Europe United News

Member quotes September 22th

Araceli Turmo. I think we can encourage a pan-European orientation that would tend to allow euthanasia at least in its passive form...

Josep Ortega. While all languages, including minority languages must be protected for the sake of cultural diversity and popular bonding to them, too often they are enforced to promote political nationalism and gain support for nationalistic ideology and parties.

Brigit McCone. I actually don't much like the idea of English as the common language, because it will quickly be stripped of its cultural context and respect (as is already happening). But I have to recognise that English, as the language that most Europeans are statistically familiar with, would probably be less of a strain to switch to than esperanto

Europe United reaches the one million page views landmark

Europe United, the pro-European, pan-European federalist party, today announced its site (www.europeunited.org) reached a landmark of one million page views.

The site gained 12.572 visits in August 2006, which represents growth of 342% from January 2006. Although Europe United site has in general enjoyed significant +20% monthly growth, the site has recently successfully accelerated its growth rates.

"Europe United's steady growth is the result of continuos recruiting efforts and increasing recognition of the Europe United's work in becoming real and innovative alternative for traditional national political parties," said Aki Paasovaara, President of Europe United.

"With the successful installation of the language pages, our leveraged reach to other than English speaking audience is on track. We are moving aggressively with additional recruiting efforts of non-English speaking public. Initiatives to improve membership growth rate will also continue."

The page had recorded 83.940 unique visits by 20.09.2006 and the party estimates that it will reach 100.000 web page visits before its 2nd Federalist Convention, to be held in Brussels, 26th -29th October.

About Europe United, The European Party
Founded in 2005, Europe United is a pro-European, pan-European federalist political party which advocates further European integration and the establishment of Federal Europe, with members representing 48 European countries.

For more information, contact:

Europe United
Telephone: +45-3011 8000
Email: contact@europeunited.org

Interview of the party leader

An article published 14.09.2006 in Kaleva, one of the biggest newspaper in Finland. Click here to see the original article in Finnish (pdf. file).

By Tarja Ranta-Ala-aho.

From A Little Village To A Federalist Party Leader

"Old parties have forgotten the new European generation," says the new party leader.

"There is a new European generation which has begun to make their visions reality. When the work is done we will live, not in a union, but in a "United States of Europe"." So says Aki Paasovaara from Kainuu, Finland, currently resident in Copenhagen. He has established a pan-European party which works openly for a federal Europe.

At present there are members from 48 countries in party leader Paasovaara's group, while the membership numbers 500. That is not very many per country, but Aki Paasovaara is certain that at the end of the road lies something great and unique.

Paasovaara, who spent his childhood in the little village of Hossa, has seen and experienced a lot for his age. He was born and spent his teens in Kajaani. After that came the United States and London. He got his Masters in Economics from his current home country, Denmark, where he was enchanted by his future wife seven years ago. Paasovaara sees himself as European, not Danish or Finnish. Nonetheless, the smalltown Hossa boy still rises to the surface sometimes. According to Paasovaara, politicians have forgotten people like that. "We have the same agenda everywhere. We are a generation which feels European. And we want deeper integration," Paasovaara explains.

Politics All His Life
While his mission is unique, Aki Paasovaara is not in politics for first time. For Paasovaara, nuorsuomalaiset (Finnish party) initial steps and short lived success are familiar experiences. When Risto E.J. Penttilä and Jukka Tarkka were members of the Finnish parliament, Paasovaara was then aged 19 and was working for the party headquarters. It could sound like it, but Europe United is not a new liberal movement. According to Paasovaara, the party's economical policies are rather liberal, while, for example, the party's environment policies greener than the Greens'. Prioritised above all are a Nordic concept of the 'safety net', equality and caring.

Which Finnish party could be closest to Mr. Paasovaara's party? "It is not the Centre Party (Finnish: Keskusta), but we are somewhere in the middle of the left-right axis." He sees a lot of similarities between the Danish Social Liberal Party and Europe United.

