European Union - Repositories and Reference Tools

The European Union continually strives to ensure information is readily accessible to EU citizens, such as developing repositories and explanation or terminologies:

EU Repositories:

  • OpenAIRE - provides open-access to scientific peer-reviewed publications and European funded research output. Grant recipients from the following: H2020; FP7 with SC39; or ERC are required to publish in open access. OpenAIREs successor OpenAIREplus is aimed at linking the aggregated research publications to the accompanying research and project information, datasets and author information

  • JRC Publications Repository - gives access to data about research publications produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC is the European Commission's in-house science service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy

  • Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) - consists of documents of the Institutions of the European Union, papers of pioneers and visionaries, of political leaders, and of the numerous European voices from movements, associations and political groups. The HAEU is developing digital archives, which currently stores over 250, 000 items (including photographs), which is approximately 6% of the material held

  • Open Repository Base on International Strategic Studies (ORBIS) - is currently being developed to aid in the EU’s forward planning. The purpose of the repository is to collect research studies that facilitate forward thinking. ORBIS is run by the European Political Strategy Centre, which acts as a think-tank for the Juncker Committee by providing strategic analysis and policy advice on matters related to the policy priorities. Currently, anyone can submit their work, by creating an account in ORBIS. Each person will need to be approved by the Commission and the submission will go through a stringent checking procedure and requires approval from the editorial team. ORBIS is available to the public, researchers and academic to further their research.

  • Speech Repository - an e-learning tool developed by DG Interpretation to help improve the quality of conference interpreter training. The repository consists of a collection of real-life speeches, on varying subjects and with different styles from national institutions and international organisations. It also contains recordings of pedagogical material, i.e. speeches delivered by experienced EU interpreters and university trainers. The Speech Repository covers all 24 official EU languages, the languages of some of the candidate countries, plus Russian, Arabic and Chinese

 

EU Reference Tools:

  • EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, the European Parliament in particular. It contains terms in 23 EU languages, plus Serbian. The aim of the thesaurus is to provide the information management and dissemination services with a coherent indexing tool for the effective management of their documentary resources and to enable users to carry out documentary searches using controlled vocabulary.

  • IATE multilingual database – consists of EU-specific terminology and jargon, as well as terms from all sorts of areas, such as law, agriculture, information technology and many others. IATE has 8.4 million terms, including approximately 540 000 abbreviations and 130 000 phrases, and covers all 24 official EU languages.

  • Glossary of terms - The European Commission provides a glossary of terms by topic.

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EU Resources

The European Union offers a great variety of information either through its official websites or its publications. This information has been consolidated into the following themes:

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Development of the European Union

The development of the European Union was a result of gradual integration of European countries since 1945. The idea of integration was raised by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his speech at Zurich University, Switzerland (19th September 1946). Who, through the recognition of Europe's political, economic and social weakness after World II, stated that the remedy:

"...is to recreate the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe...."

The first step in building the foundation of the European Community was given by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. He, in coorperation with Jean Monnet, drew up the Schuman Plan, which proposed joint control over coal and steel production. Thereby, whoever did not have control over coal and steel production would not be able to fight a war. In 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) treaty was signed in Paris by France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

As the European Community is based on the rule of law its policies and enlargements is determined by a number of treaties. January 1st 1973 brought about its first enlargement where the Union was joined by Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently encompasses 28 countries (Member States).

To maintain harmony between its Member States, a treaty was developed to provide a basis for a six year programme aimed at tackling the problems with the free-flow of trade across EU borders and so creating the ‘Single Market’. In 1986 the Single European Act is signed. In 1993 the Single Market was completed with the four freedoms of movement: goods, services, people and money.

On November 1st 1993 the European Union (EU) was put in force by the Maastricht Treaty, which was sign on February 7th 1992. The Maastricht treaty was a consolidation of amendments of existing treaties, primarily Treaty of Rome and the Single European Act. In 2009 the Lisbon Treaty came into force, changing the way the EU works.

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History of the European Parliament (EP)

The European Parliament was initially known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The Assembly first met on September 10th 1952 with 78 representatives from the original six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg). At that time the Assembly had no legislative powers; it was used as a place for consultation and discussions.

In 1958, the Assembly expanded to 142 members to include representatives from the ECSC and the two newly established communities (European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)). The Assembly was also renamed as the ‘European Parliamentary Assembly’. Its name was subsequently, unofficially, changed to European Parliament on 30 March 1962, which was finally sanctioned by the 1987 Single European Act.

In 1970, the European Parliament was granted some Community Budget powers, and five years later the Parliament was granted powers over the entire budget through the reformed treaty (the Treaty of Luxembourg and the Treaty of Brussels). In 1979, the first directly elected members took the seats of the parliament, with Simone Veil being the first member to be elected as the President of Parliament.

