00- 10.00 : Registration at the Culture

and Convention Centre- METU

10.00-12.00 : Opening Ceremony- METU

Culture and Convention Centre- Hall A

12.00-13.45 : Lunch

13.50-15.30 : Mock Session- Feas B

Building- G111

15.30-15.50 : Coffee Break

15.50-17.15 : Session I for all committees

of the EUROsimA 2012

17:15: Departure from METU

17.15:—– Subject to change

April 27, 2012 - Friday:

09.15-11.00 : Session II

11.00-11.30 : Coffee Break

11.30-13.00 : Session III

13.00-14.30 : Lunch

14.30-16.00 : Session IV

16.00-16.30 : Coffee Break

16.30-18.00 : Session V

18.15- Departure from METU

19.30-21.30: Dinner

22:00- Onwards: Social Event

April 28, 2012- Saturday:

09.15-11.00 : Session VI

11.00-11.30 : Coffee Break

11.30-13.00 : Session VII

13.00-14.30 : Lunch

14.30-16.00 : Session VIII

16.00-16.30 : Coffee Break

16.30-18.00 : Session IX

18.15- Departure from METU

19:30 : Departure from Dafne Hotel to the

Turkish Night Event including dinner

April 29, 2012- Sunday;

09.15-11.00 : Session X

11.00-11.30 : Coffee Break

11.30-13.00 : Session XI

13.00-14.30 : Lunch

14.30-16.00 : Session XII

16.00-16.30 : Coffee Break

16.30-18.00 : Closing Ceremony: Feas B

Building- G111

18.30: Departure from METU to the hotel

Cyprus gets set to umpire EU budget talks

The incoming Cypriot presidency is getting ready

to tackle the biggest and ugliest dossier in the EU - the money - amid problems in its own backyard.

"It's the big bang in the EU because everything gets

put on the table - own resources, administrative

spending, external aid, cohesion, agriculture," a Cypriot source told EUobserver in Brussels on

Wednesday (25 April), referring to future talks on the

Union's next €1-trillion-plus seven-year budget. "We

are currently assessing the level of ambition we

should have for each dossier. We're really ambitious

to finalise [the budget talks] by the end of the year ... if it is not possible, we at least want to reach a stage

where an agreement is within reach," the contact

added. Cypriot priorities also include new EU rules on

asylum seekers - a sensitive topic in the current anti-

immigration climate, especially for Cyprus' neighbour, Greece, which is struggling to cope with Asian and

Arab Spring refugees. Another major project for the

island nation is an integrated EU maritime policy,

covering areas from customs rules to pollution and

coastal tourism. The Cypriot source added that as a

small and new member state, it needs to "prove itself" in EU circles that it is up to the job.

EUobserver / April 25, 2012

Berlin gives helping hand to

Sarkozy on borders issue

A Franco-German letter calling for reform of EU

border-free area rules is being seen by diplomats as political support for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of

Sunday's (22 April) elections.

The letter - signed by the French and

German interior ministers - reiterates calls made by Sarkozy during the

campaign that the 26-member-strong

'Schengen' area should be changed so

that governments can "as a last

resort ... reintroduce internal frontiers

for a period not greater than 30 days." But the EU commission last year tried

to change the provision so that after five days national

governments must ask permission from Brussels to

keep the border checks in place. The proposal was

initially dismissed by interior ministers but is still under discussion. "In our opinion, this is a non-

negotiable point. Therefore we oppose any change to

article 23 FF of the Schengen Code," says the Franco-

German letter. Sarkozy has taken a hard line on

immigration in a bid to woo voters fro the far-right.

Last month he threatened to pull France out of Schengen unless "serious progress" is achieved in

reforming the way it works.

EUobserver / April 20, 2012

Spice Bazaar

Basilica Cistern

TRIP TO ISTANBUL