'european integration' - tagged features

Crossing borders - something very easy to do in Europe. It's now three months since nine new EU member states entered Europe's border free travel zone, known as the Schengen area. Back in December last year border checkpoints were ceremonially decommissioned and there was a sense of optimism and excitement about what Schengen might bring for trade, tourism and stronger links between countries. But have things really changed? 

As you may know, the European Union, striving for a “perfect” democracy, has a rotating presidency. Every 6 months one member state takes over, and this January 1, it’s Solvenia’s turn. It’s a small country, just south of Austria and it’s the first from the crop of new member states to take over the post. And the pressure is on for the country to prove itself capable. This is a big year for the union, with a range of major issues on the agenda including Kosovo. Does the European Union support its independence from Serbia or not? To help us figure this all out, who better to talk to than Radio Slovenia International’s Michael Manske. He says Slovenes are very proud of taking over the presidency. 

The Slovenian agenda’s certainly a hectic one: they’ll be looking at the other Balkan states wanting to join the European Union—like Croatia and Bosnia. Then there’s what to do about climate change. Plus, since 2008 is the European year of intercultural dialogue. Some in Brussels are worried that the former Yugoslav country may have too much on its plate. RFI’s Brussels correspondent, Quentin Dickenson, explains. 

Will last weekend go down in the history books? The landmark summit between the European Union and Africa was supposed to bring the two continents closer together. Some 80 leaders gathered in Lisbon, Portugal to forge closer ties and find new ways to cooperate on areas like poverty, migration and climate change. But disagreements over human rights and trade, sidelined talks of new partnerships. So was it all watered down or will it go down as a watershed in Afro-European relations? Vanessa Mock was our reporter on the spot. 

One thing Europe is exceptionally good at is expanding. This time in the form of the Schengen border agreement. The EU’s passport-free zone is ballooning and by December 21, nine newcomers will be welcomed into the fold – many of them former communist states. But is everyone jumping for joy? Thijs Papot reports from the border region of Slovenia and Croatia where some neighbours have a greater freedom of movement than others. 

In case you haven’t come across the GPS sat-nav system yet, it’s a system of satellites that pinpoint your car and then beam information to the the voice under your dashboard, which in turn tells you verbally to turn right, left or go straight ahead. The EU’s ‘Galileo’ project is supposed to rival America’s GPS satellite navigation system. But being the EU there has been drawn out wrangling about how the project will be funded, stalling progress for months. Until now. 

Sweden has been a member of the EU since 1995. But did you know that one of the most contentious issues for the Swedes during the negotiations aside from the country's much vaunted neutrality - was whether or not Swedes would be allowed to keep their peculiar habit of snus - or oral tobacco. Now a decade on and smoking definitely out of favor - Snus is being marketed as smokeless tobacco and the question is whether it should be sold in other European Union member states. As Azariah Kiros explains, the Snus Empire wants to strike back... 

Greece has been struggling to contain devastating forest fires this week that have killed dozens of people. The Greek president declared a state of emergency, and individual European countries have sent aid. Our Brussels correspondent, Quentin Dickenson, points out that there is a program in the works to organize European-wide assistance for situations exactly like this: aid for countries who can’t deal with disasters on their own. The former EU commissioner Michel Barnier recommended such a program 18 months. It’s been welcomed widely. But since then, nothing much has happened. 

Raging forest fires are increasingly becoming a feature of the European summer and sparking debate in Brussels over whether Europe needs a common fire fighting service. Given that the water bombers or so-called Canadair planes cost more than 19 million Euros each - many argue that such expensive assets should be shared. Better still, they could be painted blue and gold so that EU citizens immediately see where their money goes. 

The Polish government is currently at logger heads with the European Commission over a stretch of motorway it wants to build through the Rospuda Valley in the North-East of the country. This European nature reserve has unique wetlands and virgin forest, but the Polish insists this motorway is crucial as part of the Via Baltica linking Warsaw with Helsinki via the Baltic States. This week Poland decided to postpone the start of the construction as the case is now being examined by the European Court of Justice. But the dispute over the motorway's environmental impact is far from being resolved. 

EU-Polish relations have not been easy in the past few months. Poland clashed with the EU over voting rights, it also vetoed talks between the EU and Russia earlier on in the year. This latest dispute surrounding a stretch of motorway seems to be yet another bone of contention. True, the Polish government has this week agreed to back down from starting construction while the European Court of Justice is looking into the case. But the question is: what's next? 

Europe may be united but its rail network is somewhat fragmented. But that may be about to change. The public transport world has been excited by the launch of Railteam – an alliance of Europe’s seven biggest train operators who have clubbed together to offer services they say will challenge low-cost airlines. They say they’re going to cut journey times in half and bring fares down too. But there’s some hard selling to do before many travellers are seduced by, or even know about, a railway alternative to flying. 

