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European Union ( talk.politics.european-union )

From rcsieb[email protected] Wed Mar 15 14:46:28 1995 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: [email protected] (Roland Siebelink) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,eunet.politics,alt.politics.ec,alt.politics.europe.misc,soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.misc Subject: RFD: talk.politics.european-union Followup-To: news.groups Date: 14 Mar 1995 12:10:27 -0500 Organization: ac.be Lines: 138 Sender: [email protected] Approved: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Xref: gs2.UU.NET news.announce.newgroups:6443 news.groups:139297 alt.politics.ec:4375 alt.politics.europe.misc:1296 soc.culture.europe:45242 talk.politics.misc:324117  This is a formal Request for Discussion. Please distribute it on all platforms that might be interested. This is not a call for votes--do not try to vote now.  You are strongly encouraged to participate in the *discussion* about the possible creation of the newsgroup "talk.politics.european-union", in the sole newsgroup intended especially for this purpose: news.groups. All follow-ups have been directed to news.groups. Please stick to this Usenet convention and post your contributions to our discussion in that newsgroup. Please do not post or cross-post your discussion contributions to other newsgroups.   NAME AND STATUS  talk.politics.european-union (unmoderated)   PURPOSE  The proposed newsgroup talk.politics.european-union is intended as a platform for all information and discussions about the European Union (EU), the political organisation in which fifteen European countries cooperate on a great number of economical, social, and political areas.  The newsgroup is intended for discussions about this integration process and its advantages and disadvantages, as well as for discussions and specific information about the political institutions of the European Union itself. More general discussions about the pros and cons of federalism, intergovernmental cooperation, nationalism, sovereignty, a "United States of Europe" or a "Europe of the nation states" is welcomed. The main purpose of the newsgroups is to foster discussions about these issues between fellow EU inhabitants, across national boundaries.  Discussions pertaining only to a single member state (or geographical region inside or outside the EU) without relevance to the EU are to be avoided. However, relations between the EU as a whole and another country or group of countries are definitely within the scope of the proposed group.   BACKGROUND  Discussions about the political integration of Europe have been conducted mainly in two to three newsgroups all part of hierarchies that many sites do not carry: eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and alt.politics.europe.misc. Many other sites carry only one of these hierarchies, or just a few of the alt.*-groups. Endless confusion arises when users try to decide where to post questions or opinions about the European Union; frequent crossposting could be avoided by the creation of a group in the "official" talk.politics.*-hierarchy.  Discussions about the European Union are getting more and more important everyday. Many decisions influencing the day-to-day life of EU inhabitants are being decided in "Brussels", and debates about the European Union have a profound influence on domestic politics in some member states. There is also a profound interest in the EU from people living outside it, especially when the EU is compared to other trade or political blocks of nation states in different parts of the world.  In 1996, member state governments will have the opportunity to renegotiate the founding treaties of the EU at the so-called InterGovernmental Conference (IGC). During the preparations of this IGC that are taking off now, it is vital that EU-inhabitants can discuss the ideas being floated with fellow Europeans and others in a naturally international medium such as Usenet, rather than being confined to classic national debates within traditional media. An easy-to-find newsgroup within the "official" Usenet hierarchy would be a strong basis for this.   RULES  talk.politics.european-union will be an unmoderated newsgroup; thus anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. But being free to post should also mean being responsible for what you post. All articles posted should have something to do with the European Union and its institutions or its project, however remotely. Insults, "flames" or unnecessary criticism of a group or a person is strongly discouraged. Please read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to any newsgroup, and try to stick to them whenever posting articles.   LANGUAGES  Articles should be posted in English preferably. Whereas nobody can forbid people to use any other of the eleven official EU languages, or even other languages that are supposed to bridge the "language gap" that these entail, it should be remembered that the main purpose of the newsgroup is to foster discussion between fellow EU inhabitants, across national boundaries.  English may not be the language with the largest number of speakers within the EU, it just happens to be the language spoken by near to 100% of Usenet users, and thus serves the purpose of this newsgroup best. The recommendation of English is limited to this specific newsgroup proposal; it can in no way be considered as a precedent for trying to reduce the number of official EU languages.   