the competition

The EU could be an extremely important actor on the world stage. It is so partly because of its size and resources and partly because of its ability to act in a coordinated manner in a range of external policy contexts and settings. The European Union was created to achieve economic goals and has always tried to become a political union. The EU managed to create an economic union and the successful introduction of the Euro proved that most of member states could agree on common economic goals. But the EU is often criticised for its lack of political united action. It is not easy, especially for some member states, to have to cede their national sovereignty in order the EU to be able to speak with one voice on the international political stage. These is the next challenges of the European Union in order to be more credible within the international organisations.

The Maastricht Treaty defined the objectives of the CFSP, but they were defined only in general terms. These objectives are “to safeguard the common values, fundamental interests and independence of the Union”, to “develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”, to “promote international cooperation”, to “strengthen the security of the Union in all ways” (Article 11 of the TEU)

The European Security and Defence policy is an integral part of the CFSP, which includes “ all questions relating to the security of the Union, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy (…) which might lead to a common defence, should the European Council so decide” (Article 17 of the TEU)

The Treaty of Amsterdam (1996) aimed at defining an effective and coherent external policy. The objectives of the CFSP were left largely unchanged, but operational and management mechanisms were strengthened with a view to improving the EU’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Joint actions and common positions are supranational. That means that qualified majority voting[1] was established to implement actions and common positions.

In this treaty the CFSP High Representative was created. This position is to be held by the Secretary General of the Council and he should assist the Council and especially the Council presidency in all CFSP matters, including external representation. The HR should “assist the Council in matters coming within the scope of the Common foreign and security policy in particular through contributing to the formulation, preparation and implementation of policy decisions, and, when appropriate and acting on behalf of the Council at the request of the Presidency, through conducting political dialogue with third countries” (Article 26, TEU)

External representation and implementation of the CFSP are further strengthened by the work of the troika, which incorporates the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the country holding the EU presidency, the High Representative of the CFSP, the Commissioner for External Relations (Chris Patten) and, if necessary, a representative of the country that will hold the next EU presidency.

The security policy was advanced a little with the Amsterdam Treaty, by creating the Petersberg tasks.

At the Helsinki European Council meeting (December 1999), the main objective was the development of the common European Security and defence policy. Compared to the other meetings, the objectives, which were defined at this meeting, were more concrete. The European Council focused on military capabilities, creating a military Committee and developing a credible, available and effective European military staff. A military force of 50.000- 60.000 persons was created, which should be prepared for rapid responses within 60 days.

The functioning of the CFSP is centred on a network of cooperative and consultative activities between representatives of the member states. The CFSP is based primarily on intergovernmental (inter-foreign Ministry) arrangements.

The Amsterdam Treaty provided for “constructive abstentionism” on CFSP matters, whereby an abstaining state “shall not be obliged to apply the decision, but shall accept that the decision commits the Union”. Concerning the most CFSP matters, the qualified majority voting applies

Concerning the defence policy, it should be mentioned that the defence resources of the EU States essentially remain under national control, even if they do frequently operate within the framework of international organisations such as the UN, NATO and the OSCE. Indeed, the European defence policy cannot be defined without making reference to NATO. Eleven current member states (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK) and four of the candidate Countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey) are members of the NATO.

The European Council has the responsibility for defining the principles and the general guidelines of the CFSP and deciding on common strategies.

The Council of Ministers is at the heart of the CFSP processes. The General Affairs Council is the main decision-making body of the CFSP: The Foreign Ministers of the member states, with the Commission in attendance, normally meet about once a month. Foreign Ministers also meet in other forums (notably at European Councils).

The intergovernmental and extra-Community nature of the CFSP has meant that the Commission’s position has always been much weaker in the foreign policy. There is still the feeling that the Commission’s CFSP potential is not being fully realised.

Article 21 of the Treaty: “The Presidency shall consult the European Parliament on the main aspects and the basic choices of the common foreign and security policy and shall ensure that the views of the European Parliament are duly taken into consideration. The European Parliament shall be kept regularly informed by the Presidency and the Commission of the development of the Union’s foreign and security policy. “

Embassies, delegations and missions are used to promote and defend interests abroad. Each country within the European Union has a national embassy or delegation to defend the national interests abroad and a Commission delegation, which is representing the political, diplomatic and economic interests of the EU in each member state. The CFSP is a matter that embassies of the member states and Commission delegations need to be aware and to promote. The Article 20 of the TEU states: “The diplomatic and consular missions of the Member States and the Commission delegations in third countries and international conferences, and their representations to international organizations, shall cooperate in ensuring that the common positions and joint actions adopted by the Council are complied with and implemented.”

