EQLS : The Second European Quality of Life Survey – First Findings viz. Deuxième enquête européenne sur la qualité de vie - Premiers résultats

Via EUobserver.com we have learned of the 2nd EQLS (European Quality of Life Survey) by Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions).

The EQLS Survey will be published in full only in the year 2009, but as of November 18, 2008 we do now already have the first results of that survey in an English-language .pdf and a French-language .pdf, respectively titled Second European Quality of Life Survey – First Findings viz. Deuxième enquête européenne sur la qualité de vie - Premiers résultats.

The results confirm the sentiment of the Bob Hope cinema film of the year 1965 whose title I'll take Sweden might just as well represent the primarily Nordic winners of this Eurofound survey, as the Nordic nations dominate in "happiness", as shown by the following graphics from the EQLS First Results:

EQLS Second European Quality Of Life Survey - First Results - Figures 1 and 2

The Life Satisfaction and Happiness Index for the European Union Member States and Candidate Countries gives the following rankings, from most happy and satisfied to least happy and least satisfied:

1. Denmark
2. Sweden
3. Finland
4. Norway
5. Netherlands
6. Luxembourg
7. Ireland
8. Malta
9. Belgium
10. United Kingdom
11. France
12. Spain
13. Germany
14. Cyprus
15. Poland
16. Austria
17. Slovakia
18. Estonia
19. Czech Republic
20. Greece
21. Italy
22. Romania
23. Croatia
24. Lithuania
25. Portugal
26. Turkey
27. Latvia
28. Hungary
29. FYR Macedonia
30. Bulgaria

The First Findings of the Survey cover:

Life Satisfaction
- General parameters
- Optimism
- Subjective well-being

Income and Deprivation
- Household essentials and deprivation
- Dealing with lack of income

Family

Work-life balance

Health and health care
- Mental health
- Health care services

Housing, environment and quality of society
- Quality of housing
- Local environment

Quality of society
- Trust in other people and Institutions
- Tension between societal groups

Methodology"

For further information we refer to the contact data found at the end of the First Findings publication:

Teresa Renehan, Information Liaison Officer:
ter@eurofound.europa.eu
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions
Wyattville Road, Loughlinstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
Telephone: (+353 1) 204 31 00
Email: postmaster@eurofound.europa.eu
Website: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu

Crossposted to LawPundit.

What Do Europeans Care About? Google Searches as Measured in the Individual Member Countries by the EU Observer Monthly Top 10

EU Observer has a new feature by which they produce a monthly EU Observer list via Google Zeitgeist of the Top 10 percentage spikes in Google searches in the EU, which, as the EU Observer writes, "allows small countries such as Finland and Austria to figure in the results, if an event prompted a sudden surge in interest."

The top ten so weighted searches in October, 2008 in the EU were:

October

1. HALLOWEEN: American style "trick or treating" swept Europe on 31 October.
2. VAALIKONE: Finns searched election website in municipal elections on 26 October.
3. ICESAVE: UK subsidiary of Iceland's Landisbanki declared bankruptcy.
4. SUPRENALOTTO: Italy's lottery site swept when Sicilian suburb won €100 million.
5. KENZA FARAH: The French R&B singer was hurt in a car accident on 13 October.
6. FALLOUT 3: This nuclear simulation game was launched on 16 October.
7. PES 2009: The Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 video game was released.
8. X FACTOR: The UK's hit reality show drew record audiences in October.
9. AC DC: The Australian band released its new album Black Ice on 20 October.
10. MAM TALENT: The Polish version of the television show "I Have Talent!".
    

Take a look. There IS a big world out there, beyond our own neighborhoods. Stay informed.

Crossposted to LawPundit.

Paris Summit Approves the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) as composed of EU Member States and Mediterranean States

Here is an interesting geopolitical question. What country in Africa, NOT located on the Mediterranean, is a part of the just approved Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)? See UfM map. This country is geographically larger than either France, Germany or Spain, more than twice as large geographically as Iraq, nearly six times the geographic size of Syria, and also larger geographically than either Egypt or Turkey. The answer is: Mauritania. (See world map).

On July 13, 2008 Barcelona Process : Union for the Mediterranean (Union pour la Méditerranée) was approved at the Paris Summit of the leaders of the member countries. The organization, though in somewhat different form, was originally the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy "who said its aim was to ensure the region's people could love each other instead of making war."

The Union for the Mediterranean is a 43-member community, encompassing 750 million people (ca. 25% from Arab States), and comprised of the Member States of the European Union plus the "states" bordering on the Mediterranean Sea and participating in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (the so-called "Barcelona Process").

The goal of the Union for the Mediterranean is to improve relations between the EU, North Africa and the Middle East and to tackle common problems such as immigration, pollution and political unrest.

But already one day after approval of the Union there are signs that the leadership of the non-EU countries will have to struggle to muster up the maturity and the discipline needed to carry out such an ambitious project, which has been cautiously supported by the USA in the hopes of "spurring on Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations."