CHARACTER SET  Readers and writers of the newsgroup should adhere to the 8 bit IS0-8859-1 character set, which contains all the accented characters necessary for all Latin alphabet EU languages. Even though most postings will be in English, they are likely to contain accented characters when referring to specific persons, places or policies. The use of mnemonics such as /"u or ü for accented characters is to be discouraged.   RFD  Discussion on talk.politics.european-union will last 30 days. A revised RFD will be posted 15 days after the initial posting. It will reflect all suggestions and opinions contributors have provided during the discussion. If ample consensus is reached after discussions, a call for votes will follow.   REFERENCES  More information about the European Union is available from: * The European Union Basics (FAQ) list, posted regularly to news.answers, eunet.politics,   alt.politics.ec and other newsgroups. The latest original version is available at URL   . * The Europa server operated by the European Commission at URL . More information about the process of creating a new newsgroup is available from: * "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup", posted regularly to news.announce.newusers * "Usenet Newsgroup Creation Companion", posted regularly to news.announce.newusers --  Roland Siebelink Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication Vrije Universiteit Brussel Tel. +32 2 6292415; Fax +32 2 6292861  From [email protected] Thu Mar 30 19:00:13 1995 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: [email protected] (Roland Siebelink) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,eunet.politics,alt.politics.ec,alt.politics.europe.misc,soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.misc Subject: 2nd RFD: talk.politics.european-union Followup-To: news.groups Date: 30 Mar 1995 18:42:41 -0500 Organization: vub.ac.be Lines: 150 Sender: [email protected] Approved: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Xref: gs2.UU.NET news.announce.newgroups:6539 news.groups:142391 alt.politics.ec:4925 alt.politics.europe.misc:1557 soc.culture.europe:41325 talk.politics.misc:329936  This is a second formal Request for Discussion. Please distribute it on all platforms that might be interested. This is not a call for votes--do not try to vote now.  You are strongly encouraged to participate in the *discussion* about the possible creation of the newsgroup "talk.politics.european-union", in the sole newsgroup intended especially for this purpose: news.groups. All follow-ups have been directed to news.groups. Please stick to this Usenet convention and post your contributions to our discussion in that newsgroup. Please do not post or cross-post your discussion contributions to other newsgroups, unless you add a "Followup-To: news.groups" line to your headers.   CHANGES FROM FIRST REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION  The most substantial change has been the removal of the LANGUAGE section, which proved be a bit controversial. As most posters agreed that there should be no requirement in what language to post, and as nobody reacted to my proposal that I should leave it out, I did.  Other changes are merely clarifications: - federalism vs. nationalism in stead of federalism and nationalism as separate subjects - domestic discussions about policy towards the EU are now explicly allowed - in the character set section, "mnemonics" now refer to "computer mnemonics" only, not to digraphs. - the rules now state that postings should "have something to do with the European Union and its institutions or its project." -- the "however remotely" has been removed.  Also, the URL of the "European Union Basics (FAQ) list" has changed since the first RFD, and this is reflected in my signature.   NAME AND STATUS  talk.politics.european-union (unmoderated)   PURPOSE  The proposed newsgroup talk.politics.european-union is intended as a platform for all information and discussions about the European Union (EU), the political organisation in which fifteen European countries cooperate on a great number of economical, social, and political areas.  The newsgroup is intended for discussions about this integration process and its advantages and disadvantages, as well as for discussions and specific information about the political institutions of the European Union itself. More general discussions about the pros and cons of federalism versus nationalism, intergovernmental cooperation, political integration versus sovereignty, a "United States of Europe" or a "Europe of the nation states" is welcomed. The main purpose of the newsgroups is to foster discussions about these issues between fellow EU inhabitants, across national boundaries.  Discussions pertaining only to a single member state (or geographical region inside or outside the EU) without relevance to the EU are to be avoided. However, relations between the EU as a whole and another country or group of countries are definitely within the scope of the proposed group. The charter also explicitly permits the discussion of domestic political debate about membership of and policy towards the EU.   BACKGROUND  Discussions about the political integration of Europe have been conducted mainly in two to three newsgroups all part of hierarchies that many sites do not carry: eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and alt.politics.europe.misc. Many other sites carry only one of these hierarchies, or just a few of the alt.*-groups. Endless confusion arises when users try to decide where to post questions or opinions about the European Union; frequent crossposting could be avoided by the creation of a group in the "official" talk.politics.*-hierarchy.  