SOS questions (February exam)

Practice lessons

• How did the idea of a united Europe germinate? (1)
• Which are the founding treaties and their issues? (1)
• How many countries have joined the EU since 2004? (1)
• Which countries are candidate members? (1)
• Briefly refer to the four symbols of the EU. (2)
• What do you know about the European Parliament’s elections and its seat? (6)
• Describe in brief the three main working areas of the Parliament. (6)
• What do we mean by the ‘co-decision procedure’? (6)
• Justify the sentence: ‘The European Parliament is the democratic voice of the citizens’.(6)
• Which are the four freedoms of movement? (8)
• What do you know about the free movement of people within the EU? (8)[1]
• What does the EU do in order to prevent organised crime? (8)
• Eurocrat, Eurosceptic, Euroland, four freedoms, Intergovernmental Conference, Schengenland, official languages, subsidiarity principle. (9)

Theory lessons

• Who is considered to be the instigator of the European Single Market? Why? (1)
• In how many political groups are the members of the European Parliament divided? (3)
• What do we mean by the term of ‘co-decision procedure’? (3)
• Explain the motto “think small first”. How is this principle met in the EU? (4)
• Refer to the Europass documents and their value.(6)
• Which funding programmes would attract: (6)
  a higher-education student
  a young worker
  a secondary-education teacher
  an adult
• Briefly refer to the main goals of the Union’s Education and Training 2010 work programme.(6)
• Explain the statement “Mother tongue-plus-two”. (8)
• Which treaties is the Constitutional Treaty going to replace? (9)
• Briefly refer to the structure of the Constitutional Treaty. (9)
• Refer to the procedures needed in order for the Constitutional Treaty to enter into force.(9)
  
  -----------------------
  Special attention should also be paid to all T/F exercises (including their justifications) and theory lesson 3, which deals with the European Institutions. Vocabulary exercises will be similar to the ones included in your notes, but there will be no more than one exercise in each part.

[1] Please have in mind that all EU member states -plus Norway and Iceland- belong to the Schengen area, as well as the newcomers (i.e. the countries that have entered the EU since 2004), except Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. The UK and Ireland are still out of the Schengen agreement. This means that you need a valid passport or ID to travel to these countries.

Europe Direct-EU info offices in your country!

These info centres are situated in many parts of Greece, as you can see on the map below. The nearest one to our area is located in Ioannina (38 Charilaou Trikoupi, europedirect@asik.gr, asik@otenet.gr, www.asik.gr, operating hours 08:00-14:00- Manager: Dimitrios Golas).

Some of you found these materials quite interesting, so I thought it would be a nice idea to inform you about these relay info offices. Many thanks to Marina for sending me to TEI a package with interesting EU staff. In case some of you are interested in getting these materials, please feel free to contact me.

-----------------------

• General information about EU matters in any of the official EU languages
• An answer to your questions on any European Union policy
• Practical information on dozens of subjects: for example, how to get your qualifications recognised or how to complain about unsafe products
• Contact details of relevant organisations you may need to deal with
• Advice to help you overcome practical problems with exercising your rights in Europe
  

  

(www.asik.gr/eud/index.htm)

European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

A lot is being heard about this Intercultural DialogueYear, so we all need to get a general idea of what this means. According to the official EU website, Europe is becoming more culturally diverse. The enlargement of the European Union, deregulation of employment laws and globalisation have increased the multicultural character of many countries, adding to the number of languages, religions, ethnic and cultural backgrounds found on the continent. As a result, intercultural dialogue has an increasingly important role to play in fostering European identity and citizenship.
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID) 2008 recognises that Europe’s great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. It will encourage all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from different cultural traditions.
The Year will feature a small number of flagship projects on a European level, as well as EU support for a national project in each Member State, and a Partner programme aimed at mobilising civil society. The active involvement of civil society will be essential in highlighting good practices and identifying needs in intercultural dialogue. Well-known ambassadors have also been appointed to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of intercultural dialogue.The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008) was established by Decision N° 1983/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. (18 December 2006).

Debate Europe! Itching to tell the Commission what you think about environmental issues or energy policy?

On 29th January 2008 Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström and Commissioners Stavros Dimas (Environment) and Andris Piebalgs (Energy), as well as other Commission staff, will be online between 15:00 and 17:00 CET to take part in discussions with European citizens. "With this forum we want to continue the discussion with European citizens that we started during Plan D" said Margot Wallström.

Itching to tell the Commission what you think about environmental issues or energy policy? Want to let us know how you see the future of Europe, or voice your opinion on intercultural dialogue?
Stavros Dimas, Andris Piebalgs and Margot Wallström will be among the Commission representatives online to field your comments and questions in a debate to launch the new forum. So log on between 15.00 and 17.00 CET on 29 January.
You can get a head start by creating a username that morning.

(Further information: http://europa.eu/debateeurope/)

Latest exam news...

Since there has been a problem uploading my word document on the blog, you will be sent an email with the attached file. However, you can still visit the blog these days in case there are new postings related to your exam. Have a nice weekend and good luck with the rest of your exam. In case someone cannot receive the email in due course, let me know, or get informed by your co-students.
Don't worry...be happy!