Defence is extremely problematical: It is so for a number of reasons, not least:

The new international context and the limits to action by Member States during the Balkan crisis prompted consideration of how to give practical effect to the ESDP. Because of the lack of military or political commitment and of effective implementing instruments, the influence of the EU is inevitably weak in high-tension and crisis situations. The events of the 11^th September prompt consideration not only of the need to project stability outside the Union but also of the need to ensure security within the European Union, especially for the protection of the civilian population and democratic institutions. At the same time, public opinion is calling more and more for security and seems to be in favour of a European defence policy.

The obstacles to the development of an EU defence policy and capability are grounds for thinking that progress will be made at some point in the near future. The development of a European defence policy would give dynamism into what many observers have seen as a listless and ineffective CFSP.

It must be underlined that the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties have provided for significant advances in foreign and security policy cooperation, albeit on a basis that maintains their essentially intergovernmental status and no supranational one. This is one of the many obstacles to a common defence policy. It should not, however, be assumed that the EU will never become an important global foreign policy player.

The introduction of a common currency is a great progress in the construction of a flourishing economic area within the Union but on the international economic stage, the representation of the Union still remains weak, because the European Union still have difficulties to agree on common positions.

The International Monetary Fund is a specialized agency of the United Nations system set up by treaty in 1945 to help promote the health of the world economy. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it is governed by its almost global membership of 184 countries.

The IMF is the central institution of the international monetary system—the system of international payments and exchange rates among national currencies that enables business to take place between countries.

It aims to prevent crises in the system by encouraging countries to adopt sound economic policies; it is also—as its name suggests—a fund that can be tapped by members needing temporary financing to address balance of payments problems.

The IMF's resources come mainly from the quota (or capital) subscriptions that countries pay when they join the IMF, or following periodic reviews in which quotas are increased.

The quota defines a member's voting power in IMF decisions. Quotas are intended broadly to reflect members' relative size in the world economy: the larger a country's economy in terms of output, and the larger and more variable its trade, the higher its quota tends to be. The United States of America, the world's largest economy, contributes most to the IMF, 17.6 percent of total quotas; Seychelles, the world's smallest, contributes 0.004 percent

The SDR, or special drawing right, is an international reserve asset introduced by the IMF in 1969. The SDR was introduced as a supplementary reserve asset, which the IMF could "allocate" periodically to members when the need arose, and cancel, as necessary. The SDR is also the IMF's unit of account. A number of other international and regional organizations and international conventions use it as a unit of account, or as a basis for a unit of account.

Founded in 1944, the World Bank Group consists of five closely associated institutions: The five institutions which make the World Bank Group specialize in different aspects of development. However, they use their comparative advantages to work in partnership and to trive for the same goal: poverty reduction.

The mission of the World Bank is to fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors

The European Commission is one of the most important global development actors and the various partnership programs with the World Bank generate significant benefits for both institutions. The World Bank Group greatly values this collaboration.

In 1975, the French President Giscard d'Estaing invited the Leaders of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy to an informal gathering at the chateau of Rambouillet, near Paris. The idea was for the 6 to discuss current world issues (dominated at the time by the oil crisis) in a frank and informal manner. These meetings became an annual event, with the inclusion of Canada as the 7th member of the group at the 1976 summit in Puerto Rico.

The work of the group has evolved over the years in reaction to changing needs and political context. What started as a forum focusing on essentially fine tuning of short term economic policies among participant countries has now turned to a more structural and global perspective and has added a wide range of political and social issues to its workload, especially in the area of sustainable development and global health.

The group remained at 7 until Russia, who had attended the meetings as an observer throughout the 1990s, was invited to formalise this relationship in 1997. The first G8 summit subsequently took place in 1998. The eight members of the G8 are Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, USA, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Russia and the European Union.

In 1978, the G8 Leaders decided to invite the European Economic Community to join the summit. Ever since, the European Union has taken part in the discussions. However, it cannot chair or host a summit. The European Union also has an observer status at G8 meetings and is represented by the President of the Commission (Mr Romano Prodi) as well as the Leader of the country that holds the presidency of the European Union (Mr Konstantinos Simitis from Greece).