Passion And Volunteer Work
Paasovaara had been thinking of taking active part in politics for a long time, when the final wake-up call came. The French and Duch "no" put fire in the federalist. Aki Paasovaara and others have great plans and the young Europeans are not shy, but know exactly what they want. They want a united, strong and dynamic Europe. "The only problem is the missing link between EU and its citizens and therefore we need a new kind of political party. A party which has the backbone to fight for United Europe!" So goes the manifesto on their web site.

The old parties were not enough for Paasovaara, even knowing that the chosen way would be much rockier and harder than joining an established party. They would have the money, media connections and long-standing supporters. Now there are volunteers, passion and their leaders' savings.

Headquarters to Brussels
The current headquarters are located in Denmark, simply because Paasovaara lives there. However, establishing a party in Denmark is easy, a matter of notifying the authorities. The office is located in Greater-Copenhagen, Ishoj, but the headquarters will be established in Brussels. But how does a trans-national party work? Paasovaara explains that the headquarter is responsible for co-ordinating and European level issues. Each national chapter will sign a paper, which defines which issues belong to the national level and which should be dealt on European level. In unclear cases, the party has established an internal Federal Arbitration Tribunal, lead by Kevin Hood, a lawyer from Great-Britain.

The journey has just begun, but one of the destinations is already getting closer. 2009's Europarliament elections. The countries with most developed branches will take part in the trial. Finland can be one of them.

Vision. Discipline. Passion. Initiative.

Aki Paasovaara , the leader of Europe United, addresses party's key people.

Let's start first with a story. One time I was leading a regional political campaign - a group of 37 candidates who gathered together every week in a forum for an idea exchange. For the whole campaign I was their contact person. One August meeting they were all complaining and murmuring about the lack of media coverage and lack of money and support groups. And this took place just 3 months of the elections. They complained that this made their campaigning useless and waste of time. At the best, they said, we could only get our leading candidate in.

I asked why they didn't change it. They responded, "Well, that's not our role; we're are not in charge of that." My response to their grumbling shocked them a little. I told them they were coping out, that they could get 15 candidates in if they had the mind to. They were among the top professionals in their jobs and careers and had the skills to make it happen. I encouraged them to contact media, talk with their friends and colleagues. Moreover, I suggested that they should make a presentation to the top leaders of the organisation about making changes to the campaigning and to describe these concerns until the leaders felt so deeply understood that they would then be open to the candidates recommendations.

So, after two weeks, they sent two representatives to see not only the chairman but the whole board. They made a presentation where they described the organisations approach and the need for a change. They continued until this description until it was obvious that the decision-makers felt understood. As soon as they felt understood, they become very open for the recommendations. They literally asked for the recommendations of those representatives, who gave not only the recommendations but also a plan of action that dealt with all the organisational, financial and communicational realities they had described earlier. The board was blown away. They instantly made it a organisation-wide program, to be implemented in all regions.

After that a major change happened. They saw that the decision makers as human beings who needed solutions and models rather than critics, needed sources of light rather than sources of judgement. And what is important, they ceased moaning and started taking more and more responsibility. As what to comes to the results, 12 out of 37 got the seat they worked for, with great help from the media and large support groups.

Now, in my eyes, all organisations are perfectly aligned to get the results they get. Also ours.

Many of our members are working hard, many times even without a formal position - they apply vision, discipline and passion with initiative, - and with great results. Take just for an example Josep Ortega, who joined just in July and has already initiated our continuing education program, which is now up and running. He pushed me, Ivan, Brigit and rest of the board to make it happen. He took the initiative.

Now, I want you to ask yourself: What is the best thing I can do under these circumstances?

Take your time and think this over. This is crucial.