Discussions about the European Union are getting more and more important everyday. Many decisions influencing the day-to-day life of EU inhabitants are being decided in "Brussels", and debates about the European Union have a profound influence on domestic politics in some member states. There is also a profound interest in the EU from people living outside it, especially when the EU is compared to other trade or political blocks of nation states in different parts of the world.  In 1996, member state governments will have the opportunity to renegotiate the founding treaties of the EU at the so-called InterGovernmental Conference (IGC). During the preparations of this IGC that are taking off now, it is vital that EU-inhabitants can discuss the ideas being floated with fellow Europeans and others in a naturally international medium such as Usenet, rather than being confined to classic national debates within traditional media. An easy-to-find newsgroup within the "official" Usenet hierarchy would be a strong basis for this.   RULES  talk.politics.european-union will be an unmoderated newsgroup; thus anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. But being free to post should also mean being responsible for what you post. All articles posted should have something to do with the European Union and its institutions or its project. Insults, "flames" or unnecessary criticism of a group or a person is strongly discouraged. Please read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to any newsgroup, and try to stick to them whenever posting articles.   CHARACTER SET  Readers and writers of the newsgroup are encouraged to adhere to the 8 bit IS0-8859-1 character set in both reading and writing the articles on the talk.politics.european-union group. This set contains all the accented characters necessary for all Latin alphabet EU languages. Even postings written in languages which do not require accented characters, are likely to contain accented characters when referring to specific persons, places or policies. The use of computer mnemonics (such as /"u or ü for =FC or u-umlaut) for accented characters is to be discouraged -- common digraphs (such as ue for =FC or u-umlaut) are accepted though.   RFD  Discussion on talk.politics.european-union has started on March 15. This is the revised RFD which reflects suggestions and opinions contributors have provided during the discussion. The discussion on talk.politics.european-union will last for two more weeks. If ample consensus is reached after discussions, a call for votes will follow.   REFERENCES  More information about the European Union is available from: 1) The European Union Basics (FAQ) list, posted regularly to news.answers, eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and other newsgroups. The latest version dated March 22, 1995 is available at URL . 2) The Europa server operated by the European Commission at URL .  More information about the process of creating a new newsgroup is available from: 1) "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup", posted regularly to news.announce.newusers 2) "Usenet Newsgroup Creation Companion", posted regularly to news.announce.newusers  --  Roland Siebelink Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Tel. +32 2 6292415; Fax +32 2 6292861 Editor, "European Union Basics (FAQ) list"   From [email protected] Mon May  8 18:45:49 1995 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: [email protected] (Steve Bonine) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,eunet.politics,alt.politics.ec,alt.politics.europe.misc,soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.misc Subject: CFV: talk.politics.european-union Followup-To: poster Date: 8 May 1995 12:56:07 -0400 Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Lines: 114 Sender: [email protected] Approved: [email protected] Expires: 30 May 1995 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <[email protected]> References: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Xref: gs2.UU.NET news.announce.newgroups:6788 news.groups:148332 alt.politics.ec:5530 alt.politics.europe.misc:1932 soc.culture.europe:43280 talk.politics.misc:349614                        FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)            unmoderated group talk.politics.european-union  Newsgroups line: talk.politics.european-union    The EU and political integration in Europe.  Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 29 May 1995.  This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party.  For voting questions only contact Steve Bonine <[email protected]>.  For questions about the proposed group contact Roland Siebelink <[email protected]>.  This CFV is being sent to mailing list <[email protected]>.  CHARTER  The proposed newsgroup talk.politics.european-union is intended as a platform for all information and discussions about the European Union (EU), the political organisation in which fifteen European countries cooperate on a great number of economical, social, and political areas.  The newsgroup is intended for discussions about this integration process and its advantages and disadvantages, as well as for discussions and specific information about the political institutions of the European Union itself. More general discussions about the pros and cons of federalism versus nationalism, intergovernmental cooperation, political integration versus sovereignty, a "United States of Europe" or a "Europe of the nation states" is welcomed. The main purpose of the newsgroups is to foster discussions about these issues between fellow EU inhabitants, across national boundaries.  