And these videos refer to the consequences of the referendum celebrated in the United Kingdom last year, whose result will mean the exit of this country from the EU:
Showing posts with label European Union. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Union. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Some short videos about the European Union
These are some short videos that explain the history, purposes and way the European Union works:
And these videos refer to the consequences of the referendum celebrated in the United Kingdom last year, whose result will mean the exit of this country from the EU:
And these videos refer to the consequences of the referendum celebrated in the United Kingdom last year, whose result will mean the exit of this country from the EU:
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Breaking news: the Greek public TV and radio closed by government's order
This evening the Greek government has announced that the Greek public TV and radio will close tonight. The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT: Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi) will shut down immediately to save money. The government's plans are closing the corporation for at least 3 months, restructuring it with a considerable reduction of the number of workers (from the 2,700 current workers to only 700) and reopening a new and cheaper company. This decision is included in the cuts the Troika is demanding to Greece. The Greek government will have to fire 20,000 public workers until the end of 2014 and privatize all public companies they can. Yesterday the Greek government issued a decree giving the prime minister the power of closing any public company without the approval of the Parliament and this has been their first decision. Golden Dawn, the extreme-right party, has supported the decision of shutting down the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, while Syriza, the left-wing party, has defined it as a coup d' État. With this decision, Greece will be the only member of the EU without public television.
The ERT workers have decided to shut themselves in the Radiomegaro, the main building of the Greek TV, and continue their work 24 hours per day. They have received the support of the workers of the other Greek TV companies, who have decided to go on a six- hour strike. While I'm writing this post, the television signal has disappeared, the screen is in black and the riot police are evicting the workers of the repeaters and transmitters, so that they can't continue broadcasting. There are thousands of people outside the Radiomegaro defending the public TV, but the "markets" are stronger. Or not?
I've written this post with the help of the information provided by Países en conflicto, an RNE radio program about international conflicts:
ERT website:
http://www.ert.gr/webtv/channels/et1
More information:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/state-tv-and-radio-to-go-off-the-air-as-part-of-greek-austerity-cuts-8654484.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/state-broadcaster-ert-shut-down-greece
UPDATE
12th June
- The workers are still resisting inside the building. They continue to give information using the signal of other private TV channels and satellites through the Internet. An indefinite strike of all the Greek media has started in support of ERT workers. Tomorrow there will be a general strike in the country to reject this decision.
- The EBU (European Broadcasting Union. In Spanish Unión Europea de Radiodifusión) is trying to cede a satellite to the ERT, so that they continue their work and their images can be received by the population.
- With the government´s decision, part of the Greek population is not able to watch any TV channel of receive any radio station, because the ERT was the only company whose emissions arrived to the most mountainous areas of the country.
- The government has communicated that those who persist in the protest won't perceive any compensation.
- The public broadcasting corporation was also shut down in the past, in 1941, during the Nazi occupation.
- The party in charge of the government is called "New Democracy". The other members of the Greek coalition of government, the PASOK (Socialist Party) and Dimar (Democratic Left) rejected to sign the presidential decision.
- The European Commisssion has made the following statement about the Greek government's decision:
The Commission has not sought the closure of ERT, but nor does the Commission question the Greek government's mandate to manage the public sector.
The decision of the Greek authorities should be seen in the context of the major and necessary efforts that the authorities are taking to modernize the Greek economy. Those include improving its efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.
Language reveals ideology :(
Here you have the message by the ERT workers to the audience after the closure:
For further information you can read The Guardian updates here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jun/12/eurozone-crisis-greece-ert-state-broadcaster
19th June
On Monday the 17th the Greek Supreme Court of Justice ordered to reestablish all the signals of all the ERT channels, but the Greek government hasn't obeyed the order yet. The Greek government is going through a big crisis, because two out of its three member parties (PASOK and Dimar) and are against the ERT closure, but New Democracy, the party of the prime minister Samaras, continues to insist in the necessity of keeping the ERT closed and only accepts to restart the broadcasting with a reduced team of 30 workers, who will be hired for two months. At this moment, the ERT signal continues to show a test card.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/17/ert-shutdown-greek-leaders-discuss-closure
11th July
Yesterday a new State TV station started broadcasting in Greece: the EDT. A testcard, later an old Greek movie and a ticker with news were the first images seen through the former frequencies of the ERT. This new TV station is supposed to replace the ERT, closed by the government one month ago. The EDT is going to broadcast documentaries and news from agencies for about two months, the time the government has stated they need to hire a new staff and design a new program schedule. Meanwhile the workers of the closed ERT continue to work for free and provide their service to around 65% of the Greek territory, with the help of the satellites of the European Broadcasting Union.