There is also negative opinion that the Union for the Mediterranean could serve to accelerate general devolution in the European Union.

Nevertheless, in spite of the obvious political problems involved, main areas of focus of the Union for the Mediterranean will be:

• improving energy supply
• fighting pollution in the Mediterranean
• strengthening the surveillance of maritime traffic and "civil security cooperation"
• setting up a Mediterranean Erasmus exchange programme for students, and
• creating a scientific community between Europe and its southern neighbours.

For an interactive map (in French) relating to details about the UfM (Union for the Mediterranean), see Making Mediterranean waves at the blog of MESH, Middle East Strategy at Harvard, a project of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Crossposted from LawPundit.

EDRI Protects Privacy and Digital Civil Rights in Europe

European Digital Rights (EDRI) is an organization in Europe which defends civil rights in the "information society" in Europe. As written at their website:

"European Digital Rights was founded in June 2002. Currently 28 privacy and civil rights organisations have EDRI membership. They are based or have offices in 17 different countries in Europe....

Statutory membership is restricted to not-for-profit, non-governmental organisations whose goals include the defence and promotion of civil rights in the field of information- and communication technology."

EDRI produces EDRI-gram, a bi-weekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.

Subscribe here to EDRI-gram.

New Urgent Preliminary Ruling Procedure is Applicable in the European Union (EU) Starting March 1, 2008

The Court of Justice of the European Communities, the Curia in Luxembourg, has issued a press release in which it outlines the completely new Urgent Preliminary Ruling Procedure which started application on March 1, 2008 as a European Union procedure in the area of freedom, security and justice:

"The Treaty of Amsterdam on the European Union (EU) which came into force on 1 May 1999 states that the EU:

• must be maintained and developed as an area of freedom, security and justice;
• (an area) in which the free movement of persons is assured;
• in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime."

This area now covers:

• Free movement of persons
• Visa policy
• EU external borders policy
• Schengen area
• Immigration
• Asylum
• Judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters
• Drugs policy coordination
• EU citizenship
• Data protection
• Fundamental rights
• Racism and xenophobia
• Police and customs cooperation
• Crime prevention
• Fight against organised crime
• External relations
• Enlargement from a justice and home affairs perspective

Since the normal preliminary ruling procedure on such cases takes on average a year and a half, the Court of Justice, at the urging of the Council, proposed the adoption of the Urgent Preliminary Ruling Procedure in order to expedite urgent cases. As the Court of Justice writes:

"This procedure is applicable as from 1 March 2008 and should enable the Court to deal far more quickly with the most sensitive issues relating to the area of freedom, security and justice, such as those which may arise, for example, in certain situations where a person is deprived of his liberty and the answer to the question raised is decisive as to the assessment of the legal situation of the person detained or deprived of his liberty, or, in proceedings concerning parental authority or custody of children, where the jurisdiction under Community law of the court hearing the case depends on the answer to the question referred for a preliminary ruling."

Hat tip to EU Law Blog, where there is more discussion of this development in detail, including a supplemental information note.

Main European Union Law Websites

The website of the Delegation of the European Commission to the USA has a page of law links which it calls ESSENTIAL EUROPEAN UNION LAW WEBSITES in the title and additionally in the page heading also labels Best European Union Law Websites and Principal European Union Law Websites.

The links are divided into two major categories:

1. GATEWAY AND MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL WEBSITES
- in the United States
- in Europe

2. ATABASE WEBSITES VIA EUROPA at
http://europa.eu/geninfo/info/guide/index_en.htm#db

GDP Growth in the EU : Latvia Leads the European Union (EU) in the Dynamics of Economies of the Member States

The blog EU for US links to a CBS (.nl) graph showing GDP growth in the European Union Member States since 2005. These growth statistics say a lot about the future of Europe and indicate clearly that the older economies of the EU are being surpassed in dynamics by the rapidly expanding economies of the newer European Union countries.

We have converted that graph to a list showing the relative rank of the EU countries by GDP growth and have appended the approximate growth rate:

1. Latvia (ca. 12% growth)
2. Estonia (over 11%)
3. Slovakia (over 8%)
4. Romania (nearly 8%)
5. Lithuania (over 6%)
6. Luxembourg (just over 6%)
7. Bulgaria (about 6%)
8. Czech Republik (about 6%)
9. Ireland (about 6%)
10. Poland (between 5% and 6%)
11. Finland (between 5% and 6%)
12. Slovenia (between 5% and 6%)
13. Greece (between 4% and 5%)
14. Sweden (just over 4%)
15. Hungary (about 4%)
16. Spain (about 4%)
17. Cyprus (about 4%)
18. Belgium (about 3%)
19. Denmark (about 3%)
20. Austria (about 3%)
21. Netherlands (about 3%)
22. Malta (about 3%)
23. Germany (just under 3%)
24. United Kingdom (just under 3%)
25. France (about 2%)
26. Italy (about 2%)
27. Portugal (over 1%)