Discussions pertaining only to a single member state (or geographical region inside or outside the EU) without relevance to the EU are to be avoided. However, relations between the EU as a whole and another country or group of countries are definitely within the scope of the proposed group. The charter also explicitly permits the discussion of domestic political debate about membership of and policy towards the EU.  talk.politics.european-union will be an unmoderated newsgroup; thus anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. But being free to post should also mean being responsible for what you post. All articles posted should have something to do with the European Union and its institutions or its project. Insults, "flames" or unnecessary criticism of a group or a person is strongly discouraged. Please read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to any newsgroup, and try to stick to them whenever posting articles.  Readers and writers of the newsgroup are encouraged to adhere to the 8 bit IS0-8859-1 character set in both reading and writing the articles on the talk.politics.european-union group. This set contains all the accented characters necessary for all Latin alphabet EU languages. Even postings written in languages which do not require accented characters, are likely to contain accented characters when referring to specific persons, places or policies. The use of computer mnemonics (such as /"u or ü for =FC or u-umlaut) for accented characters is to be discouraged -- common digraphs (such as ue for =FC or u-umlaut) are accepted though.  RATIONALE  Discussions about the political integration of Europe have been conducted mainly in two to three newsgroups all part of hierarchies that many sites do not carry: eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and alt.politics.europe.misc. Many other sites carry only one of these hierarchies, or just a few of the alt.*-groups. Endless confusion arises when users try to decide where to post questions or opinions about the European Union; frequent crossposting could be avoided by the creation of a group in the "official" talk.politics.*-hierarchy.  Discussions about the European Union are getting more and more important everyday. Many decisions influencing the day-to-day life of EU inhabitants are being decided in "Brussels", and debates about the European Union have a profound influence on domestic politics in some member states. There is also a profound interest in the EU from people living outside it, especially when the EU is compared to other trade or political blocks of nation states in different parts of the world.  In 1996, member state governments will have the opportunity to renegotiate the founding treaties of the EU at the so-called InterGovernmental Conference (IGC). During the preparations of this IGC that are taking off now, it is vital that EU-inhabitants can discuss the ideas being floated with fellow Europeans and others in a naturally international medium such as Usenet, rather than being confined to classic national debates within traditional media. An easy-to-find newsgroup within the "official" Usenet hierarchy would be a strong basis for this.  More information about the European Union is available from: 1) The European Union Basics (FAQ) list, posted regularly to news.answers, eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and other newsgroups. The latest version dated March 22, 1995 is available at URL . 2) The Europa server operated by the European Commission at URL .  HOW TO VOTE  Send MAIL to:   [email protected] Just replying should work if you are not reading this on a mailing list.  It would be apprciated by the votetaker if you did NOT forward the entire CFV back; this mail is archived and I really don't need several hundred copies of the CFV on my system.  Your mail message should contain one of the following statements:       I vote YES on talk.politics.european-union       I vote NO on talk.politics.european-union  You may also ABSTAIN in place of YES/NO - this will not affect the outcome. Anything else may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program.  The votetaker will respond to your received ballots with a personal acknowledge- ment by mail - if you do not receive one within several days, try again. It is your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly.  Only one vote per person, no more than one vote per account.  Addresses and votes of all voters will be published in the final voting results list.  From [email protected] Tue May 16 19:37:45 1995 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: [email protected] (Steve Bonine) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,eunet.politics,alt.politics.ec,alt.politics.europe.misc,soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.misc Subject: 2nd CFV: talk.politics.european-union Supersedes: <[email protected]> Followup-To: poster Date: 16 May 1995 15:10:46 -0400 Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Lines: 119 Sender: [email protected] Approved: [email protected] Expires: 30 May 1995 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <[email protected]> References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Archive-Name: talk.politics.european-union Xref: gs2.UU.NET news.announce.newgroups:6855 news.groups:149778 alt.politics.ec:5713 alt.politics.europe.misc:2047 soc.culture.europe:43748 talk.politics.misc:353706                        LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)            unmoderated group talk.politics.european-union  Newsgroups line: talk.politics.european-union    The EU and political integration in Europe.  Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 29 May 1995.  This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party.  For voting questions only contact Steve Bonine <[email protected]>.  