The Mercury09.06.2012

No. 03

03

In this Issue:

No.

On the 6th of May, the Socialist Hol-lande won the French elections. With a majority of 52 percent Hollande beat the former president Sarkozy and won the French presidential elections. By replacing the former president the political climate surely will change in France. The shift of political power from the right to the left side will of course bring about a huge change. The outcome of these elections will deter-mine among other things the future of the French struggle against the cur-rent debt crisis within the Eurozone. Since the situation in Europe is not very bright at the moment the newly-elected president undoubtedly has a very difficult task ahead. Due to the economic crisis, people face difficult times and have high expectations fired up by the promises of the newly elected Hollande administration.An interesting question is what

Hollande´s plans for France are. And what does this mean for the economic situation and the power share within the European Union?During his presidency, Sarkozy pro-

mised to overcome the debt crisis through strict austerity measures. Instead, Hollande plans to balance the budget just a year later than Sarkozy‘s

budgets would, while paying for his priorities, such as creating 60 000 new teaching jobs, with measures such as a 75 percent tax rate on millionaires. But one of the boldest moves of the newly-elected president was his break with the just recently agreed on Euro-pean fiscal pact. With his opposition, the Merkozy pact would come to an end. The German chancellor Angela Merkel, however, wants to stick to the famous 3%-criterion of the EU’s bud-getary pact. Hollande wants to return to the negotiation table to discuss the European fiscal pact. According to

Hollande this would be more like-ly to stimulate economic growth. In the end, both representatives have to find a middle way. Furthermore, Hol-lande wants to propose Eurobonds, European obligations to ward off the economic crisis. But he can count on resistance from some other European member-states like Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. In this newspaper, there is also an

interview with both the French and the German EU ministers of the Eu-ropean Council about their future co-operation.

After a few days of debate the dis-cussion about the Returns Directive proposal came to an end within the European Parliament. The Parlia-ment members proposed fourteen amendments in total on the original document initiated by the European Commission. The most striking amendments that were being made in the Parliament were on the content of the re-entry ban, removal order and contemporary custody. Furthermore the Parliament proposed the estab-lishment of a financial fund in order to facilitate the legislation. Human rights aspects played a very dominant role in the debate on the Returns Di-rective proposal. Several parties are concerned about the current treat-ment of illegal migrants within some EU member-states.Several amendments were being

made on the re-entry ban, which cur-rently prohibits illegal immigrants to enter the EU again within a period of five years after they received a remo-val order.

The European Federalist Party pro-posed to extend the re-entry ban to a maximum of ten years. It then should be up to the individual member states to decide on the on the re-entry pe-riod. On the opposite side, the S&D,

ALDE and Greens put forward to reduce it to a period of three years

maximum. Additionally, S&D and the Greens proposed to give member-states the possibility to extend this to a period up to a maximum of ten ye-ars in terms of terrorism and serious crime. The voting session showed that a majority of the parliament was in fa-vour with this last proposal.

The German-French break up?What will change for the French-German cooperation after the election of the new French president?

What are the changes being made?Parliament finalises its debate on the Returns directive

3 out of 14 amendments passed in the Council of Ministers. Final consensus reached.

on page 02

Discussing PNR Directive

Minister of Germany: After the election; The beginning of a new friendship

on page 03

Interview: Germany

Minister of France: A new French strategy

on page 03

Interview: France

Drinking water of eating kebap before bed, check out which are the best anti-hangover-tactics.

on page 04

Avoiding Hangover

Survey about the favorites for the European Championship among MEUM participants.

on page 04

EURO 2012: Kick off

MEPs and Ministers of the council debate how to solve the enormous financial problems in Spain.