Here you have more information:
Friday, June 7, 2013
Breaking news: The IMF recognizes serious mistakes on Greece bailout
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the institution created after WW2 to help solve international economic crises, has admitted today that the measures imposed to Greece in exchange for their bailout have made the situation worse: austerity has deepened the crisis. The decisions made by the Troika ( the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission) were slow and wrong. The Greek debt has increased, unemployment too (it will reach 28%), poverty has spread throughout the country and the economic growth of the country continues to be negative.
Here you have some more information in English and Spanish about the IMF report on Greece:
Austerity has also had other unpleasant consequences, like the growth of the extreme-right party Golden Dawn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/greek-politicians-heil-hitler_n_3293240.html
And this is a recent report about Golden Dawn. It was broadcasted on En Portada last week:
And this is a recent report about Golden Dawn. It was broadcasted on En Portada last week:
Hitler was also a son of WW1 and the Great Depression.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Presentation about the UN and the EU
This is the Powerpoint presentation we have used this week to study the UN and the EU. Please, have a look on the last slides, which refer to the institutions of the European Union. It´s a little bit complicated, because different institutions hold executive power:
- The Consilium or Council of the European Union: it´s the main decision making body of the Union. It´s formed by the ministers of the member States. Since the signature of the Lisbon Treaty, the Council has a permanent president, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy, informally known as the President of the EU. At the same time, the presidency is held for six months by each member State on a rotational basis. From January to June 2011 the Presidency corresponds to Hungary.
- The European Council: it´s the group formed by the heads of State or government of the EU. They are responsible for defining the general political direction and the priorities of the EU. It´s also presided by the President of the Consilium (Van Rompuy). The High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Catherine Ashton, British ) and the president of the Commission (José Manuel Durao Barroso) take part in the meetings as well.
- The European Commission: it´s the executive branch of the EU. It´s similar to the government of the EU. The "ministers" are called commissioners and its president is the Portuguese José Manuel Durao Barroso. There is one commissioner per member State (27 at present). One of the vice-presidents is the Spanish Joaquín Almunia, who holds the Competition portfolio.
The legislative power is held by the European Parliament, formed by 736 members elected by the EU citizens every 5 years. Spain has 54 representatives in the European Parliament.
And the judicial power is held by the European Court of Justice.
And the judicial power is held by the European Court of Justice.
8/ April/ 2011
Hello everybody!
Today we have had a very unpleasant lesson. There has been a big problem between Ángel and Paqui. They were discussing because Ángel didn't do his homework. Paqui has told us that we have the duty of doing our homework and we can't give excuses for that. We must do it. She has told us that she is not our friend, she's our teacher and we have to behave just as teacher and student. She has become very very angry, today we have probably seen her in a way that we have never seen her. I think all of us should take part in respecting her and the others, because if we don't respect them, therefore we will never respect ourselves.
Afterwards, we have continued with the lesson. Paqui has checked our schemes about the European Union, and she has done it on the blackboard so that we have seen our mistakes and the things which were missing in our schemes.
We have learnt a lot of things about the European Union. It was created in 1957 and little by little, it became bigger, that is, it started to have more and more members. The European Union has provoked a lot of problems between its members because there were economic differences between them, and the decisions they made, were so far from the interests of the members.
But it has caused positive impacts between the members, as well: it has improved their standards of living, it is a world economic power and they have a free market with a common currency.
We have learnt some new words:
- Bailout: rescate financiero.
- Currency: moneda oficial.
- Bureaucracy: burocracia.
- Noise pollution: contaminación acústica.
- Property speculation: especulación inmobiliaria.
We have also continued watching the PowerPoint, and it was about the things that the European Union shared and we have seen the photos of some of the presidents and the consilors of the European Union. Paqui has told us that Spain is an important power in the European Union and we are between the 5 most important powers in the European Union.