In my eyes, you as senators should reach at least the 5th or the 6th level of initiative (from the book The 8th habit by Stephen R. Covey):
1.) I wait until told
2.) I ask
3.) I will make a recommendation
4.) I intend to do it
5.) I do it and report immediately
6.) I do it and report periodically
7.) I just do it

Ask yourself again: What is the best thing I can do under these circumstances?

Do you want someone tell you what to do? Do you want me to tell you that I want an article from you published in major newspaper before end of the month? No, I don't think so. You need to have the vision, passion, discipline and initiative in you to do it yourself.

You are the future leaders of Europe United organisations across the continent, with great possibilities to make history. However, the history will not remember those who were told to something. No, - history will remember those who took the initiative and made it happen.

We have big things happening soon such as Brussels convention, first steps in the media, registering our Headquarter and many other things. Let's make one thing clear. We need your initiative and help. You are the key people of this party and I expect much more than just voting. I expect Vision, Discipline, Passion and Initiative. Many of our members are working hard to make things happen. Are you one of them?

Yours,

Aki Paasovaara

We must become the change we seek in the world.
Gandhi

Europe United Leadership Academy

By Ivan Bavcevic, Board Chairman. In line with our party vision, goals, and commitment to progress, the Federal Board has decided to establish the Europe United Leadership Academy, which will be dedicated to develop and inspire leaders able to carry the enormous tasks we set forth in uniting this continent. Those leaders are to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to be the examples others will follow and look into.

Naturally, not everyone will want to get exposed, but this Academy may help you in your personal and career development as well, which we see as a great benefit of your membership in this party.

The Leadership Academy starts with two distinctive programs: the Continuing Education Program and the Management Skills Training Program .

The Continuing Education program is about to start under the direction of Senator Josep Ortega . It is intended to provide a selection of documents of the greatest significance to the party's aims and policies, that we all can read and discuss at our convenience to help us develop an informed opinion on many different and complex issues that is needed for the party to become a significant presence in European policy making.

The program is hosted at the new Europe United's wiki site that you can visit at http://eunited.editme.com/, and will commence on September 1 , with Belgium Prime Minister's Guy Verhofstadt most cogent manifesto for 'The United States of Europe' . You will find this short book in Dutch, English, French and German versions. We intend to give continuing education credits for reading the texts in the program.

We will keep adding new readings on an ongoing, monthly basis. We will try to send a message each time a new document is added, but please check what is new at the wiki from time to time.

The Management SkillsTraining Program will start shortly under the direction of Senator Olga Baykalova . This program will focus on providing Internet-based and live workshops and seminars in team work, communications, leadership, problem solving, creativity, planning & organizing, strategic development, time management and other important management skills necessary for good functioning of the party and daily operations.

We hope you find these good news and look forward to your participation and collaboration.

Best regards,

Ivan Bavcevic
Board Chairman

New logo, Languages, Convention, Senate, HQ & Pro-European League

Brussels Convention
Our 2nd official convention is getting closer. The convention is taking place in Brussels, between 26th and 29th October. Mark your calendar now.

Languages
Our webpage is now available in most of the European languages. The links can be found from the top of the site. If you want to contribute for the translations, please contact Brigit McCone: brigit.mccone@europeunited.org or brigitmccone (her user name).

Senate
Meet the new senators here. Brigit McCone is the new senate chairperson and she has appointed Lukas Klausner as her vice chairperson. Please find her greeting from here. As pointed out, we have up to four senate vacancies. In order to improve our representativeness, the president and the new senate chairperson have after consultation with the board appointed three new senators: Josep Ortega from Andorra, Akin Unver from Turkey (lives in United Kingdom) and Bengt Beier from Germany. They have from today full senator rights and duties. The senate is on summer break until 1st of September.

New logo & corporate design
As the first step for creating Europe United corporate design, the members have voted new Europe United logo. Please find the earlier announcement here and the final version here.
The winner logo, star of unity, was designed by Bengt Beier.

