1. Editorial

Dear Europeans,

More than a year ago, on the 1 st of May 2004, the same day that the Union enlarged to 25 Members, JEF Europe launched the “Give Europe a face” campaign. Plenty of things have happened in the meantime and now, our campaign comes to its end. But this is not something to be sad about! During the last year, a lot of different activities have taken place all over Europe and we managed to make a bit clearer which kind of face we want to give to the future Europe .

However, before closing the campaign we want to suggest you some other destinations for your summer: here it comes the second part of the EU Guide!!!

In the first part, our last stop was in Copenhagen and now we will fly fast south to reach the Mediterranean coast and land in Barcelona . From there we will go north, east and west finishing in “the Capital” of Europe .

A month ago in Brussels , the last European Council decided to put the ratification of the European Constitution in standby. After twelve ratifications, France was the first country to say NO to the Treaty and some days later The Netherlands became the second. As a result, daze and confusion has been flying among the Europeans and not a lot of people seem to know in which direction they want to see Europe move on…I propose you to use all the things that we have shared during this last year to try to find this path!!

The new Face of Europe is on the hands of all of us. The European Institutions finally recognized that they have not done enough to engage the citizens in the project called Europe . They plan to approach the civil society to find solutions to some of the questions they are not able to answer themselves. And that is when we have to be ready to give a proper answer! A greener face, a social face, a liberal face, a multilingual face, a challenging face, an enlarged face, a federal face… whatever yours would be, we encourage you to shout it laud and get active. Because the Europe that we want now, is the Europe that we will get!

If you ask me… LET'S GIVE EUROPE A BRAVE FACE!!!

Thanks and see you soon,

Editor in Chief

NOTE: This is the last Information Bulletin issued by the campaign "Give Europe a Face".

You can read all articles of this Bulletin in full length on: http://www.giveeuropeaface.net

Contact details follow at the end of this newsletter.

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2. 1995 Barcelona

Only 3 years after holding the Olympics, Barcelona hosted the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, on 27-28 November 1995. This conference marked the starting point of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process), a wide framework of political, economic and social relations between the Member States of the European Union and Partners of the Southern Mediterranean . The ambitious process aimed to define a common area of peace and stability through the reinforcement of political and security dialogue; The construction of a zone of shared prosperity through an economic and financial partnership and the gradual establishment of a free-trade area and finally the rapprochement between peoples through a social, cultural and human partnership encouraging understanding between cultures and exchanges between civil societies… now, ten years later is the time of the evaluation.

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3. 1997 Amsterdam

The Dutch capital is probably the paradise for all the European students on their graduation trip. Besides being famous for its Red district and coffeeshops the colourful Amsterdam deserves a visit for plenty of other reasons: the Van Gogh museum, the house of Anne Frank or the Heineken Reception Centre are some of them, try to find others by yourself…

Just four years after the Maastricht Treaty (as well in The Netherlands) the Enlargement towards the East and several other pending issues on the EU agenda prompted the negotiation of the Treaty of Amsterdam. In the Amsterdam Treaty the Community was given more of a role in providing policy guidelines and certain aspects of Justice and Home Affairs were transferred to come under the competence of the Commission and the Court of Justice, however it failed in resolving some institutional problems associated to the Enlargement.

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4. 1999 Tempere

Tampere is a cradle for vastly popular Finnish comedians, who succeeded in bringing-about the greatest number of on-liners for the generation-X matured during the 1990´s. A f ormer industrial city is sometimes referred as “Finnish Manchester”, for the industrial profile still present. Tampere is the largest inland city of the Nordic countries with a population of over 200 000, and in constant quarrel with the old capital, Turku . Tampere - habitants, especially students are known for their down-to-earth lifestyles and frustratingly slow-easy-goingness.

Some people (most of them residing in Turku) find it odd that the city was chosen to be the place for the EU Summit 99, when the most advanced Home and Justice Affair issues like EU`s immigration policies were being dealt with. An expression of the long-standing love-hatred-relationship between Turku and Tampere is the annual crusade by University student´s coming from Tampere to make a gigantic jump at the public square of Turku in order to make the city depart from the Finnish mainland for good.

The meeting of the European Council in Tampere dealt with the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in the European Union. So far, the European Union had already put in place for its citizens a shared area of prosperity and peace: a single market, economic and monetary union, and the capacity to take on global political and economic challenges. However, the challenge of the Amsterdam Treaty was then to ensure that freedom, which includes the right to move freely throughout the Union , could be enjoyed in conditions of security and justice accessible to all. This project responded to the frequently expressed concerns of citizens and had a direct bearing on their daily lives.

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5. 2000 Lisboa

Although being a not very well known country of the Union, Portugal has came in fashion recently worldwide: host of the European Football Championship in 2004, homeland of the current President of the European Commission and the location of the most famous picture of Mr. Aznar, Blair and Bush together (meeting in Azores)…Portugal is absolutely a must if you want to be in the vanguard of political-travellers. The Fado, the traditional Lisbon song, can bring you among the rivers, streets and bridges of the Alfama, the old quarter that survived to the earthquake at the end of the 18 th century, and amazing experience that can finish at the side of the Atlantic Ocean, one of the borders of Europe . Book your tickets NOW!

In March 2000, the EU's political leaders set in Lisboa a new goal: to develop the EU into "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”…within a decade. The global economic environment where various economic areas are in competition forced the European leaders to set an agenda to deal with the new challenges we were facing at the time of the Lisbon summit and will face in the future.

