Berlin, learning and enjoying in the hearth of Europe

Yurttas Journal Entry 7/21/2014

Today was a very important day as it was our first lecture in Berlin. We started with CIFE, the Center International de Formation Europeenne. CIFE is a non-profit international organization that is funded by EU but academically independent from EU. In the first part of the 20th Century, the hegemonic wars among European countries were self-destructive. Europe had to integrate to end wars.

Europe had to implement coercive diplomacy instead of relying on the strongest country solve their problems. Winston Churchill stressed the importance of forgiveness and moving forward as a whole. Churchill believed that there could  be no Europe without fully revived France and Germany although he suggested that Britain should be a sponsor not a member of integrated Europe. Iron Curtain limited the integration of Europe. 

Coal and steel were very important to the nation states to defend themselves. Initial integration started with coal and steel with the expectation that this would draw more areas of integration. The integration plan was established on May 9th, 1950, and on this day each year Europeans celebrate peace and unity. EU's mission as a civilian power is to promote peace and stability among its members and in the world. It would be impossible to have peace internationally without peace among its own member states. 

Reichstag is the new German Parliament building. Germany has a federal parliamentary system. Federal chancellor is the head of government and the role of the chancellor is comparable to prime minister in other parliamentary democracies such as Turkey. Germany has a multi-party system, therefore it is very difficult for one party to win the majority. Germany is run by coalition governments in most of the time. The thing that amazed me is that even though Angela Merkel’s party won last years election in a landslide, she had to form a coalition. Currently there are no other coalition governments in EU. Germany is one of the most powerful countries. Understanding German government is one way we can understand relations among EU nations. European Commission acts an an executive branch and provides intense checks and balances for EU. European Commission represents the interests of Europe as a whole as opposed to interests of individual countries.

Yurttas Journal Entry 7/22/2014

On our second day in Berlin, we discussed EU as an international actor. EU has a large internal market that provides a strong structure to build on. EU is an economic union. It is not set up as a military union. Each member state is in charge of its own military. As EU expands, the differences among member states widens as well. These differences create challenges that test the economic and military strength of relationships among the member countries. 

Two important EU institutions are: the European Commission and the Council of European Union. These two institutions are the two heads of legislature. European Commission oversees that all member states implement EU laws. European Council is an assembly of heads of member states. The leaders decide on general political direction and major initiatives.

There are standing committees. Economic and Social Committee writes proposals and reports for economic and social development in EU. European External Action Service deals with foreign affairs such as international and regional demands, military officers, commission staff.  European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution and together with the European Council and the European Commission, functions as the legislative power of EU. 

Bundestag is the constitutional and legislative body of Germany. Representative of Germany in Brussels reports to Bundestag regularly to inform them about EU issues and gets their feedback. German laws require that the government and Bundestag must receive every EU project. German government officials are heavily involved in EU affairs and tightly coordinate with EU to accomplish their goals.

Yurttas Journal Entry 7/23/2014

Our third day in Berlin started with the question of what breeds patriotism or democracy? During recent EU elections far-left, and far-right nationalist parties gained grounds at the expense of the federalist groups. The results worry some about the future of EU. EU's structure is set up in a way that EU's intrests as a whole and the national interests of the member countries are both protected. 

EU Commission represents the interests as a whole. Press Department's role is to anounce new proposals that are on the table through media. Communication Department works with the Press Department and prepares educational materials for the general public. Administrative Department provides internal assistance. Political Department covers policy areas and get recommendations from general public, civil society organizations, professional organizations, think tanks.

One of the most debated proposals on the table is the privatization of water resources. Germany has the largest population of any EU country but majority of Germans don't feel that EU represents them and feel that EU policies are too abstract in nature to appeal to multiple countries. Nevertheless Germany is the most powerful country within EU. The common blief is that the national governments can often accomplish better than EU.  Two sets of laws, German and EU, seem to be too confusing for a typical German citizen. On the foreign policy front, EU faces with the problem of Ukraine and Russia. It is harder for EU to implement sanctions against Russia than the US, because EU is in economic partnership with Russia.

Yurttas Journal Entry 7/24/2014

Today's discussions were on the economic dimensions of EU. EU budget is designed and manged on a 7 year basis called the financial perspective. With this budget, community institutions are funded, cohesion is promoted, and agriculture is stabilized. Cohesion policy serves to promote convergence competiveness, employment, territorial cooperation. EU doesn't levy taxes, such as income, sales, etc. Its main resources for funding come from agricuktural duties and sugar levies, value added taxes, VAT, at a rate of 0.3%, and a standard percentage levied on the GNI of each EU country at a minimum rate of 0.74%. 

Spending appropriations serve two big headings, mainly regional development and agricultural and rural developments. EU countries have common currency. With the idea of one market one curency as suggested by France, common currency promotes growth by avoiding currency exchange losses, counterweighs US dollar in reserves and energy money. However, Euro is not an optimum currency yet for several reasons: In Eurozone, open and flexible markets are not yet being fully integrated, problems with flexible real wage adjustment rates, no cross border supply swigs mobility, no fiscal federalism (tiny EU budget), etc.

Germany’s European Policy is to coordinate European politics with the German Federal Government. It is important for Germany to have permanent representation in Brussels to monitor EU Commission's initiatives and to report back to Berlin. Germany involves all relevant ministeris of the federal government to review the proposals, to prepare negotiating documents, to keep the general policy guidelines set by the Federal Chancellary. 

SOLVIT is a body funded by the European Commission to find rapid and pragmatic solution for problems that citizens and businesses might encounter when EU law is not applied correctly by national authorities. In 2013, SOLVIT Germany had 95% resolution rate for problems associated with VAT reimbursement for businesses, helps married couples obtain residence cards in other countries child benefits for people moving to other EU countries.

Yurttas Journal Entry 7/25/2014

Fifth day in Berlin, we are wrapping up Germany visit. We learned that EU has an information website called EurActiv.com. This is an independent media portal fully dedicated to EU affairs. People use EurActiv to brief others on media throughout the EU. It is free of charge, anybody can access the information online. There are videos online, panel discussions with real people in offices. They produce some print material, some reporting, big and small reports. Journalists from different countries can collect information and research on EU topics.

BlogActiv is a personal blog site where anyone can sign up for free and talk with others, publish work through it, exchange content. EurActiv has issue based categories, more focused on current controversial issues; may organize speakers or experts and audiences on specific issues, provides reports to allow discussions of specific issues. EurActive communicates and reaches to others through the media network on specific issues going on. 

In the last EU elections in June 2014, the voter turnout was not as expected. The voters were not mobilized despite of discussion of issues through EurActive media network. There was a slight increase in the voter turnout. For the first time the voter turnout was stabilized instead of decreasing election after election.