EU individual paragraph: What is the European Parliament?

Brainstorming:

European Parliament, headquarters (Brussels, Strasbourg, Luxembourg), European Election (directly by citizens, every 5 years), 3 major tasks (debate and pass laws, supervision of different institutions within the EU, annual budget)

 

The European Parliament (EP), as an institution of the EU, represents all citizens of the Union. In Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg can be found the headquarters of the institution where conferences, meetings, etc. take place. Every member state is allowed to elect the EP for a five years period of time. Unfortunately the turnout at the European Elections went down dramatically during the last 30 years (Austria 2009: 45, 97%). A possible reason could be that the citizens entitled to vote are not well enough informed about the responsibilities of the EP. In general, it performs three major tasks: First, together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission it debates and passes laws. Second, to guarantee the democratic working method within the EU, it supervises different institutions in particular the European Commission. Third, the EP is in charge of setting and adopting a plan for the annual budget of the Union in cooperation with the Council of the European Union. Clearly the European Parliament is one of the most powerful institutions within “a Europe united in diversity”. 

Feedback summary 1 (Topic Sentence, Register):

In general, the others liked my topic sentence but it does not really fit with the rest of the text. I totally agree with this statement! They suggested that I could make the concluding sentence my new topic sentence and look for a better ending  


Revised Version (1):

Ever since the creation of the European Parliament in 1952, it is impossible to imagine the European Union without such an essential institution. In Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg can be found the headquarters of the institution where conferences, meetings, etc. take place. Every member state is allowed to elect the EP for a five years period of time. Unfortunately the turnout at the European Elections went down dramatically during the last 30 years (Austria 2009: 45, 97%). A possible reason could be that the citizens entitled to vote are not well enough informed about the responsibilities of the EP. In general, it performs three major tasks: First, together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission it debates and passes laws. Second, to guarantee the democratic working method within the EU, it supervises different institutions in particular the European Commission. Third, the EP is in charge of setting and adopting a plan for the annual budget of the Union in cooperation with the Council of the European Union. Clearly the European Parliament is one of the most powerful institutions within “a Europe united in diversity”. 

Feedback summary 2 (cohesion, vocabulary, major No No's):

I have to restructure sentence 2.

Some comma mistakes.

I should put "e.g." before I list an example.   

Final Version:

Ever since the creation of the European Parliament in 1952, it is impossible to imagine the European Union without such an essential institution. The headquarters of the Parliament where conferences, meetings, etc. take place, can be found in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Every member state is allowed to elect the EP for a five years period of time. Unfortunately, the turnout at the European Elections went down dramatically during the last 30 years (e.g. Austria 2009: 45, 97%). A possible reason could be that the citizens entitled to vote are not well enough informed about the responsibilities of the EP. In general, it performs three major tasks: First, together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, it debates and passes laws. Second, to guarantee the democratic working method within the EU, it supervises different institutions, in particular the European Commission. Third, the EP is in charge of setting and adopting a plan for the annual budget of the Union in cooperation with the Council of the European Union. Clearly the European Parliament is one of the most powerful institutions within “a Europe united in diversity”.

 

   Final Version 2:

Ever since the European Parliament (EP) has been created, it is impossible to imagine the European Union without such an essential institution. The headquarters of the Parliament, where conferences, meetings, etc. take place, can be found in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Every member state is allowed to elect its members of the EP for a five year period of time. Unfortunately, the turnout at the European Elections decreased  during the last 30 years (for example in Austria from 67.73% in 1996 to 45. 97% in 2009). A possible reason could be that citizens entitled to vote are not well enough informed about the responsibilities of the EP. In general, it performs three major tasks; first, together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, it debates and passes laws; second, it supervises different EU institutions, particularly the Commission, to garantuee that they are working democatically; third, the EP is in charge of setting and adopting a plan for the annual budget of the Union in cooperation with the Council of the European Union. Obviously, the European Parliament is one of the most powerful institutions within “a Europe united in diversity”.

 

 

EU Topics

Our task is to do some research on the EU and find 5 topics that catch our interest and could be a topic for our academic paper. Well, I spent the last hours looking for these topics and here is what I came up with:

1. European law and the way it affects national law systems

Actually, this is the topic I’m most interested in. I think it is so important for all of us to understand that the European Law affects us in everyday life. European Law comes first – meaning that national laws have to step aside. So many people are not aware of this fact.

2. Preliminary ruling

I’m pretty sure that not a lot of you guys will have heard of the Preliminary ruling. In fact it is a decision of the European Court of Justice on the interpretation of European Union law, made at the request of a court of a European Union member state. So it belongs to the legal protection system within the EU. I decided to take this topic because I am really interested in law. It is also directly related to the member states and therefore I think it would be good to know what that is. 

3. European Citizens' Initiative

It is a way of direct democracy which was introduced along with the treaty of Lisbon. It is a way for us – you and me – to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act. Of course there are a lot of rules that need to be followed, but wouldn’t it be good to know about this innovation for all of us? At least it is a chance for us to interact with the EU.

4. The founding fathers of the EU 

I came up with this idea because I read about Robert Schuman and his famous “Schuman Plan” which he worked out in cooperation with Jean Monnet. His plan led to the creation of the ESCS and therefore he is seen as one of the founding fathers of the EU. While doing some research on this topic I found even more interesting people mentioned on the office EU website as being founding fathers. So wouldn’t it be interesting to know who these great believers in a strong Europe after WW II were? 

5. European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights (EIDHR)

To be honest, I know nothing about this topic. I just puzzled by this topic and thought it sounded quite interesting. Democracy and Human Rights are major values of the EU and I think they should not be left unconsidered. They are the fundamental basis of the Union. So I would like to have a better understanding in this particular field.