on page 02

Spain‘s crisis worsens

Editor in Chief: Julia Eigendorf

Editor: Lacza Gabór Willy Hug Mariya Pavlova Marjolein Selten Mihals Sapovalovs

Proofreader: Anna-Lena Kirch Layout: Benjamin Doll

Impressumto be continued on page 3

2 09. Juni 2012The Mercury, No. 03

During the course of the last days fierce discussions about 13 amend-ments of the PNR Directive have ta-ken place in the Council, just three amendments were finally approved. Topics that were discussed to the highest extent were the ones dealing with Intra-European and domestic flights, as well as with rail and seaway transport. There was a general accep-tance of the directive but a need for certain changes was clear to everyone as well, with further details still open to interpretation and discussion. It is important to keep in mind that some European countries have already in-troduced the system and other ones test it at the moment.During the voting procedure there

were no contradictions with regard to the most important amendment about the Intra-European & domestic flights. An agreement was reached unanimously. But another crucial amendment, dealing with rail and seaway transport, was not complete-ly approved by the members of the Council: just five voices were lacking to get it through. An opinion stres-sing the need for reexamination of the amendment was frequently men-tioned by the members of the Coun-

cil since there was definitely a certain type of a misunderstanding among different members since several mi-nisters abstained a couple of times.According to the German Minister,

Mr. Khan, the voting procedure went without any complications and de-cisions have been taken almost una-nimously. The German Minister, as one of the largest stakeholders, was generally satisfied with the outcome but pointed out that several further decisions should be taken and speci-

fied. Especially, it should be ensured that sharing of the PNR information with 3rd countries will not cause any complications with regard to the pri-vacy requirements and that the infor-mation will be under no circumstan-ces available to private parties. It is a ‘must’ to establish a system that will provide satisfactory security and pro-tection of the traveler data.Another large stakeholder, being not

part of the Schengen area, the United Kingdom, was partially unsatisfied with an outcome of the voting pro-cess. An explanation for that is a failu-re associated with an attempt to inclu-de the amendment about the rail and seaway transport into the PNR Direc-tive. Mr. Fischer expressed his hope that there will be another opportunity to decide on this amendment and fi-nally get it through, since just several voices were missing.The French representative, Ms.

Pokki, was concerned about several points. First of all, she was not in fa-vor of the fact that the rail and seaway amendment failed to become part of the directive and that important amendments in general were blocked. But the approval of the amendment of Intra-European flights was a further

step in pushing the PNR directive for-ward.Smaller stakeholders, such as Bulga-

ria and Latvia, commented on their opinion as well. Even though the opi-nions were very controversial, it is still interesting to compare positions of small sovereign countries with dif-ferent backgrounds. Mr. Faisal, the Bulgarian Minister, was very brief. According to him the voting process and its results were fair. In general, Bulgaria supports the PNR directive and, therefore, there were no disag-reements with the final decision. The Latvian representative, Ms. Dorfner, on her hand, was very disappointed with the voting process. A reason for that is the inconsistency that sever-al members of the Council showed, meaning that the position they held during the negotiation process was drastically changed during the voting procedure. As the next step, the directive has

been introduced and discussed in the European Parliament. Several mem-bers of the Council will be satisfied if some points will be challenged and reexamined but getting one important amendment through is already a suc-cess. (msa)

To be, or not to be: PNR directive is in question.Council voting on amendments of the PNR directive is over, green light for the Parliament.

ment in Madrid seizes the inevitab-le measures. His counterpart, a French member

of the EPP, Maurice Leinberger, how-ever, is generally against any bailout fund. “France doesn`t have a strong export-industry, it`s more a problem of the export-oriented countries!”. The Minister of Denmark, Egle Pu-gaciausaite, argues for stronger rules within the EU. When does Rajoy give in? That`s the

most interesting question in these days. Tzvetelina Markova, a Spanish MEP

from the EPP faction, is convinced that Spain will wait until the end of the year until they decide whether Spain accepts financial aid from the the EFSM or not. But the Spanish Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro revealed how dire the situation has become. According to well-informed quarters the Spanish government will soon propose a motion to the EFSM. The announcement will be expected within the next days. (wh)

