◄ | EUROPE |
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disguise. According to the tale in Ovid's Metamorphoses, soon the animal will abduct her across the waves. Until then, she and her attendants festoon the seemingly innocent beast with flowers, while
her blue drapery flutters in the breeze. |
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setting Europe in motion | Europe after 1945 | Europe 1945 and earlier | EU, an economic monetary and political union of
nation states and
citizens | geopolitics and economics in a dynamic world: implications for Europe | does the West still exist? Moving towards 2020 | the French drama (P. Goldschmidt, May '13) | from an Arab Spring to an European Autumn (July '13) | Germany | Spinelli Forum:
Europe and nation states:
friends or foes? | wider Europe | Understanding Uneasy Nation-Building Process
in Post-Communist Europe (Ivan Krastev) | The return of Europe (publication NEXUS Institute) | arts, culture and identity | trans-atlantic | social scopes | change (Aristotle's account) and change (Obama & Cameron account) | economic governance | Europe media | Europe geographically | the maiden Europe | etymology | Europe's origins | JE SUIS EUROPÉEN | technocratic Europe | Wars after 1945 | interview with George Soros |
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Europe geographically
Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bound to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, to the southeast by the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. To the east, Europe is generally divided from Asia by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and by the Caspian Sea. Iceland, though nearer to Greenland (North America) than mainland Europe, is generally included in Europe. There is ongoing debate on where the geographical centre of Europe is. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (after Asia and Africa) with a population of about 11% of the world's population. The term continent can refer to a cultural and political distinction or a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europe's precise borders, area, and population. |
Europa is also, daughter of a royal couple, coming from Phoenicia, who lived during childhood near the land of the Biblical places Tyre and Sidon (now Lebanon) to the Mediterranean Sea. In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. Europe is an open society and the birthplace of the Council of Europe (already coined in 1623) and the European Union. |
In etymology one theory suggests the name Europe is derived from the Greek words meaning broad (eurys) and face (ops) – broad having been an epithet of Earth itself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. A minority, however, suggest this Greek popular etymology is really based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "sunset", cognate to Arabic maghreb, Hebrew ma'ariv. From the Middle Eastern vantage point, the sun does set over Europe, the lands to the west. Likewise, Asia is sometimes thought to have derived from a Semitic word such as the Akkadian asu, meaning "sunrise", and is the land to the east from a Middle Eastern perspective. For centuries, the Turks used the term Frengistan (land of the Franks) in referring to Europe. The majority of major world languages use words derived from "Europa" to refer to the continent. |
The origins of Western democratic and individualistic culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece, though numerous other distinct influences, in particular Christianity, can also be credited with the spread of concepts such as egalitarianism and universality of law. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of changes arising from what is known as the Age of Migrations. That period has been known as the "Dark Ages" to Renaissance thinkers. Isolated monastic communities in Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere carefully safeguarded and compiled written knowledge accumulated previously. During this time, the western part of the Roman Empire was 'reborn' as the Holy Roman Empire, later called Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The eastern part of the Roman Empire became known in the west as the Byzantine Empire. |
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If Europe wants to be a global player, it has to satisfy values that can serve world-wide, it have to have the disposal of a strong economy, of a solid foreign policy and a of a proper policy for security, equipped with instruments to prevent conflicts and is a further integration of Europe needed to keep and to increase our prosperity and well-being. However, in reality, there is a different situation. There is a sovereign debt crisis, economic downturn and there are tensions within and between countries due to austerity and solidarity issues. Europe has become less stable and in fact there is a new reality. The IMF has aligned internal policies; greater scope for influence of emerging countries and less for 'old ones'. Furthermore, space is created for special attention to Europe.
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'Europe is currently bound to the North by ....... Europe is the peace that came after ... Europe is the pardon between ... Europe
is
the return to freedom of ...... Europe
is .... Europe is the .............. Europe is ....,
it is ....... Europe is ..................
Can we live without all this? Oratio Esteban González Pons, |
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Who is European? And what does it take to be a European? The current European Union is based on the illusion that the market will unite Europe. This leads to an existential crisis, with the EU resembling a house without a foundation. What kind of policy should the European Union embrace to reverse the anti-European spirit? How can we create a more confident Europe – a Europe that is more than an economic vehicle or a museum of past glory? A future for Europe is feasible when based upon a united Europe; upon a revival of the cultural-moral awareness that transcends race and faith; upon an ideal of civilization that may inspire millions of citizens to speak up with passion and conviction, saying in their own language: Je suis Européen! – Soy europeo! – Ich bin ein Europäer! – Jsem Evropan! – Ik ben Europeaan! – I’m a European! – Jestem Europejczykiem! So that eventually we will be able to say: Nous sommes des Européens! – We are Europeans!