However, only 5 years later, Mr Barrosso, President of the European Commission has declared that the results “are not very satisfactory”. A reform package has been introduced this year and the Commission tried to mobilize the different Member States into setting a compromise for fewer but clearer priorities. Will see the results in 5 more years...

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6. 2000 Nice

Lacking a bit of tan? La Cote d'Azur will welcome you! Its main city, Nice, will give you the possibility to, besides sharing the table in a restaurant with Hollywood stars, learn or improve your Nissart (a peculiar local language). Nice, the second touristic attraction in France after Paries, offers the opportunity to enjoy the best French cuisine close to the Mediterranean see. Impossible to resist it!

The Nice Treaty dealt mainly with the institutional adaptations required for the expansion of the Union to 25 Member States. The IGC started on Valentine's Day in 2000, and was dealing with the remained unresolved issues with the Treaty of Amsterdam. That Valentine's Day was the beginning of the one of the most difficult negotiations in the history of the Union . The political “love story” between Spain and Poland will be forever in the history books. Finally, the Treaty was signed on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 2 February 2003, after some painful ratification tests…

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7. 2001 Laeken

Back to Belgium , Laeken was a small rural village first established in 9 th century. It started it's heydays after serving as a mansion and a private seat for several kings. In 1920's Brussels needed new electorate and taxpayers, because of levelling of a railway juncture nord-midi. As the mayor Emile Bockstael who had developed the city successfully, passed away - all that Brussels needed to do was to wait for the ripe apple to fall to it's feet. Brussels gulped down Laeken.

This fact though, did not prevent it from cherishing a separate identity in sociological and geographical terms. With its 45.211 habitants, the population dwelling in Laeken represented one third of the capital, Brussels , which was a robust electoral stake.

The Laeken declaration from 2001 was agreed upon during the Belgian EU presidency. The European Council issued it as a call to reconnest the EU with its citizens – setting the rules for a Convention that should revise the European Treaties. This Convention (link to convention) was composed of national and European representatives that had one thing on the agenda - the future of the Union . They designed a new Constitution for Europe in a bit more than a year. Their assignment was to make the EU more democratic with the creation of leaner and more efficient decision-making system while also introducing some changes to the institutional build-up. This was seen as a necessity for EU to be able to deal with the future challenges, such as the 2004 enlargement to 10 new member states. The Constitution is supposed to be ratified by unanimity after separate ratification procedures in all of the member states - which is not less of an electoral issue…

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8. 2002/1975 Helsinki

After Helsinki started recovering from the so called ‘Finlandisierung'- impact after mid 80's, it has become a hip place to visit, even according to the critical and trendy neighbouring Swedes. Feel like sitting in the same toilet, 70 metres above Helsinki , 360 degrees' view falling under your eyes? According to some speculations, this is what the general colonel Andrej Zdanov did between 1944-1947, as the Soviet supervision committee with their British fellows laid their siege over the Tower. Built in 1930's and designed according to the minimal Finnish functionalism, the Tower is at present a high-esteem hotel and restaurant-bar. If you don't feel like staying over in Helsinki , drop by to Tallin to avoid the high priced alcohol and services in Finland . Helsinki is also called the Northern-Tallinn, because of the easy access to Estonia 's capital just in 2 hours by the hydrofoil ships.

Besides, Helsinki is truly famous of several processes initiated there. The latest, which aims towards a long-lasting commitment by an open dialogue on issues of globalisation, global governance and democracy, started at 2002 by a conference held in Helsinki that year. The Helsinki Conference 2005 will conclude the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy , an initiative of the Finnish and Tanzanian Governments. The process aims at finding large and small solutions to problems; solutions which will take development in the desired direction, and generates partnerships previously perceived unusual.

The other process often referred as Helsinki Process is the cornerstone for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (formerly known as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe ) was launched in 1972. Designed to foster improved east-west dialogue, the CSCE began with 35 members, including all of the European States , the United States of America and Canada . The renamed OSCE now has 55 members.

In 1975, the CSCE process resulted in the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act. In this document, the participating states of the CSCE agreed to recognize their mutual interest in improving security through confidence building measures. The agreement laid down specific principles for the conduct of relations between states, including among others.

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9. 2005 Brussels

Besides being a political attraction, surprising or not, the Belgian cuisine is considered the second better in the world (just after the neighbouring French): the mussels, the sweet waffles and a good bier are the perfect company on the Grand Place…only one suggestion, do not invest too much time on visiting the “Menneken Pis” everyone agrees on “Well, I imagined it bigger”.

The Heads of State and Government of the European Union's twenty-five Member States on 18 June 2004 agreed on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe .  The agreement was followed by a signing in Rome on the 29th October 2004. But this would not be the final step - all the member states of the EU have to ratify the Constitution according to the national procedures. In some countries this has been done through referendum in other through parliamentary approval. After the rejections in France and in The Netherlands, the European Council in Brussels decided on the 17 th of June to start a “period of reflection” when different European leaders would find solutions to the ratification of the European Constitution. After the second half of 2006 they will come back to this issue…again in Brussels …

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CONTACT DETAILS

The bulletin is produced by:Young European Federalists/ Jeunes Européens Fédéralistes (JEF)

Editorial Board: Saray Espejo (JEF-Europe Secretariat) and Piia Pappinen (Bureau Member JEF Finland)

Chaussée de Wavre 214d

1050 Brussels
info@giveeuropeaface.net