The past 50 years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade. Merchandise exports grew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 2000 was 22-times the level of 1950. GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth.

The system was developed through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under GATT. The first rounds dealt mainly with tariff reductions but later negotiations included other areas such as anti-dumping and non-tariff measures. The last round — the 1986-94 Uruguay Round — led to the WTO’s creation.

The negotiations did not end there. Some continued after the end of the Uruguay Round. In February 1997 agreement was reached on telecommunications services, with 69 governments agreeing to wide-ranging liberalization measures that went beyond those agreed in the Uruguay Round. GATT is now the WTO’s principal rule-book for trade in goods. The Uruguay Round also created new rules for dealing with trade in services (GATS-General Agreeement on Trade in Services), relevant aspects of intellectual property, dispute settlement and trade policy reviews.

In 2000, new talks started on agriculture and services. These have now been incorporated into a broader agenda launched at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

The agenda adds negotiations and other work on non-agricultural tariffs, trade and environment, WTO rules such as anti-dumping and subsidies, investment, competition policy, trade facilitation, transparency in government procurement, intellectual property, and a range of issues raised by developing countries as difficulties they face in implementing the present WTO agreements.

There are 145 members in the World Trade Organisation and the European Union has been a member since 1 January 1995. The fifteen member States of the EU are WTO members in their own right. The EU is a single customs union with a single trade policy and tariff. The European Commission speaks for all EU member States at almost all WTO meetings.

Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO’s predecessor, GATT. The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments.

[1] Qualified majority voting= of the total of 87 votes, 62 are needed to constitute a majority and to take a decision.

[2] The Petersberg tasks include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacemaking and peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management.



