EU Individual Paragraph

Brainstorming:

• similar terms
• Council of Europe
• no EU body
• international organization
• human rights
• Council of the EU
• national ministers meet
• European Council
• EU leader meet

Original - Draft 1:
Regarding Europe there are three terms that sound very similar and can easily get confused with each other – The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The main difference is that The Council of Europe is not an EU Institution at all. It is an international huma rights organization in Strasbourg, whose 47 member states have signed up to the European Convention of human rights. It was set up to promote democracy, protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe. Even though it is not an EU body, all 28 EU member states are part of The Council of Europe. The European Council is an EU institution where EU leaders meet together with the President of the European Commission twice every six months to discuss the unions political priorities, whereas at The Council of the EU, national ministers from each EU country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. Since our focus is on the European Union the whole semester, it is important to know the difference between these similar terms.


Feedback:

• Topic Sentence: 
• Regarding Europe and the EU...
• to be confused
• put all the councils in quotes
• Register: ok
• more synonyms  

Draft 2:

Regarding Europe and the EU there are three terms that sound very similar and can easily be confused with each other – The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The main difference is that The Council of Europe is not an EU Institution at all. It is an international organization in Strasbourg, whose 47 member states have signed up to the European Convention of human rights. It was set up to promote democracy, protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe. Even though it is not an EU body, all 28 EU member states are part of The Council of Europe. The European Council is an EU institution where EU leaders meet together with the President of the European Commission twice every six months to discuss the unions political priorities, whereas at The Council of the EU, national ministers from each EU country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. Since our focus is on the European Union the whole semester, it is important to know the difference between these similar terms.

Feedback:

• at all – register
• sentence starting with it
• conclusion   
•  as instead of since 

Draft 3 - Final Version 1

Regarding Europe and the EU there are three terms that sound very similar and can easily be confused with each other – The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The main difference is that The Council of Europe is not an EU Institution. It is an international organization in Strasbourg, whose 47 member states have signed up to the European Convention of human rights. The main reason why it was set up was to promote democracy, protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe. Even though it is not an EU body, all 28 EU member states are part of The Council of Europe. The European Council is an institution where EU leaders meet together with the President of the European Commission, four times a year, to discuss the unions political priorities, whereas at The Council of the EU, national ministers from each EU country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. As our focus is the whole semester on the European Union, it is important to know the difference between these similar terms.

  

Final version 2:

Regarding Europe and the EU there are three terms that sound very similar and can easily be confused with each other – The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The main difference is that The Council of Europe is not an EU institution. It is an international organization in Strasbourg, whose 47 member states have signed the European Convention on Human Rights. The main reason why it was established was to promote democracy, and protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe. Even though it is not an EU body, all 28 EU member states are part of The Council of Europe. The European Council is an institution where EU leaders meet together with the President of the European Commission, four times a year, to discuss the Union’s political priorities, whereas in The Council of the EU, national ministers from each EU country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. As our semester’s focus is on the European Union, it is important to know the difference between these similar terms.

 

MY TOP 5 EU-RELATED TOPICS

This week our task was to give an overview of five potential topics regarding the European Union. This should help us decide on a specific topic to write our academic paper about. Here you can read about my ideas: 

Why are the Danish people the happiest people in the EU?

I have recently visited Denmark where I learned that the Danes are the most satisfied nation within the EU, even though they have the highest tax rate.

Interpreters in the European Parliament

Since this topic probably affects some of us in the future, it would be interesting to know what languages are needed. What qualification in general you need to be allowed to work for the parliament?

Joining the EU – The Copenhagen Criteria

What is the Copenhagen Criteria? How can a country become a member of the EU? What criteria are necessary to join? Why do countries want to join?

Why did Sweden decide to keep its currency?

Sweden is one of the few countries which have a different currency than the other EU-members. Why do they still have Swedish Krona? Are they going to change that in the future?

Opt-outs in the EU

What does this term mean? Which states have such opt-outs? Are there different kinds? And what are the opt-outs about?

Those are my five ideas. Researching about my topics made me realize what an interesting organization the EU is and it made me become even more curious to learn more about the European Union.