This policy has been in place since late 2004 but excludes the EU countries ( namely, Slovenia and Italy ).

It also holds, jointly with the Parliament, the budgetary power of the Union and has greater control than the Parliament over the more intergovernmental areas of the EU, such as foreign policy and macroeconnomic coordination.

A common position, once agreed, is binding on all EU states who must follow and defend the policy, which is regularly revised.

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU acquired competence in space matters, and space policy has been attributed to the Competitiveness Council

The Unity Party and Socialist People's Party ( Greens ) were against accession to the European Union, but only the Unity Party has withdrawal from the EU as a policy.

Whereas the current Finnish administration ( notably Jutta Urpilainen ) has been more hesitant towards the EU monetary policy than the previous ones, Eurobarometers and other polls have shown that among Finnish citizens, the opinion trend has been somewhat reversed during recent years.

Implicitly it places EU matters under domestic policy and therefore in the prime ministers domain.

An amendment has recently been made to the constitution to demarcate at least the responsibility for EU military operations, which are unambiguously matters of national security and foreign policy.

Finland was considered a cooperative model state, and Finland did not oppose proposals for a common EU defence policy.

This was reversed in the 2000s, when Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja made Finland's official policy to resist other EU members ' plans for common defense.

The French have stood among the strongest supporters of NATO and EU policy in the Balkans to prevent genocide in Yugoslavia.

In the economic policy, the EU membership forced large changes.

It is one of the group of smaller nations in the EU, and has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy.

European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013: Southern Italy is almost all classified under the Regional policy of the European Union | Convergence objective ( GDP per capita less than 75 % of the EU average ).

EFnet is probably the least " unified " IRC network, with large variations in rules and policy between different servers as well as the two major regions ( EU and NA ).

In its comprehensive advice to EU policy makers, The EFSA BIOHAZ Panel looked at the efficacy and microbiological safety of the process, and the CEF Panel looked at possible risks arising from the formation of chemical substances as a result of food irradiation.

Poland reportedly blocked Lipponen's candidacy as EU foreign policy chief because of Lipponen's ties to Nord Stream.

He determines the Commission's policy agenda and all the legislative proposals it produces ( the Commission is the only body that can propose EU laws ).

However the President, unlike a normal head of government, does not form foreign policy, command troops or raise taxes as these are largely outside the remit of the EU.

While some argued that it went against Sweden's historic policy of neutrality, where Sweden had not joined during the Cold War because it was seen as incompatible with neutrality, others viewed the move as a natural extension of the economic cooperation that had been going on since 1972 with the EU.

Invited to begin accession negotiations with the European Union in November 1998, Slovenia has achieve two of its primary foreign policy goals: membership in the EU and NATO.

Some senior German policy makers went as far as to say that emergency bailouts should include harsh penalties to EU aid recipients such as Greece.

Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy.

The EU competition law also has regulations on the amount of fines for each type of cartel and a leniency policy by which, if a firm in a cartel, is the first to denounce the collusion agreement it is free of any responsibility.

Among the private think tanks the most important are: the Center for Social and Economic Research ( CASE ) and Institute for Structural Research ( IBS ) on economic policy, The Casimir Pulaski Foundation on foreign policy, demosEUROPA on EU affairs, the Institute of Public Affairs ( ISP ) on social policy, the Center for International Affairs ( CSM ) and The Sobieski Institute.

Austrian German is the only variety of a pluricentric language recognized under international law / EU primary law.

Germany is Armenia ’ s largest trading partner among EU member states, accounting for 7. 2 percent of trade ; this is due largely to mining exports.

The Community acquis or acquis communautaire (; ), sometimes called the EU acquis, and often shortened to acquis, is the accumulated legislation, legal acts, and court decisions which constitute the body of European Union law.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore a potential candidate country for EU accession.

Ballochbuie is also protected as a Special Area of Conservation by the EU Habitats Directive, as " one of the largest remaining continuous areas of native Caledonian Forest ".

In most EU Member States, debt discharge is conditioned by a partial payment obligation and by a number of requirements concerning the debtor's behaviour.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that the spectrum is broad in the EU, with the UK coming closest to the US system ( Reifner et al., 2003 ; Gerhardt, 2009 ; Frade, 2010 ).

Although for instance the EU ( as well as many other developed countries ) has a balanced monetary balance of trade, its physical trade balance ( especially with developing countries ) is negative, meaning that a lot less material is exported than imported.

Directive 2011 / 65 / EU, better known as RoHS 2 is a recast of legislation originally introduced in 2002.

The Kosovo declaration of independence is supported by the majority of EU member states, but disputed by Serbia, which continues to regard Kosovo as its own territory, and most other countries.

The chief EU negotiator is Vladimir Drobnjak.

In May 2004, Cyprus entered divided the EU, although in practice membership only applies to the southern part of the island which is in the control of the Republic of Cyprus.

In 1991, Cyprus introduced a Value Added Tax ( VAT ), which is currently 15 % in line with the EU minimum.

Some calves are ear tagged soon after birth, especially those that are stud cattle in order to correctly identify their dams ( mothers ), or in areas ( such as the EU ) where tagging is a legal requirement for cattle.

GDP per capita at purchasing power parity was $ 27, 100 in 2011, which is 85 % of the EU average.

The Council of the European Union ( sometimes just called the Council and sometimes still referred to as the Council of Ministers ) is the institution in the essentially bicameral legislature of the European Union ( EU ) representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament.

Following the entry into force of a framework agreement between the EU and ESA there is a Space Council configuration-joint and concomitant meeting of the EU Council and of the ESA Council at ministerial level dealing with the implementation of the ESP adopted by both organizations.

# 62 % of the EU population ( this criterion is only checked upon request by a Council member ).

The name " Cheddar " is not protected by the European Union, though the name " West Country Farmhouse Cheddar " has an EU Protected Designation of Origin, and may only be produced in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall, using milk sourced from those counties.

It is approved for use as a food additive in the EU ( listed as additive E160a ) Australia and New Zealand ( listed as 160a ) and the USA.