Small Slovenia takes on highly-charged EU agenda

Only three years after its entry to the European Union membership, Slovenia took on the EU presidency yesterday (1 January) landing itself a highly politicised agenda. This small country will be dealing with numerous issues, over the next six months, amongst which the Kosovo question and the EU renewable energy package are set to dominate...

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Cyprus and Malta in euro zone

On 1st January, at midnight, Cyprus and Malta adopted the European currency , which will replace the Cypriot pound and the Maltese lira, bringing the number of EU states using the euro to 15 out of the 27 member states. They will add around 1.2 million people to the euro zone - some...

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Historical enlargement of the borderless zone

The EU's borderless zone expanded to nine mostly eastern European countries at midnight on Friday (21 December) in its biggest enlargement so far. Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - which all joined the EU in 2004 - are part of this enlargement to the so-called Schengen area. Land and...

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EUROBAROMETER Public opinion in the EU

The current Standard Eurobarometer, Eurobarometer 68 was carried out between September 22nd and November 3rd 2007. This Autumn Standard Eurobarometer covers 31 countries or territories: The 27 EU Member States, the three candidate countries (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey) and the Turkish Cypriot Community in the area not controlled by the government...

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Committee of the Regions and European Economic and Social Committee redefine their cooperation on a new basis

A new cooperation agreement between CoR and EESC was signed on 17th December, by the presidents of the two institutions, Michel Delebarre and Dimitris Dimitriadis, and their secretaries-general, Gerhard Stahl and Patrick Venturini. The first agreement was signed in 1999, following the provisions introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty. This agreement established the joint services of...

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First MS to ratify the new EU treaty

On 17th December, just few days after the document was formally signed off by EU leaders in a formal ceremony in Lisbon, Hungary ratified the new EU treaty as the first of the 27 member states. A parliamentary vote saw 325 votes in favour, 5 votes against and 14 abstentions for the new...

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