Brussels HQ
Mikael Latreille is preparing the establishment of the Europe United Headquarter in Brussels. We are looking for registering our party in Belgium before the Brussels convention in October. If you are capable of translating from English to French, please contact Mikael: mikael.latreille@europeunited.org

The Pro-European League
The Pro-European League is a partnership network of organisations, which share a common goal of a more integrated Europe. The network is initiated and hosted by us, Europe United. As the first League member we have agreed a partnership with Europe Now. Read more here. and find Europe Now site here: http://www.europe-now.org/ . Several other partnerships are under process. If your organisation is interested in joining the Pro-European League, you might want to read more here.

Europe United Announces Partnership with "Europe Now"

"Europe United" announces that it has agreed to a partnership with "Europe Now".

EUROPE NOW! sees itself as a network of the European civil society - the citizen and their associations - in working for an integrated Europe - of peace and peaceful solution of internal and outside problems - of economical prosperity and social justice - in attention of the political and social rights of all humans - of a full democracy carried by the union citizens - of full solidarity of the European peoples among themselves and with the peoples outside of Europe - in attention and protection of the regional and cultural identities of the citizens - in attention and protection of nature and environment.

Together with the interlaced citizens and their associations works EUROPE NOW! with its activities - particularly with its Internet platform „Tribune of the European civil society“- for the creation of a European public space, in which the interlaced voice of the European citizens can contribute to a European public opinion.

We look forward to awakening European civil society together!

Europe United gets new logo

After a tight race, Europe United members voted on Tuesday their new logo, "star of unity". The winner logo was designed by Bengt Beier. The new mark establishes a strong link between being a pan-European political party and the values it represents by incorporating the iconic yellow star with a tag line "Europe United".

Bengt Beier: "The solid background allows for blending the flags, logos or coat of arms of subdivisions to show that we are both European and German/Scottish/Parisien/you name it - That we do not want a centralist state and that we could also advocate local or national issues. The text in italics shows that we are a progressive party. "

The logo is readily permutable such that all the peoples of Europe can take ownership of it. It allows the combination of regional and national symbols within an architecture that remains constant throughout the EU. The logo communicates the essence of our brand: United in Diversit y.

Senate Chairperson, Brigit McCone: The words "Europe United" stand out on the first banner, it associates in my mind with the EU flag, national flags, languages, culture etc.. Basically, I see it and my first reactions are "Political party. EU. Preserved national cultures". In other words, with what we as a party are about."

The logo will be now finepolished and taken soon after that in use in every level of communication.

Europe United president rules out the student quota system

Aki Paasovaara, president of the Europe United, said Tuesday that the EU citizens equal access to universities across the bloc must remain untouchable.

The statement follows an announcement by Danish science minister Helge Sander calling the amount of the Swedish medical students in Denmark "unacceptable". 314 of the 1173 students who will start studying medicine at the universities of Copenhagen, Århus and Southern Denmark after the summer are Swedish. The Swedish government has declared that it is ready to discuss the "doctor issue" on European level.

According to EUobserver, the minister for higher education of the French-speaking community in Belgium, Marie-Domenica Simonet, wants to limit the number of foreign students to 30 percent in fields with very high levels of foreigners from September 2006.

Meanwhile, Austria will cap the number of foreign students at its universities at 20 percent in a bid to restrict the number of German students accessing its medical faculties, despite a recent EU court ruling which declared earlier restrictions illegal.

"We’re not moving a millimetre from the Sorbonne declaration which emphasised the creation of the European area of higher education as a key way to promote citizens' mobility and employability. The treaty is untouchable and we accept no quotas" insisted Mr. Paasovaara.

"We must in particular look at the objective of increasing the international competitiveness of the European system of higher education. Closing doors from talented student just because they come from other country is not the solution" he added.