The evolution of the Parliament is closely linked to a succession of treaties culminating in the current Lisbon Treaty (2007). These treaties define the rules and scope of the Union and have turned the ECSC of old into what is now known as the European Union

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History of the European Commission (EC)

The European Commission, based in Brussels, is an extremely important and powerful body that has the right to impose its decisions on member states of the European Union (EU). It has the power to draw up treaties, laws and policies.

The idea of the European Commission was initiated in 1950, when the French Foreign Affairs Minister, R. Shuman, proposed the creation of an executive body for the European Steal and Coal Community (ECSC). This body would be known as the High Authority. The foundation for the Treaty of Paris to establish the ECSC was signed in 1951. The ECSC included France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

In 1958, these six countries signed the Treaty of Rome to establish two more communities: the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community, to work alongside the ECSC.

In 1967, the three communities merged to become collectively known as the European Communities (EC) whose main focus was on cooperation in economic and agricultural affairs. Denmark, Ireland and the UK became full EC members in 1973, Greece joined in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986, Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995.

The Treaty on European Union (1992), signed at Maastricht in 1991, formally established the European Union as the successor to the EC.

Further amendments to the treaty:

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History of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) represents a major step in the integration of all member states of the European Union economies. It involves the coordination of economic and fiscal policies, a common monetary policy, and a common currency: the euro. Currently all 28 EU Member States take part in the economic union, while only a select number have adopted the euro. The Member States that have adopted the euro are part of the Euro Area.

The initial idea for the EMU was instigated by Gustav Stresemann (German foreign minister).  In 1929, Gustav Stresemann asked for a European currency due to the increased economic division, which developed from a number of new nation states in Europe after World War I.

There were three political attempts to create the EMU before its success in 1999:

  • The first attempt (1969): Den Haag summit and Werner Report (historical documentation)

  • The second attempt  (1979): The European Monetary System and the ECU (historical documentation)

  • The third attempt   (1989): The Single European Act and the "Delors Report" (historical documentation)

  • The start of EMU and the Euro (1999), which was implemented through 3 stages

 

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Eurozone Financial Crisis

There are a number of factors that contributed to Europe's debt crisis. One of the initial factors was the heavy losses incurred by many European banks who had invested heavily in the American mortgage market. The losses were triggered by the downturn of the US economy, which caused numerous homeowners to default on their mortgages.

Many EU governments provided aid in an attempt to save these European banks but the cost proved to be too high. For instance, in Ireland, it had almost bankrupted the government. This, in turn, caused Europe to slip into recession in 2009 and for investors to closely scrutinise the finances of various EU governments. The threat of bank failures meant that the health of government finances became more important than ever.

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Policies of the European Union

The European Union is active in a wide range of areas, therefore, the policies and related information (e.g. legislation) can be found on the individual Directorate General (DG) websites:

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European Union - Legislation

As the European Union evolved over time, so has the process for creating European legislation. For instance European Parliament has steadily become more embedded in the legislative process. In 1986, the Single European Act (1986) and the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties successively extended Parliament's prerogatives.

 

The European Union implements legislation using two types of legislative procedures:

 

There are three basic types of EU legislative binding instruments:

  • A regulation, which is similar to a national law, with the difference that it is applicable in all EU countries

  • Directives, which set out general rules to be transferred into national law, by each country as they deem appropriate

  • A decision, which only deals with a particular issue and specifically mentioned persons or organisations

These laws (regulations, directives and decisions) take precedence over national law and are binding on national authorities. The EU also issues non-binding instruments, such as recommendations and opinions, as well as rules governing how EU institutions and programmes work, etc.

 

Key databases:

  • Search for legislation (EUR-lex) - Database of EU law, including the Official Journal, treaties, case law and parliamentary questions. It has a guided tour with tutorials on how to use EUR-Lex.

  • Court of Justice of the European Union - The Court of Justice interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries. It also settles legal disputes between EU governments and EU institutions. Its database contains case-law, judgements and opinions.

  • European Court of Human Rights (HUDOC) - The European Court of Human Rights is an international court, set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

  • Summaries of EU legislation - EU legislation by topic, from agriculture to immigration and transport

  • National Law (N-Lex) - Description and links to each Member States national law databases

  • European Parliament legislative observatory - database for monitoring the EU decision-making process

  • EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, containing terms in 23 EU languages

 

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European Union - Statistics

The European Union offers a wealth of information both quantitative and qualitative. It works on the idea that data should be freely available for use and reuse and, therefore, has an Open Data policy. The data is provided through a number of sources:

Eurostat

Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. It was established in 1953 for the European Coal and Steel Community and adopted its name in 1959. Its purpose is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level so comparisons between countries and regions can be made. Thereby rely on theEuropean Statistical System (ESS) to provide comparable statistics at EU level.