At the end of the class I have told Paqui that I wanted to write the journal and, for this reason I am writing it. You can tell me if I have forgotten things that we have done today, and I'll include them in the post.
I hope we don't have more lessons as this one, because it is very sad to see these situations.
See you!
Today we have had a very unpleasant lesson. There has been a big problem between Ángel and Paqui. They were discussing because Ángel didn't do his homework. Paqui has told us that we have the duty of doing our homework and we can't give excuses for that. We must do it. She has told us that she is not our friend, she's our teacher and we have to behave just as teacher and student. She has become very very angry, today we have probably seen her in a way that we have never seen her. I think all of us should take part in respecting her and the others, because if we don't respect them, therefore we will never respect ourselves.
Afterwards, we have continued with the lesson. Paqui has checked our schemes about the European Union, and she has done it on the blackboard so that we have seen our mistakes and the things which were missing in our schemes.
We have learnt a lot of things about the European Union. It was created in 1957 and little by little, it became bigger, that is, it started to have more and more members. The European Union has provoked a lot of problems between its members because there were economic differences between them, and the decisions they made, were so far from the interests of the members.
But it has caused positive impacts between the members, as well: it has improved their standards of living, it is a world economic power and they have a free market with a common currency.
We have learnt some new words:
- Bailout: rescate financiero.
- Currency: moneda oficial.
- Bureaucracy: burocracia.
- Noise pollution: contaminación acústica.
- Property speculation: especulación inmobiliaria.
We have also continued watching the PowerPoint, and it was about the things that the European Union shared and we have seen the photos of some of the presidents and the consilors of the European Union. Paqui has told us that Spain is an important power in the European Union and we are between the 5 most important powers in the European Union.
At the end of the class I have told Paqui that I wanted to write the journal and, for this reason I am writing it. You can tell me if I have forgotten things that we have done today, and I'll include them in the post.
I hope we don't have more lessons as this one, because it is very sad to see these situations.
See you!
Challenge number 15
This week you will have to research on the European Union currency. These are the questions:
QUESTION 1
What was the name of the previous European Union currency? When was the name "euro" officially adopted as the official currency of the European Union?
QUESTION 2
What´s the eurozone? What EU countries are included in the eurozone?
QUESTION 3
What other countries use the euro as official currency?
QUESTION 4
What are the requirements the EU countries have to meet if they want to adopt the euro as currency?
QUESTION 5
What institution is in charge of the eurozone´s monetary policy? Where is its headquarters located?
QUESTION 6
The Eurogroup (the group formed by the finance ministers of the eurozone) has recently approved bailouts to solve the economic problems of the financial systems of three countries whose currency is the euro. Which are these countries? What is the amount of the bailout they have received (or will receive)?
Monday, November 22, 2010
Low qualified workers and equity policies
As some people didn´t do their work, I´m going to include some links about some concepts we studied in last week´s lessons.
As we have studied, qualification is the most important condition for workers. Low qualification becomes one of the most important problems in times of economic crisis, because low qualified workers are the first to lose their jobs. Here you have some graphs about low qualified workers in the European Union. You can observe that Spain is among the countries that have more low qualified workers in the labour market. This may also be a reason to explain the high unemployment rate our country has:
Low-qualified men and women aged 25–49 years, 2007 (%)
Low-qualified men and women aged 50–64 years, 2007 (%)
You can find a detailed report about low qualified workers in the European Union in the following link:
Other important concepts we studied last week referred to equity policies and possitive discrimination. The following link will bring you to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. There you will find a definition of possitive discrimination/ affirmative action and what the law says about equality in Europe:
http://www.eucharter.org/home.php?page_id=98
The following link offers a list of pros and cons related to positive discrimination/affirmative action. Some of them also appeared in the classroom when we discussed this subject:
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=40
And this is an interesting survey published in The New York Times last June. The survey shows that the theoretical equality between men and women doesn´t exist. Many people still consider that men have more rights than women to work outside or to get better jobs. There is still a long way to real equality.
The following link offers a list of pros and cons related to positive discrimination/affirmative action. Some of them also appeared in the classroom when we discussed this subject:
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=40
And this is an interesting survey published in The New York Times last June. The survey shows that the theoretical equality between men and women doesn´t exist. Many people still consider that men have more rights than women to work outside or to get better jobs. There is still a long way to real equality.
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