		Working-Groups


		*Youth European Convention Simulation* *Feedback paper* A.The Common Foreign and Security Policy The EU could be an extremely important actor on the world stage. It is so partly because of its size and resources and partly because of its ability to act in a coordinated manner in a range of external policy contexts and settings. The European Union was created to achieve economic goals and has always tried to become a political union. The EU managed to create an economic union and the successful introduction of the Euro proved that most of member states could agree on common economic goals. But the EU is often criticised for its lack of political united action. It is not easy, especially for some member states, to have to cede their national sovereignty in order the EU to be able to speak with one voice on the international political stage. These is the next challenges of the European Union in order to be more credible within the international organisations. 1.History and development of the CFSP The Maastricht Treaty defined the objectives of the CFSP, but they were defined only in general terms. These objectives are “to safeguard the common values, fundamental interests and independence of the Union”, to “develop and consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”, to “promote international cooperation”, to “strengthen the security of the Union in all ways” (Article 11 of the TEU) The European Security and Defence policy is an integral part of the CFSP, which includes “ all questions relating to the security of the Union, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy (…) which might lead to a common defence, should the European Council so decide” (Article 17 of the TEU) The Treaty of Amsterdam (1996) aimed at defining an effective and coherent external policy. The objectives of the CFSP were left largely unchanged, but operational and management mechanisms were strengthened with a view to improving the EU’s effectiveness and efficiency. There are five CFSP’s instruments: Definition of the CFSP’s principles and general guidelines Common strategies Joint actions Common positions Strengthened cooperation between the member states Joint actions and common positions are supranational. That means that qualified majority voting[1] was established to implement actions and common positions. In this treaty the CFSP High Representative was created. This position is to be held by the Secretary General of the Council and he should assist the Council and especially the Council presidency in all CFSP matters, including external representation. The HR should “assist the Council in matters coming within the scope of the Common foreign and security policy in particular through contributing to the formulation, preparation and implementation of policy decisions, and, when appropriate and acting on behalf of the Council at the request of the Presidency, through conducting political dialogue with third countries” (Article 26, TEU) External representation and implementation of the CFSP are further strengthened by the work of the troika, which incorporates the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the country holding the EU presidency, the High Representative of the CFSP, the Commissioner for External Relations (Chris Patten) and, if necessary, a representative of the country that will hold the next EU presidency. The security policy was advanced a little with the Amsterdam Treaty, by creating the Petersberg tasks. At the Helsinki European Council meeting (December 1999), the main objective was the development of the common European Security and defence policy. Compared to the other meetings, the objectives, which were defined at this meeting, were more concrete. The European Council focused on military capabilities, creating a military Committee and developing a credible, available and effective European military staff. A military force of 50.000- 60.000 persons was created, which should be prepared for rapid responses within 60 days. 2. Decision-making process on CFSP matters The functioning of the CFSP is centred on a network of cooperative and consultative activities between representatives of the member states. The CFSP is based primarily on intergovernmental (inter-foreign Ministry) arrangements. The Amsterdam Treaty provided for “constructive abstentionism” on CFSP matters, whereby an abstaining state “shall not be obliged to apply the decision, but shall accept that the decision commits the Union”. Concerning the most CFSP matters, the qualified majority voting applies Concerning the defence policy, it should be mentioned that the defence resources of the EU States essentially remain under national control, even if they do frequently operate within the framework of international organisations such as the UN, NATO and the OSCE. Indeed, the European defence policy cannot be defined without making reference to NATO. Eleven current member states (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK) and four of the candidate Countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey) are members of the NATO. Powers of the EU institutions in the CFSP decision making process: The European Council: The European Council has the responsibility for defining the principles and the general guidelines of the CFSP and deciding on common strategies. The Council of Ministers: The Council of Ministers is at the heart of the CFSP processes. The General Affairs Council is the main decision-making body of the CFSP: The Foreign Ministers of the member states, with the Commission in attendance, normally meet about once a month. Foreign Ministers also meet in other forums (notably at European Councils). The Commission: The intergovernmental and extra-Community nature of the CFSP has meant that the Commission’s position has always been much weaker in the foreign policy. There is still the feeling that the Commission’s CFSP potential is not being fully realised. The European Parliament: Article 21 of the Treaty: “The Presidency shall consult the European Parliament on the main aspects and the basic choices of the common foreign and security policy and shall ensure that the views of the European Parliament are duly taken into consideration. The European Parliament shall be kept regularly informed by the Presidency and the Commission of the development of the Union’s foreign and security policy. “ Embassies, delegations and missions: Embassies, delegations and missions are used to promote and defend interests abroad. Each country within the European Union has a national embassy or delegation to defend the national interests abroad and a Commission delegation, which is representing the political, diplomatic and economic interests of the EU in each member state. The CFSP is a matter that embassies of the member states and Commission delegations need to be aware and to promote. The Article 20 of the TEU states: “The diplomatic and consular missions of the Member States and the Commission delegations in third countries and international conferences, and their representations to international organizations, shall cooperate in ensuring that the common positions and joint actions adopted by the Council are complied with and implemented.” 