The symposium opened with a fragment of the radio program 'I'm an American', recorded 22 June 1940 with Albert Einstein. Among the most important of USCIS’s (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) missions is promoting citizenship instruction and fostering civic integration. USCIS’s current efforts follow a long history of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) citizenship awareness campaigns. The INS gained authority to promote citizenship education in 1918 and over the course of the twentieth century it experimented with novel methods for making immigrants, as well as other Americans, aware of the advantages and duties of American citizenship. In 1940 these efforts took the shape of the I’M AN AMERICAN radio program presented by INS and broadcast over the NBC Radio Network. Points of view On Europe, Jean Monnet stated: “We are not forming coalitions of states, we are uniting men”. How does this compare today? George Steiner let us know that the concept to unify Europe starts in coffeehouses, from Lissabon, Budapest to London. People come here to gossip and discussion. In 'café Europa' many different outcomes and statements occurred during the conversations and discussions on what it is to be European. According to Androulla Vassiliou l'esprit Européen is based on respect for others and the basic freedom to move around. Robert Skidelsky let us know that for a British person, it is really difficult to feel European in the same sense as those living on the Continent. Thatcher once said: "the trouble is we visit the continent and they live there”. "If we were betting, I think Brittain will leave the Union, but I hope not."
While Adam Zamoyski said: ‘Brussels’ is something completely different than ‘Europe’, that 'Brussels' lately tried to reinvent itself as the European ideal of 1945, but it is not", and that "we are not behind a whole lot of overpaid unrepresentative fat cats sitting around in Brussels spending our money, Caroline de Gruyter responds that this is unfair! "Brussels, Europe, was never meant to be beautiful. It is replacing fighting with words". Apostolos Doxiadis stated that the EU is an Enlightenment story; a tool for adult nations, which Aykan Erdemir reacts: "we cannot save Europe with better leaders or economics. We need a passion for Europe, ideas, true Europeans. No one can be in love with laws and regulations. Feelings and facts Philipp Blom: If I say ‘Je suis European!’ I mean a feeling: to be at home under a European sky and in European values. The EU has spectacularly failed creating a European spirit. According to Arnon Grunberg the only place to feel European is outside of Europe. How to create a European spirit? Why not let our young people spend a year in another country, making a contribution to society? Bolkestein reacton: "I’m a Dutch citizen and therefore a European; the rest is nonsense". De Gruyter:" I left Holland more than 20 years ago and will probably never come back, but can only vote here. Is this how Europe should be?" Tunku Varadarajan joins the debate and he believes Europe is a geographic entity masquerading as an idea. "Europe needs British scepticism”. Bolkestein: The EEC is now history. We are beyond its intentions and now load ourselves with problems that should not have happened. Grunberg: should we not discard the whole idea of a national identity and embrace the existing regional identities? Blom: Nation states are as dead as a person in the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Erdemir: boundries are imagined, the connections between people are real. The task at hand is not to reinvent a European identity, but to forget the national constructs of the last 200 years. Blom: we can't adopt ideologies or ideas separate from where we live. Holland was tolerant as they had to: they are a trading nation. Vassiliou finished with how many kids in Europe actually get European history in school? Is this not part of our problem? |
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TECHNOCRATIC EUROPE Barry Eichengreen lectured in November 2015 what lessons the Great Recession of now has for the interpretation of the Great Depression in the 30s. Friedman and Schwartz did not necessarily equal that only liquidity support was needed for banks. It is also become likely that even in the 30s it was necessary to recapitalize banks because they had become insolvent. Is the EU too centralized? The causes in the member states and the solutions in the EU? The majority of member states have no confidence in their own government and is therefore looking for a European solution. It is also a taboo to talk about other failing states, therefore the EU takes the "flight forward"; further European integration to camouflage the problems. Should the EU look much more to the bad apples in the EU, so that only then the system will become more resilient? The solution should be sought in strengthening the member states and reducing the pace of European cooperation. Are protest parties the result of a wave of willingness to change in the European population and exclusion of the member states by the EU? Glad protest parties fueling the debate on the EU, but will protest parties move toward the political center or will they blow the EU project? Those are the two possible scenarios, as protest parties come to power. But what about matters which fall at European level? |
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WARS AFTER 1945 |
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On March 17, 2014 independence in the Crimea was proclaimed and on March 18, 2014 Russia annexed the peninsula. The referendum is recognized by only two countries: Russia and Belarus. The other countries speak of an illegitimate annexation of Ukrainian territory, accusing Russia to encourage protests against the new Ukraine government to destabilize the country. A few months later, on May 11, 2014 the Donbass pro-Russian protest movements proclaimed independence of the People's Republic of Donetsk and People's Republic of Lugansk, who united in the Union of People's Republics. This led to an open military conflict between Ukraine army and the separatist forces of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. |
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