After the  rating  agency Finch cut down the financial creditability of Spain from A to BBB and the refu-sal of the Spanish government to tap into the European Union bailout, the members of the EU have a hea-ted debate about the measures which should be taken in this case. Anca Elena Ursu, the British Mem-

ber of the EFD in the EP, is stunned about the refusal. “When Spain needs money to survive or to save their fi-nancial system, the government must accept the postulations. Rajoy has to make up his mind.” Madrid hopes to avoid bailout con-

ditions with direct aid to its banks. But the German chancellor Angela Merkel refuses this solution. The speaker of the EPP, Fabian Fran-

ke, recommends giving Spain more time. But he makes clear that every Member of the EU is treated equally. He refers to the measures which are induced in Greek. Furthermore he is convinced that the Spanish economy can be rebounded when the Govern-

“Rajoy has to make up his mind!”Rating agency Finch downgrading Spain

bilities concerning the prevention of illegal immigration, not to mention the different situation between EU-15 mostly being the “destiny” of illegal immigration and EU-12 only acting as “transit” countries.But leading is not always an easy task.

A member of the Green party menti-oned, that during the preparation pe-riod for discussing the PNR Directive two members couldn’t participate due to other obligations. Thus, the result does not mirror the opinion of all fac-tion members. However, they accep-ted the position.Sometimes, however, it happens that

not all members agree on one point of view. For example, Matthias Dincher, Finnish member of the ALDE faction has repeatedly criticized the finan-cial aspects of the Returns Directive, but the other party members did not share his opinion. Generally, if there are any intra-party

difficulties coming up in the Euro-pean Parliament, the MEPs will pro-bably handle them in a peaceful way.

Leading a group of people is always a difficult task. That rule applies to sport teams, student classes or sub-ordinates. But these challenges are nothing in comparison to political parties, where it is literally necessary to unite people sharing the same or similar points of view about major as-pects of life. Is it a hard task to guaran-tee a common will, or could it easily be done?It depends very much on the situati-

on. For example the members of the European Peoples Party (EPP), who with eight members is the largest group at the European Parliament, have nearly the same points of view. They share the same opinion, alt-hough in some details there are some small conflicts because the MEPs come from different countries with different backgrounds. The Returns Directive (which is under discussion in these days) is a good example for the necessity of reaching compromi-ses. The countries at the European external border have more responsi-

How to drive a European Party?Good things and difficulties about leading a European Party

Muhammad FaisalMinister of Bulgaria

Daily News

3

In relation to this, the EFD propo-sed to issue the re-entry ban directly in the case of an illegally staying in-dividual. The final decision taken by the Parliament is that illegal migrants should have a period of voluntarily departure of at least four weeks. Regarding temporary custody, the

current returns directive says it is al-

lowed to put illegal immigrants in jail up to a period of 6 months. The Parli-ament now decided to change this pe-riod to a maximum of three months. Some politicians believe that, ac-commodating them in a detainment facility, is the right way to deal with illegal migration. However, other par-ties believe illegal immigrants can de-

finitely not be regarded as “criminals”. The Greens emphasized the need for appropriate facilities for immigrants, according to them, prisons cannot be considered as appropriate. Although this proposal didn’t receive enough support from the Parliament. Other parties emphasized the need

to monitor the living conditions of immigrants in order to use informa-tion to protect their rights. Victoria Goldberga from the ALDE party sta-tes that her party is concerned about the situation under contemporary custody and would therefore support controls on the living conditions of the illegal immigrants in custody.One of the biggest changes propo-

sed by the Parliament is to initiate a “return fund” to support immigrants to return, the majority of the parties agreed. It remains questionable to what ex-

tent the Council will agree on this di-verse set of amendments. (mse)

09. Juni 2012The Mercury, No. 03 Getting Closer

Continued: What are the changes being made?Parliament finalises its debate on the Returns directive