Eurostat offers various ways to assess the data (both at EU and country level):

Note: all EuroStat information is updated twice a day, at 11:00 and 23:00
Download formats: tsv (tab separated values) and sdmx format

Eurostat now provides mobile apps (Available for iPhone, iPad and Android):

  • Eurostat_Eco EU Economy - gives an instant overview of the European Economy

  • Eurostat_Country Country Profiles - provides you with real-time updates of some 160 key statistical data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

  • Eurostat_Quiz Eurostat Quiz - fun app to test your knowledge about the EU and its Member States

 

Opinion surveys

  • Eurobarometer (EB) surveys - comprises of the public opinions from Member States and associated countries. The major topics covered by the surveys are: European citizenship: enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defence, etc. EB offers:

    • Eurobarometer interactive search system - allows for a search to be performed in 3 stages 1) select a predefined question or type a related keyword, 2) select country or countries; 3) define the time period. The data can be displayed as a graph, a pie chart, in an excel table or in columns. Survey results can also be displayed on a map of the EU. The colour coding facilitates quick and easy comparisons between countries.

    • Standard EB - The survey consists of approximately 1000 face-to-face interviews per country. Data has been collected since 1973. The survey reports are published twice yearly.

    • Special EB - These surveys are based on in-depth thematical studies carried out for various services of the European Commission or other EU Institutions and integrated in Standard Eurobarometer's polling waves.

    • Flash EB - these are ad hoc thematical telephone interviews conducted at the request of any service of the European Commission. These surveys are conducted when the Commission needs to obtain opinions of a particular target group quickly.

    • Qualitative Studies - based discussion groups comprising of selected social groups. The purpose of these studies to assess the reactions, motivations, and feeling on a given subject or concept.

  • Scientific Committees - Opinions of independent Scientific Committees on Consumer Safety, health and environment risks emerging and newly identified health risk

Open Data Portal

Open Data Portal was created to provide ease of access to a growing range of data from the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU). EuroStat, European Banking Authority, European Institute for Gender Equality, DG for Competition, European Environment Agency are just a sample of publishers that provide data to the portal (full list of publishers). The datasets are mainly in .tmx (Translation Memory eXchange) format.

 

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European Union Databases and Tools

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

The European Union provides a vast amount of information. To make this information easily accessible tools have been developed and some of this information has been consolidated in databases (see below sources identified listed by Directorate General (DG)):

Note, all information, policies, legislations relating to these topic areas can also be found on the related Directorate General (DG) websites

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European Union - Repositories and Reference Tools

The European Union continually strives to ensure information is readily accessible to EU citizens, such as developing repositories and explanation or terminologies:

EU Repositories:

  • OpenAIRE - provides open-access to scientific peer-reviewed publications and European funded research output. Grant recipients from the following: H2020; FP7 with SC39; or ERC are required to publish in open access. OpenAIREs successor OpenAIREplus is aimed at linking the aggregated research publications to the accompanying research and project information, datasets and author information

  • JRC Publications Repository - gives access to data about research publications produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC is the European Commission's in-house science service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy

  • Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) - consists of documents of the Institutions of the European Union, papers of pioneers and visionaries, of political leaders, and of the numerous European voices from movements, associations and political groups. The HAEU is developing digital archives, which currently stores over 250, 000 items (including photographs), which is approximately 6% of the material held

  • Open Repository Base on International Strategic Studies (ORBIS) - is currently being developed to aid in the EU’s forward planning. The purpose of the repository is to collect research studies that facilitate forward thinking. ORBIS is run by the European Political Strategy Centre, which acts as a think-tank for the Juncker Committee by providing strategic analysis and policy advice on matters related to the policy priorities. Currently, anyone can submit their work, by creating an account in ORBIS. Each person will need to be approved by the Commission and the submission will go through a stringent checking procedure and requires approval from the editorial team. ORBIS is available to the public, researchers and academic to further their research.

  • Speech Repository - an e-learning tool developed by DG Interpretation to help improve the quality of conference interpreter training. The repository consists of a collection of real-life speeches, on varying subjects and with different styles from national institutions and international organisations. It also contains recordings of pedagogical material, i.e. speeches delivered by experienced EU interpreters and university trainers. The Speech Repository covers all 24 official EU languages, the languages of some of the candidate countries, plus Russian, Arabic and Chinese

 

EU Reference Tools:

  • EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, the European Parliament in particular. It contains terms in 23 EU languages, plus Serbian. The aim of the thesaurus is to provide the information management and dissemination services with a coherent indexing tool for the effective management of their documentary resources and to enable users to carry out documentary searches using controlled vocabulary.