Europe United In Moldova

Country name: Moldova (state independence declared on August 27, 1991)
Neighbours: Ukraine and Romania
Languages: Romanian, Russian
Government: Parliamentary Republic
Area: 33.8 thousand km2
Population: 3.607 million (64% Moldovan, 13.8% Ukrainian, 13.5% Russian, 3.5% Gagauz (Turkic Christian minority) 5.2% other)
Capital: Chisinau (pop. 750,000)
Currency: moldovan leu
Major economic sectors: wine-making, tobacco, vegetable oil, sugar, carpet manufacturing

Report by Brigit McCone. My first introduction to Moldova came when its polite, but firm, customs officers removed me from my train at the border with the Ukraine and escorted me to the nearby customs office for not possessing a visa. The misunderstanding arose as the Moldovan embassy in Moscow was convinced that a visa was not necessary for citizens of the EU (it will not be necessary after the 1st of January 2007, for those of you thinking of visiting the country. A visa can also be obtained at Chisinau airport, or at the consular on several entry points on the Romanian border, but be wary of low-cost train travel across the Ukrainian frontier...)

Nonetheless, my experience as an illegal immigrant facing deportation seems an appropriate introduction to Moldova, a country that suffers from high unemployment which forces many of its citizens to turn to illegal immigration in search of better wages abroad (according to UN statistics, Moldova is officially ranked as the poorest country in Europe). The many obstacles faced by Moldovans seeking entry into the European Union seem particularly illogical in the light of our current housing crisis. If we consider that the registered applicants in the database of the National Migration Bureau of Moldova are made up of 34% construction workers, and an additional 7% welders and 6% electricians, the potential benefit of this expertise becomes obvious. Architecture and construction have a long tradition in Moldova, with Moldovan architects historically responsible for some of Kiev´s most famous churches as well as Lenin´s world-famous mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.

Fortunately, unlike many Moldovan immigrants in EU countries, I had contacts in the form of Europe United´s capable and efficient Moldovan branch under the leadership of Dumitru Jioara. After a few phone calls and a night spent on a wooden chair in the local border outpost chatting to the polite (but firm) customs officer in charge, our Moldovan colleagues arrived and took control of the situation. After a long drive through scenic Ukraine in the company of Mr. Jioara, I successfully crossed into Moldova for my first visit to that country.

The beautiful scenery of whispering avenues of trees, waving fields of sunflowers and beaming sunshine is reminiscent of Italy, while the gleaming domes of Orthodox churches give an Eastern flavour. While the outskirts of Chisinau are industrial and not particularly scenic, the centre must qualify it as one of the leafiest capitals in Europe, from tree-lined streets to gigantic parks (complete with fountains, forests, outdoor cafes and huge ponds for paddle-boating).

First on the agenda was a visit to Europe United´s Moldovan office in the city´s House of Culture, where the walls are hung with maps and posters, and literature on politics, psychology and culture in three languages crowd the book shelves, while supplies of coffee and a background of lively Romanian music made for a very comfortable atmosphere for party discussions. "Europe United" is registered as a political organisation in Moldova, a status that allows candidates to run in national elections under the "Europe United" banner. After talking shop, Dumitru Jioara and office manager Dumitru Garstea took me on a quick introduction to Moldovan life and cuisine, including opportunities to taste Moldova´s famous chocolates, cognacs and wines.

Once the favoured drink of the British Queen Victoria, Moldovan wine now struggles to find foreign markets, blocked by protectionist measures in both the EU and Russia. I can assure our consumers that they are missing out.

After two days in which I was overwhelmed by the liveliness and hospitality of the Moldovan people, I left the country with my head filled with sights, sounds and tastes. Moldova has so much to offer, from its beautiful Mediterranean-style scenery to the aforementioned wine and the hospitality and charm of the people themselves. Considering how easily a country of its relatively small size and population could be integrated into the EU, and what a profound effect this would have on its development prospects and future, one can only hope that the decision-makers and citizens of the EU will continue to keep an open mind on further enlargement of the Union. As my personal experience with customs and rich memories of Moldova (when I eventually made it in) will testify, we all stand to benefit from a Europe without borders.