3. New challenges and threats Defence is extremely problematical: It is so for a number of reasons, not least: its close association with national sovereignty (particularly for the UK) the varying defence capabilities of the member States the differing degrees of willingness of member States to use armed forces when needed. The new international context and the limits to action by Member States during the Balkan crisis prompted consideration of how to give practical effect to the ESDP. Because of the lack of military or political commitment and of effective implementing instruments, the influence of the EU is inevitably weak in high-tension and crisis situations. The events of the 11^th September prompt consideration not only of the need to project stability outside the Union but also of the need to ensure security within the European Union, especially for the protection of the civilian population and democratic institutions. At the same time, public opinion is calling more and more for security and seems to be in favour of a European defence policy. The obstacles to the development of an EU defence policy and capability are grounds for thinking that progress will be made at some point in the near future. The development of a European defence policy would give dynamism into what many observers have seen as a listless and ineffective CFSP. 4. Conclusion: It must be underlined that the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties have provided for significant advances in foreign and security policy cooperation, albeit on a basis that maintains their essentially intergovernmental status and no supranational one. This is one of the many obstacles to a common defence policy. It should not, however, be assumed that the EU will never become an important global foreign policy player. B. External Economic Relations of the EU The introduction of a common currency is a great progress in the construction of a flourishing economic area within the Union but on the international economic stage, the representation of the Union still remains weak, because the European Union still have difficulties to agree on common positions. 1. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank § IMF The International Monetary Fund is a specialized agency of the United Nations system set up by treaty in 1945 to help promote the health of the world economy. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it is governed by its almost global membership of 184 countries. The IMF is the central institution of the international monetary system—the system of international payments and exchange rates among national currencies that enables business to take place between countries. It aims to prevent crises in the system by encouraging countries to adopt sound economic policies; it is also—as its name suggests—a fund that can be tapped by members needing temporary financing to address balance of payments problems. The IMF's resources come mainly from the quota (or capital) subscriptions that countries pay when they join the IMF, or following periodic reviews in which quotas are increased. The quota defines a member's voting power in IMF decisions. Quotas are intended broadly to reflect members' relative size in the world economy: the larger a country's economy in terms of output, and the larger and more variable its trade, the higher its quota tends to be. The United States of America, the world's largest economy, contributes most to the IMF, 17.6 percent of total quotas; Seychelles, the world's smallest, contributes 0.004 percent The SDR, or special drawing right, is an international reserve asset introduced by the IMF in 1969. The SDR was introduced as a supplementary reserve asset, which the IMF could "allocate" periodically to members when the need arose, and cancel, as necessary. The SDR is also the IMF's unit of account. A number of other international and regional organizations and international conventions use it as a unit of account, or as a basis for a unit of account. World Bank Founded in 1944, the World Bank Group consists of five closely associated institutions: The five institutions which make the World Bank Group specialize in different aspects of development. However, they use their comparative advantages to work in partnership and to trive for the same goal: poverty reduction. IRBD: The International Bank for Reconstruction and development IDA: International Development Association IFC: International Finance Cooperation MIGA: Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ICSID: International Centre for settlement of Investment Disputes The mission of the World Bank is to fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors The European Commission is one of the most important global development actors and the various partnership programs with the World Bank generate significant benefits for both institutions. The World Bank Group greatly values this collaboration. 3. The European Union and the G8 In 1975, the French President Giscard d'Estaing invited the Leaders of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy to an informal gathering at the chateau of Rambouillet, near Paris. The idea was for the 6 to discuss current world issues (dominated at the time by the oil crisis) in a frank and informal manner. These meetings became an annual event, with the inclusion of Canada as the 7th member of the group at the 1976 summit in Puerto Rico. The work of the group has evolved over the years in reaction to changing needs and political context. What started as a forum focusing on essentially fine tuning of short term economic policies among participant countries has now turned to a more structural and global perspective and has added a wide range of political and social issues to its workload, especially in the area of sustainable development and global health. The group remained at 7 until Russia, who had attended the meetings as an observer throughout the 1990s, was invited to formalise this relationship in 1997. The first G8 summit subsequently took place in 1998. The eight members of the G8 are Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, USA, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Russia and the European Union. In 1978, the G8 Leaders decided to invite the European Economic Community to join the summit. Ever since, the European Union has taken part in the discussions. However, it cannot chair or host a summit. The European Union also has an observer status at G8 meetings and is represented by the President of the Commission (Mr Romano Prodi) as well as the Leader of the country that holds the presidency of the European Union (Mr Konstantinos Simitis from Greece). 4. The Word Trade Organisation The past 50 years have seen an exceptional growth in world trade. Merchandise exports grew on average by 6% annually. Total trade in 2000 was 22-times the level of 1950. GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth. The system was developed through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under GATT. The first rounds dealt mainly with tariff reductions but later negotiations included other areas such as anti-dumping and non-tariff measures. The last round — the 1986-94 Uruguay Round — led to the WTO’s creation. The negotiations did not end there. Some continued after the end of the Uruguay Round. In February 1997 agreement was reached on telecommunications services, with 69 governments agreeing to wide-ranging liberalization measures that went beyond those agreed in the Uruguay Round. GATT is now the WTO’s principal rule-book for trade in goods. The Uruguay Round also created new rules for dealing with trade in services (GATS-General Agreeement on Trade in Services), relevant aspects of intellectual property, dispute settlement and trade policy reviews. In 2000, new talks started on agriculture and services. These have now been incorporated into a broader agenda launched at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001. The agenda adds negotiations and other work on non-agricultural tariffs, trade and environment, WTO rules such as anti-dumping and subsidies, investment, competition policy, trade facilitation, transparency in government procurement, intellectual property, and a range of issues raised by developing countries as difficulties they face in implementing the present WTO agreements. There are 145 members in the World Trade Organisation and the European Union has been a member since 1 January 1995. The fifteen member States of the EU are WTO members in their own right. The EU is a single customs union with a single trade policy and tariff. The European Commission speaks for all EU member States at almost all WTO meetings. Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO’s predecessor, GATT. The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments. [1] Qualified majority voting= of the total of 87 votes, 62 are needed to constitute a majority and to take a decision. [2] The Petersberg tasks include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacemaking and peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management.