Spain,  officially the  Kingdom of Spain,  is a  sovereign state  and a  member of the European Union since 1986. Spain has approximate-ly 46 million inhabitants and is the fifth greatest national economy in the EU. The capital is Madrid. Spain is organized in the form of a

parliamentary democracy under a constitutional  monarchy. The Head of state is Juan Carlos I. The Pri-me Minster is Mariano Rajoy, who is a member of Partido Popular in Spain. After the Lisbon treaty Spain represents nine percent of the vo-ting weight in the Council and has 54 MEPs in the EP. Joaquín Almu-nia Amann (PSOE) is the Commis-sioner for Competition and one of the seven Vice-Presidents. The GDP from Spain in the year 2011 was 1.1 trillion euros, 24.500 euros per ca-pital. The Spanish national football-team is the reigning World- and Eu-ropean Champion. (wp)

Euro bailout for sangriaEU Lexicon

pand the checking of personal data to intra-European flights. But the Ger-mans are against a similar system for rail-, as well as sea-transport. Germany faces the highest number

of immigrants after their arrival on the European continent. Thus, it is clear that we see the validity of a com-mon policy for illegal immigrants in the EU.” (mse)

“First of all, the people from Germa-ny would like to congratulate France on the election of President Hollan-de. I am confident that this will not change the relationship. We continue to support France and hope we will receive support from their side as well in order to sustain our good relati-onship. We’re looking forward to si-milar cooperation, especially in such though times like these it is crucial. Sarkozy was very concerned about

foreign implications of the EU and France. We hope that Hollande will follow a similar pattern. During the second quarter of 2011

we were able to raise our growth rate, due to good manufacturing results, which resulted in an export surplus. These results will surely benefit the EU as a whole. We can understand that France

would like to focus on its internal issues. But, at the same time, France is a reliable and responsible member of the EU. I’m sure that we will find a compromise with regard to the Euro-pean fiscal pact.” Germany’s position on the two pro-

posals“Germany is in favour of both propo-

sals. Germany would be happy to ex-

The beginning of a new freindship?Interview with the German Minister Mustafa Khan

A new french StrategyInterview with the French Minister Saara Pokki

Mustafa KahnMinister of Germany

the ones his predecessor supported. Sarkozy’s government was right-wing oriented. Sarkozy had the hard task of dealing with the crisis. France has struggled with the same issues like the EU. The situation in Europe is not bright at the moment.The French cre-dit rating has been downgraded. Ma-rine le Pen from Front National also gained plenty of votes. Maybe people are tired of the current situation and looking for alternatives.Concerning the EU’s fiscal pact, I am

confident that Germany and France will find a middle-way. But, of course, we have to find a consensus in coope-ration with all the member-states to-gether.” France’s position on the two propo-

sals“The position of the French govern-

ment on this proposal hasn’t changed. France already has its own PNR sys-tem in operation and France would like to cover intra-EU flights as well. France faces big problems with im-

migration. Human rights issues are important for France. We’re looking forward to the debate. It is feasible to fully support the proposal for us.“ (mse)

“The policy line of the newly-ins-talled French government isn’t very clear yet, since Hollande hasn’t parti-cipated in many European events yet. Sarkozy led a right-wing government. Sarkozy was rather keen on strict aus-terity. Sarkozy and Merkel had a quite similar point of view about how to act upon the crisis. Hollande is a Socia-list, so his points of view differ from

Saara PokkiMinister of France

4

we should expect an exciting match between the German and the Spanish team. (sma)

gular games might be willing to have a quick glance on the final game that will take place on the 1st of July in Kiev. According to our survey at least,

