2005: THE EU PROTECTS OUR TEXTILE INDUSTRY

On 14 June 2005, the EU imposed quantitative restrictions on textile products from China. Those fees were imposed after the European Commission and the Chinese Trade Ministry reached an agreement on June 10 at the strong request of France, Italy and Spain to protect European textile manufacturers by limiting Chinese imports to Europe. 

Spain was the 3rd country of the European Union in textile industry, so it affected us directly. It was important for Spain that the EU set some boundaries.

Millions of Chinese textile products were blocked at European ports. 5.4 million sweaters, 1.3 million trousers, 16,800 blouses, 107,300 T-shirts and 901,500 bras were prevented from reaching the Spanish market that year.

Source: AFP

In September 2005, the European Commission allowed half of the blocked goods into the EU under China's 2006 fees.

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Sources: 

- http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/fmar/168462.htm

- http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/home/2005-08/24/content_471862.htm

- http://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/sep/05/china.eu

2004: THE EU REACTION TO THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MADRID

2004 was a terrible year for Spain. This tragedy is known by the name of the 2004 Madrid train bombing, but in Spain we call it the "11-M", because it happened on the 11th of March.  

The attack was made by a cell of Al Qaeda. It killed 192 people and injured 1991 persons from different countries. 

All the bombs exploded between 7:37 and 7:40, and all the trains departed from Alcalá de Henares train station. Three bombs exploded at Atocha station. Two more bombs exploded at el Pozo de Tío Raimundo station. Another bomb exploded at Santa Eugenia station, and the last four bombs exploded at Calle Téllez (near the Atocha station).

Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid, on 11 March 2004, the European Councils adopted several measures concerning EU support to the assistance between the Member States against the consequences of terrorist threats and attacks:

1. To deepen the international consensus and enhance international efforts to combat terrorism; 

2. To reduce the access of terrorists to financial and economic resources; 

3. To maximise the capacity within EU bodies and Member States to detect, investigate and prosecute terrorists and to prevent terrorist attacks; 

4. To protect the security of international transport and ensure effective systems of border control; 

5. To enhance the capability of the European Union and of member States to deal with the consequences of a terrorist attack; 

6. To address the factors which contribute to support for, and recruitment into, terrorism; 

7. To target actions under EU external relations towards priority Third Countries where counter-terrorist capacity or commitment to combating terrorism needs to be enhanced. 

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to do.

Source: Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images

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Source: 

-http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/15480EU_Solidarity_Programme.pdf

-file:///C:/Users/MediaMarkt/Downloads/EU%20Plan%20of%20Action_tcm92-132204.pdf

2003: A HEATWAVE DEVASTATES EUROPE!

A heatwave devastated many EU's countries in 2003. Spain was one of them.

Source: NASA

The summer of 2003 will always be remembered by the huge heatwave that affected not only ecosystems, but also population. Europe reached the highest temperatures ever recorded since 1981.

This heatwave also caused many forest fires.

Source: worldpreservationfoundation.org

Only in Spain, there were 12.963 deaths attributed to this heatwave.

The UE tried to help those countries who had suffered this phenomenon. The UE made a solution proposal where it explains that they will give money to every country affected by it, and that they will recognise the hard work of the rescue groups and of the sanitary services. The EU also emphasized the importance of designing more efficient policies to prevent fires.

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Sources: 

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+MOTION+B5-2003-0390+ 0+DOC+XML+V0//ES

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ola_de_calor_en_Europa_en_2003

http://elpais.com/diario/2004/06/29/sociedad/1088460003_850215.html

2002: THE BARCELONA SUMMIT

Source: hablamosdeeuropa.es

Great security measures in Barcelona because of the European Summit in March 15.

Source: El País

In 2002, Barcelona lived the biggest police gathering ever recorded in a Spanish city. The Government wanted to avoid unauthorised intrusions in the EU meeting, and the most important thing: to prevent the possibility of a terrorist attack.

The Spanish authorities were expecting tens of thousands of demonstrators to converge on the meeting.  8,500 police, armed with tear gas and rubber bullets, were summoned for the event.

Spain temporarily suspended its adherence to Europe's free transit Schengen agreement to set up border controls at its frontiers.

                           

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Sources: 

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acontecimientos_internacionales_en_Barcelona

http://www.belt.es/noticias/2002/02_marzo/11_15/14_UE_Bcn.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/15/qanda.globalisation

2001: THE EU PROJECT "LIFE" HELPS MALLORCA!

Source: ec.europa.eu

THE EU PROJECT "LIFE" HELPS MALLORCA!

Thanks to the EU project "Life", Mallorca received nearly 370,500,000€ in 2001 to improve its resources to obtain energy and more specifically, to remodel windmills and to make them more efficient.

Source: arbolesymedioambiente.es

The title of the project was:

"Advantages of using wind power as a source of energy for water extraction from the subsoil by recycling and modernizing the windmills in the agricultural area of the north of Mallorca."