  • IATE multilingual database – consists of EU-specific terminology and jargon, as well as terms from all sorts of areas, such as law, agriculture, information technology and many others. IATE has 8.4 million terms, including approximately 540 000 abbreviations and 130 000 phrases, and covers all 24 official EU languages.

  • Glossary of terms - The European Commission provides a glossary of terms by topic.

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Cyprus and the European Union

Historical overview

The Republic of Cyprus, a small island country situated in the Eastern Mediterranean sea, joined the European Union on 1st May 2004. Relationships between Cyprus and the European Union began in 1973 with the Associate Agreement between Cyprus and the European Economic Community (EEC). The purpose of this agreement was to consolidate and expand trade, and the economic relations between Cyprus and the European Community. On 3rd July 1990 Cyprus submitted an application to become a member of the EEC. The application was critically assessed and Cyprus was found to satisfy the criteria of membership and suitable in 1993. This was reaffirmed in 1995. The accession of Cyprus, also, required harmonisation between Cypriot and European law, known as Acquis screening. This process was designed to determine the areas where necessary changes in Cypriot law needed to be made in order to harmonise it with EU legislation. This screening process was concluded in 2000 and implementation of these changes began and were assessed on a regular basis. The first Regular Report to the European Commission was submitted November 1998. Regular Reports and preparation for membership:

  • Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 1998
    COM (98) 0710 final, 17 December 1998.

  • Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 1999.
    COM (99) 0502 final, 13 October 1999.

  • Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2000.
    COM (2000) 0702 final, 8 November 2000.

  • Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2001.
    SEC (2001) 1745 final, 13 November 2001.

  • Regular report from the Commission on Cyprus' progress towards accession 2002
    SEC (2002) 1401 final, 9 October 2002.

  • Comprehensive monitoring report on Cyprus' preparation for membership 2003
    SEC (2003) 1202 final (COM(2003) 675), 5 November 2003.

For an in-depth overview and details of further negotiations, go to: Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus - A Historical Overview

 

EU supporting Cypriot economic recovery

Cyprus adopted the Euro on 1st January 2008. Since then the Cypriot economy has been erratic. In 2009 the Cypriot economy went into recession, which was mainly due to the large drop in the shipping and tourism sectors. Economic growth between 2010 and 2012 was weak and insufficient to counteract the 2009 recession. Property values had declined and there was an increase in non-performing loans. This combination of economic downfalls lead to the Cypriot financial crisis in 2012. In an attempt to address this problem the EU provided a number of investments to help boost the economy:

  • Cohesion policy and Cyprus (gives summarised details of projects)

    • European Social Fund (ESF) - The purpose of the ESF is to modernise the skills and qualifications of workers. Also, to help disadvantaged groups get the support and training they need for work. This link also provides information on budget, funding and who participates in ESF.

    • European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - the overall objective of the ERDF is to improve the competitiveness of the country's economy within conditions of sustainable development.

  • EU wide stress testing in Cyprus - Stress testing is a risk management tool. It is a tool used by the European Banking Authority (EBA) to monitor and assess market developments as well as to identify trends, potential risks and vulnerabilities. Thereby, helping the EBA to ensure the orderly functioning and integrity of financial markets and the stability of the financial system in the EU.

Relevant Publications

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KEY SOURCES

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Other Relevant Sources

The following are external information relating to Europe:

  • Archive of European Integration is an electronic repository and archive for research materials on the topic of European integration and unification. You will need to register (at no cost) to access some resources

  • Centre for European Studies is the Internet knowledge base whose educational approach provides students, teachers, researchers and anyone else interested in European issues with information on the history of European integration - multimedia and multilingual

  • EurActiv is a free portal giving EU news, policy positions and "EU actors"

  • European Integration History Index provides internet resources on the History of Europe after WWII in all languages

  • Europeana is a digital library containing 4 million items, including images, texts, audio and video, from European museums, galleries, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections

Other Related Documents

  • The EU and the US: differences in ideologies of political economy and economic structures, 4/2014, December 2014, Policy Paper for the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs (CCEIA)[Contact CCEIA for copy of paper]

  • Consumption Culture in Europe: Insight into the Beverage Industry - IGI Global Publication [English]

  • Cyprus and the EU: Appraisal and Challenges [GreekEnglishFrench]

  • EP pilot project: Support for Farmers' Cooperatives, Final report - November 2012 [English]

  • Farmer's Cooperatives Cyprus Report [English]

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European Central Bank Statistics

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European Environment Agency (EEA) - data, maps, etc

 

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