09. Juni 2012The Mercury, No. 03Panorama

research was carried out and a lot of controversial opinions were gathe-red. In the end, the absolute leader of the survey with 33 votes out of 56, covering almost 60% of the total votes, is Germany, followed by Spain with 7 votes and Italy with another 4. Fans of such countries as Czech Re-public, Ireland, Poland and Portugal, representing a minority in the survey, were still very confident and expec-ted a promising performance from their respectful teams, stating that the teams are now better off and will give others a hard time. Fans of the French and the British team agreed that even though they hardly believe in a victory, they desperately hope it will happen for them. The ones who are less interested in following the re-

That special day for each and every football fan has finally arrived; the first two EURO 2012 games took place on the 8th of June between Po-land and Greece and between Russia and Czech Republic (follow the fi-nal results on twitter). The opening games took place on Polish territory, namely in the cities of Wrocław and Warsaw. Further games will take place -expectably uninfluenced by political uprisings in the Ukraine - according to plan. However, the bureaucratic system of the Ukraine did hinder one of the journalists from taking part in MEU Mainz, by making it impossible for her to acquire a visa for her stay in Germany.To find out the personal favorites of

the MEU Mainz participants, a small

It’s Football, it’s Europe, it’s EURO 2012 time!Beer is in the fridge, chips are on the table and a lot of spectacular moments in the upcoming weeks.

“In my country we are more than 44 tribes and each tribe has something very special characterizing them. Our national colors are very bright, so most of our clothes are very color-ful. It was very stressful for me when I came to Germany and realized that almost everybody is in black and grey. I decided for myself that I bring some life in this cold and dark place.” (mp)

Mustafa likes climbing. But he is also into cricket, a pat and ball game origi-nally from England.“In our country cricket is a very com-

mon sport like football for the Ger-mans.” Getting here was also hard for Mustafa: “I worked in the Middle East and I don’t have any problems, but normally we need to put money into a bank account and it is a little tough, but it is a good experience.” (mp)

Hoang knows about the simulation from a friend of hers. She studies in Germany and it was difficult to get used to one german behaviour: “In fact, people in my country are very polite. They don’t want to offend an-yone and it is difficult to say ‘no’. It was difficult for me when I came to Ger-many and saw that people said what they think.”, she said. (mp)

He studies in Sydney and came to Germany in an exchange program. “I didn’t have any problems with my visa, because I have the British and German citizenship.” There are si-milarities between his own country and Germany: “In Australia there is a competition between Sydney and Melbourne, like between Hamburg and Munich. Both have a really active beach season.” (mp)

Students from far far awaythree students to one topic

Winfred Atori Wameyo, from Kenya, Minister of Hungary

Muhamed Mustafa Maqsood Khan, from Pakistan, Minister of Germany

Hoang Phuong Thuy Nguyen, from Vi-etnam, MEP for EPP

Laurence Hendry, from Australia, MEP for EFD

consume something different than alcohol!Some people eat something greasy

like kebab before going bed; others prefer to eat some bred with kefir. A second option is to drink as much mineral water, milk or other nonalco-holic beverages during the night as possible. Regarding the kind of drink there has been no agreement on whe-ther sparkling or still is more efficient.Whatever kind of method you deci-

de on, the important thing is to feel good in these events, but be fresh and productive on the daytime meetings too! (lg)

holic drinks, so at the end everybody was ready to show off their best moves on the dance floor. So the question re-mains: who was the greatest “Saturday Night Beaver”?The only problem that night was the

hangover resulting from it (note: Ger-mans call it Kater, which translates to “male cat”). But everybody has their own special way to avoid that undesi-red queasiness. The best practice is to

Getting together is always very good; especially when alcohol is involved. That was the reason why the partici-pants of the MEU Mainz went for a little guided pub crawl last night.The participants visited various

places, like “Neros” cocktail bar, a Russian bar called “fiszbah” and then the electro club “Schon Schön”. Du-ring the night they fuelled themselves with various alcoholic and non-alco-

How to avoid an hangoverMEU participants discovered the Thursday night life in Mainz

gEUssip

nEUws

emEUtionsfrEUnds

Send us your best picture of BBQ

meu-mainz@web.de