For questions about the proposed group contact Roland Siebelink <[email protected]>.  This CFV is being sent to mailing list <[email protected]>.  CHARTER  The proposed newsgroup talk.politics.european-union is intended as a platform for all information and discussions about the European Union (EU), the political organisation in which fifteen European countries cooperate on a great number of economical, social, and political areas.  The newsgroup is intended for discussions about this integration process and its advantages and disadvantages, as well as for discussions and specific information about the political institutions of the European Union itself. More general discussions about the pros and cons of federalism versus nationalism, intergovernmental cooperation, political integration versus sovereignty, a "United States of Europe" or a "Europe of the nation states" is welcomed. The main purpose of the newsgroups is to foster discussions about these issues between fellow EU inhabitants, across national boundaries.  Discussions pertaining only to a single member state (or geographical region inside or outside the EU) without relevance to the EU are to be avoided. However, relations between the EU as a whole and another country or group of countries are definitely within the scope of the proposed group. The charter also explicitly permits the discussion of domestic political debate about membership of and policy towards the EU.  talk.politics.european-union will be an unmoderated newsgroup; thus anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. But being free to post should also mean being responsible for what you post. All articles posted should have something to do with the European Union and its institutions or its project. Insults, "flames" or unnecessary criticism of a group or a person is strongly discouraged. Please read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to any newsgroup, and try to stick to them whenever posting articles.  Readers and writers of the newsgroup are encouraged to adhere to the 8 bit IS0-8859-1 character set in both reading and writing the articles on the talk.politics.european-union group. This set contains all the accented characters necessary for all Latin alphabet EU languages. Even postings written in languages which do not require accented characters, are likely to contain accented characters when referring to specific persons, places or policies. The use of computer mnemonics (such as /"u or ü for =FC or u-umlaut) for accented characters is to be discouraged -- common digraphs (such as ue for =FC or u-umlaut) are accepted though.  RATIONALE  Discussions about the political integration of Europe have been conducted mainly in two to three newsgroups all part of hierarchies that many sites do not carry: eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and alt.politics.europe.misc. Many other sites carry only one of these hierarchies, or just a few of the alt.*-groups. Endless confusion arises when users try to decide where to post questions or opinions about the European Union; frequent crossposting could be avoided by the creation of a group in the "official" talk.politics.*-hierarchy.  Discussions about the European Union are getting more and more important everyday. Many decisions influencing the day-to-day life of EU inhabitants are being decided in "Brussels", and debates about the European Union have a profound influence on domestic politics in some member states. There is also a profound interest in the EU from people living outside it, especially when the EU is compared to other trade or political blocks of nation states in different parts of the world.  In 1996, member state governments will have the opportunity to renegotiate the founding treaties of the EU at the so-called InterGovernmental Conference (IGC). During the preparations of this IGC that are taking off now, it is vital that EU-inhabitants can discuss the ideas being floated with fellow Europeans and others in a naturally international medium such as Usenet, rather than being confined to classic national debates within traditional media. An easy-to-find newsgroup within the "official" Usenet hierarchy would be a strong basis for this.  More information about the European Union is available from: 1) The European Union Basics (FAQ) list, posted regularly to news.answers, eunet.politics, alt.politics.ec and other newsgroups. The latest version dated March 22, 1995 is available at URL . 2) The Europa server operated by the European Commission at URL .  HOW TO VOTE  Send MAIL to:   [email protected] Just replying should work if you are not reading this on a mailing list.  It would be apprciated by the votetaker if you did NOT forward the entire CFV back; this mail is archived and I really don't need several hundred copies of the CFV on my system.  Your mail message should contain one of the following statements:       I vote YES on talk.politics.european-union       I vote NO on talk.politics.european-union  You may also ABSTAIN in place of YES/NO - this will not affect the outcome. Anything else may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program.  The votetaker will respond to your received ballots with a personal acknowledge- ment by mail - if you do not receive one within several days, try again. It is your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly.  Only one vote per person, no more than one vote per account.  Addresses and votes of all voters will be published in the final voting results list.   talk.politics.european-union Bounce List - These votes HAVE been counted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [email protected]                                                             JD