ARTICLE (Brexit)

Here is our new post in which we are going to talk about the Brexit referendum.

You probably don’t know what it is, so to explain briefly, it refers to Great Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union and, as David Cameron says, this process will take place before the end of 2017, probably in May or September.

Britain’s first referendum was in 1975, shortly after it joined the EU or, in that time, European Economic Community. The public didn’t agree to separate, so they stayed in it.

Talking about this new referendum, people in Britain have lots of doubts about if they should stay or leave. Those in favour of the Brexit argue that outside the European Union, the UK would have better control over immigration. For example, they want Britain to take back full control of its borders and reduce the number of people going there to work. They also think that they will be better positioned to conduct their own trade negotiations and freed from what they believe to be unnecessary EU regulations and bureaucracy. On the other hand, those in favour of remaining in the EU argue that leaving would risk the UK's prosperity, would make selling things to other EU countries more difficult, and would affect the cost of public services and much more.

One problem for the people that want to stay in the EU is that the UK Independence Party, did well in the last European elections. It received nearly four million votes - 13% of those cast - in May's general elections.

David Cameron, who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wants Britain to stay in, once he has got some powers back from it. The Labour Party, SNP, and two other parties are also in favour of staying in. According to an opinion poll, 51% of people who have decided how they want to vote want to remain in the EU.

In 2013 the Conservatives posed a question that will be probably the one people will have to ask in the referendum. This question was; "Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union? Yes or no"

So, what do you think about all this, would you prefer the UK to leave or remaining in the EU?

Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887
https://en.wikipedia.org

And remember, stay tuned!
By: Brezo.

PROJECT: E.R.A.S.M.U.S

Hello everybody! We are Eunited Team and today we are going to talk about Erasmus.

Maybe you haven’t Heard about it before, so we will explain what it is.

“Erasmus is the short name of “European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students.” It’s a educational programme that helps student’s academic mobility inside the European Union.

It was created in 1987 by a student’s asociation called AEGEE Europe, founded by Franck Biancheri. The programme was finally integrated in 1995. It’s directed to higher education, and it’s objective is to improvethe quality of it’s students and also fortify the coperation between universities of Europe. The acronym was created base don the latin name of the phylosopher Erasmo of Róterdam. (1465-1536)

This programme has three components:

All the Erasmus students used to receive from the European Union a bursary of 110 euros per month, ore ven 185 euros, depending on the economic situation of the student (at national level.) This changed in October 2013, and now you only receive this money if you were beneficiary of a grant from the Ministry in the previous year. Because of that, a lot os students had to return to Spain because the were unable top ay for their studies.

Finally, some autonomous comunities grant aids depending of the región. All in all, an Erasmus student can collect between 200 and 800 euros per month, depending on their situation.

This program helps not only the learning and understanding of the culture of the other country, but also the sense of community of the student. This great experience is considered as a time of learning and promotes social skills. It helps increase the awareness of the European Union among Young people. 

Min source: http://www.oapee.es/oapee/inicio/pap/erasmus.html

Stay tuned! 

By: Silvia Martínez. 

ARTICLE (The beginning of the E.U)

The first idea of starting a united community in Europe was originally proposed on the 19th of September in 1946, by Winston Churchill in a speech at Zurich University. He asked for a ‘’kind of United States of Europe‘’. 

The European Union was founded by a group of people who were searching for one same idea. Some of them were diplomatic people, however others were just fighters. They wanted a united Europe, where the people were fed up of revolutions and problems.
Others helped indirectly, proposing ideas and improved changes for the society.

The principal founders were ; Konrad Adanauer , Joseph Bech , Johan Beyen , Winston Churchill , Alcide de Gasperi , Walter Hallstein , Sico Mansholt , Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman , Paul-Henri Spaak , and last but not least Altiero Spinelli.

The European Union was set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours of the Second World War.

In 1948, the Western Union Treaty was signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. That same year the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created.

The six founders of the E.U were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

In 1957, the Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC), or ‘Common Market’.

On 1st January 1973 Denmark, and Great Britain joined the E.U .Two years later, Dictator Franco died in Spain.

In 1981 Greece entered in the E.U, and 10 years later Spain and Portugal joined.

In 1986 the Single European Act was signed. On 9th November 1989, the Berlin Wall was demolished.

In 1995 the EU gained three more new members, Austria, Finland and Sweden. In 2004 some more countries joined the E.U, who were; Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.In 2007 two more countries from eastern Europe, Bulgaria and Romania joined. The last country to join the E.U was Croatia, who joined in 2013.

That's all for this post! Hope you like it! If you want some more information don't hesitate to contact us.Stay tuned!

Main source: http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/index_en.htm#goto_7

By: Soumiya Drir.

ARTICLE (30 years of Spain in the EU)

30 years ago, in one month like in the one we are now, we entered in the European Union. On the 1^st January of 1986 we were officially in the European Union; in that time, the European Economic Community, but, what was the process of our entrance?

The first time in history they asked for the entry of Spain, was in the dictatorship of Franco in 1962. The entry was asked by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fernando Maria Castilla to the president of the European Council Maurice Couve de Murville. However, two years later, the European Parliament answered to this question saying: “States whose governments lack democratic legitimacy and whose people do not participate in the decisions of the Government - either directly or through representatives freely chosen – cannot enter in the community”.

During the political transition, in 1977 the negotiations were retaken with Adolfo Suarez. Spain had to have some common requirements asked to every European country, such as the respect for the dignity of the person if it wanted to get in. Finally, they got all of them in 1980.

The negotiations continued until 1985. Spain, during this period of discussions, changed two times of president. In that year, Felipe Gonzalez was governing and with him, this long process finished.  The 12^th of June of the same year, Spanish president and the European president of the Council signed finally the document in which said Spain was part of the European Economic Community. This important event occurred in Madrid, in the Real Palace. Therefore, it occurred the same in Lisbon, because they entered at the same time that its neighbour.

Anyway, although they signed their entry in 1985, they were not into the EEC. They had to wait until the 1^st of January of the next year to be officially in. That is the reason of why in this month, we celebrate the 30^th anniversary and not before.

Hope you enjoy it, and remember: stay tuned!


Main source: www.europarl.europa.eu/.../A-major-step-in-history-30-years-since-Spain-a...

By: Juan Manuel.

INTRODUCTION EUROSCOLA.

Hello everybody:

WE ARE CONTESTANTS OF EUROSCOLA-2016.

In this blog we are going to talk about the European Union, so the first thing we did was to ask people about their knowledge about it. We asked 50 people of different ages on the street and these were the results:

(In blue, the percentage of people that answered well; and in red, the percentage of those who did it wrong)

  

We realized that everybody, from the youngest to the eldest, said that they knew what the European Union was; but when we started asking them, most of them didn’t know some of the basic things about the EU, such as where it is located. Therefore, the youngest people were the ones who knew less.

For these reasons, in this blog we are going to share with you some facts about the EU and every activity and interview we are making these months to lots of people. We are also going to include some funny videos.

We hope you enjoy it! Stay tuned!

PRESENTATION OF OUR GROUP AND HIGHSCHOOL.

We are a group of students of 4th E.S.O. We study in I.E.S. Virgen Del Espino, a public highschool in Soria, Castille and Leon. If you want to know more about our highschool, check this link: http://iesvirgendelespino.centros.educa.jcyl.es/sitio/
From left to right we are: Silvia Martínez, Rubén de Pablo, Jorge Botija, Juan Manuel Martínez, Guillermo Alemán, Brezo Alcalde, and last but not least Soumiya Drir.