Source: UIB

Objectives of the project:

-To encourage the use of wind power as a source of energy by recycling old windmills.

-To improve rural environment and to restore this important patrimony.

Description of the project:

In the north of Mallorca there are 489 windmills, most of which are not used and are deteriorated, except for some that have been restored for aesthetics reasons but that don't work as windmills anymore. 

Windmills take advantage of kinetic wind energy in order to transform it into mechanical power, which is used for water extraction.

In some cases they can generate electricity.

The viability studies indicate that the total substitution of conventional energy for wind energy isn’t possible, but could be used as a complement.

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Sources:  

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/publications/otherpub/documents/lifeenvspain.pdf

2000: A EU INTERVENTION IN.... FOOTBALL!

Did you know that the European Union has intervened in football issues in more than one occasion? 

Sources: Diario La Vanguardia

As far as the European Commission is concerned, football is a multi-billion euro business activity that cannot be exempted from the competition rules designed to deal with workers' rights. 

According to the EU, the transfer system of football players breached the EU law of free competition and movement of workers. 

The EU said that: "A player must be at least one full year at his club and cannot be transferred to more than one team the same season"

FIFA, UEFA and the EU reached an agreement on footballers' transfers and contracts.

A EU Declaration on Sport in the 2000 Nice Treaty suggested that EU's involvement in football should be made permanent by setting up a sports agency and a partnership with UEFA. 

UEFA wanted to work with the EU and was contrary to FIFA’s view that the EU should keep out of sport.  

                         

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Sources: Diario La Vanguardia

1999: SPAIN TAKES COMMAND OF EUROCORPS

Source: eurofora.net

Have you ever heard anything about Eurocorps?

If you haven't, you are probably in the right place.

Eurocorps (or also called the European Corps) is an intergovernmental military corps of approximately 1,000 soldiers stationed in Strasbourg, Alsace and France that was created on the 3rd of October in 1993 (but became operational 2 years later).

Eurocorps can act upon request for support from multinational organizations such as the UN, NATO or the EU. 

According to their site, this kind of “army” was created by some countries of the EU (France, Germany and Belgium) and its goals were:

1. To do humanitarian aid work after a natural or industrial disaster.
2. Maintenance and restoration of peace.
3. To ensure the common defense of allies using high-intensity combat.

  And did Spain take part in this army? Of course, and it even had  a Spanish leader(for some time).

The Spanish Lieutenant General Juan Ortuño takes command of Eurocorps

There was a very big ceremony in the headquarters of Eurocorps in Strasbourg when the Lieutenant General, Juan Ortuño, took command of Eurocorps in front of other important soldiers from Germany, France and Luxembourg. His main goal was to make the Eurocorps a Fast Reaction Force for crisis situations in the EU. 

(Source: "La Vanguardia", November 27th, 1999)

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Sources:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/sede/dv/sede260215overvieweurocorps_/sede260215overvieweurocorps_en.pdf

1998: CREATION OF THE ECB

The ECB (European Central Bank) is the EU's bank. It is based in Frankfurt (Germany). It is one of the world's most important central banks.

Its main function is to manage the euro — the EU’s single currency, and to safeguard price stability. The ECB is also responsible for the monetary policy of the euro area (Eurozone). 

The central banks of the countries that have the euro as their currency, together with the European Central Bank, are known as the ‘Eurosystem’. In this link you can see what countries are in the euro system and which ones are not.

When the ECB was created, it covered a Eurozone of eleven members. Spain was one of these members. Since then, Greece joined in January 2001, Slovenia in January 2007, Cyprus and Malta in January 2008, Slovakia in January 2009, Estonia in January 2011, Latvia in January 2014 and Lithuania in January 2015.

The ECB works in complete independence and don't accept instructions from anybody. 

In the ECB's site there are materials for schools to learn about Economics! This video explains why price stability is important:

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Sources:

-http://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/pricestab/html/index.en.html

-http://www.medianeighbourhood.eu/european-union/the-european-central-bank-managing-the-euro/#sthash.5QE80lee.dpuf

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Central_Bank

1997: NO MORE TESTING ON ANIMALS!

The EU member states decided to sign the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997. 

The Amsterdam treaty gave the European Parliament power over different areas, including legislating on immigration, and adopting civil and criminal laws.

But the most important aspect of the Amsterdam Treaty, in terms of animal protection, was the inclusion of a Protocol on animal welfare. It's very important because the Treaty stated that vertebrate animals have feelings and that we need to protect them. 

Unfortunately, the protocol left member states free to decide on animal welfare in circuses, equine competitions, greyhound racing, hunting with hounds, and bullfighting. 

In Spain there were some laws following these indications, for example a law prohibiting testing cosmetics on animals (1997), but there is still a lot to do to protect the animals in Spain.

Source: marketingcosmeticaperfumeria.files.wordpress.com

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Sources:

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Treaty

-http://www.eurocbc.org/page673.html