Brussels infamous bureaucracy is under the spotlight again. Critics have long accused MEPs of having big expense accounts and travel budgets they don’t need. But now there are fresh calls for the travelling circus of the European Parliament, which moves from Brussels to Strasbourg every month, to be stopped. But people have tried and failed to get rid of the Strasbourg connection before. 

Poland joined the EU 3 years ago and has been gaining a widening reputation as a diplomatic bruiser ever since. Their tactics at the latest EU summit drew fierce criticism from across the continent. And the already raised eyebrows of European liberals have risen further up their foreheads this week. Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker said it “was very near to unacceptable” while others called the Kaczynski twin brothers, Poland’s President and Prime Minister, “Germanophobic”. Poland wants to use a system that gives more power to smaller member states. The current system gives more voting power to larger nations, making the union’s most populous state, Germany, the most powerful. The sting in the tail was President Kaczynski’s suggestion that if the Nazis hadn’t killed so many Poles in World War II it would now be the most populous nation in Europe and therefore the most powerful. But does this row reflect the way ordinary Poles feel? 

Last week's heads of Government Summit in Brussels to hammer out the content of a new European Treaty was characterised as always by some very tough bargaining - But a tacit understanding on what can be used as a bargaining ploy in European negotiations was challenged when Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski cited his country's war dead at the hands of Nazi Germany as a reason why he the opposed German chancellor, Angela Merkel’s proposed new system of majority voting within the Union. In the end the compromise solution was found - but since the summit, commentators around have been trying to get their heads around what the comment's mean for Poland and the EU. 

European leaders this week converged on Brussels for talks on the controversial EU treaty at a two-day summit in Brussels, which began on Thursday. Governments around the EU went into the summit assuring voters that they would stand firm on their own position. Some of them - notably the UK and Poland have long threatened to veto the new treaty if it doesn't serve their national interest. It all seems a far cry from the days when the majority of European leaders talked happily about forging an ever closer union. Or does it? Network Europe's Brussels correspondent, Stephen Castle in Brussels 

The intergovernmental conference set to work out the details of a new draft of the European constitution starts next week. Poland is hardening its position on voting rights - and warning member states that it won't hesitate to use its veto power. Polish Radio External Service's Slawek Szefs in Warsaw 

he Treaty of Rome that marks the started all this was signed on March 25th in 1957. And as Stephen just said, by a small club of just six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. By signing that piece of paper, those six established the European Economic Community and paved the way for many more treaties to come... Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice. These European cities have become synonymous with European treaties that were anything but easy to negotiate. And these places are now symbols of ever deeper economic and political integration. But Europe's milestones are more than just a series of treaties. 

Poland is intimately acquainted with the challenges of integration and enlargement. It was part of that big bang of new members admitted three years ago. For Poland, then, the anniversary of the Treaty of Rome is first and foremost an opportunity for reflection. Given Poland’s past, this means remembering the decades this nation was unable to participate in the process of European integration. 

Despite the recent French reputation for saying no to Europe, like Stephen mentioned, more than 70 percent of French are proud to be European…. So says a recently published French poll, published a month before the French presidential elections. The same survey asked French citizens who they thought they would best be able to move the European Experiment forward as France’s next president. So who are these candidates and what are they proposing to do for the future of Europe? 

The piece of paper that got Europe started, the Treaty of Rome, is about to turn 50. Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU and so Berlin's hosting a big birthday celebration. It will also see the signing of a grand new piece of paper called the Berlin Declaration. Network Europe's Brussels correspondant Stephen Castle told us the German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to mark this date in style. 

Formerly secret documents, brought to light by a recent radio documentary in Britain, have revealed that in the 1950's, Paris took the extraordinary step of proposing to merge France with Britain. It w as the initiative of the then Prime Minister Guy Mollet. But this was no marriage of equals: the offer was that the British monarch become the French head of state, and that France be integrated into the British commonwealth. 

It's been almost a year since the French and Dutch voters rejected the European Constitution and plunged the EU in its worst-ever crisis. What followed was a so-called "period of reflection" on the future of Europe.
EU leaders therefore used Tuesday's commemoration of Europe Day to try to reach out to European citizens. In Berlin German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed, more specifically, the question of the failed EU constitution. Deutsche Welle reports. 

Bulgaria and Romania are waiting for the European Commission to publish its report next week on whether they'll be ready to join the European Union in January 2007 or will have to wait until 2008. The European Commission might well decide to put their membership on hold and ask for more reforms - especially when it comes to fighting crime and corruption. But the uncertainty over EU membership didn't keep Romanians from celebrating Europe Day. Radio Romania International reports. 

There is undoubtedly a big communication deficit between Brussels and European citizens. For many, the EU remains something distant and quite abstract. Cordula Janowski, from the Center for European Integration Studies in Bonn, agrees that EU leaders and institutions have lost touch with the concerns of its citizens.