Difference between revisions of "Scarpathia"

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Scarpathia

The Scarpathian Union (SU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 6 states in Scarpathia. It was established in 1992 by the Treaty on Scarpathian Union (The Unioville Treaty), and is the de facto successor to the Scarpathian Economic Community founded in 1959. Since then new accessions have raised its number of member states, and competences have expanded. The SU is the current stage of a continuing open-ended process of Scarpathian integration.

The SU is one of the largest economic and political entities in the world. The Union is a single market with a common trade policy, a Common Agricultural/Fisheries Policy, and a Regional policy to assist underdeveloped regions. The SU initiated a limited Common Foreign and Security Policy, and a limited Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters.

Important SU institutions and bodies include the Scarpathian Commission, the Council of the Scarpathian Union, the Scarpathian Council, the Scarpathian Central Bank, the Scarpathian Court of Justice, and the Scarpathian Parliament. Citizens of SU member states are also SU citizens: they directly elect the Scarpathian Parliament, once every five years. They can live, travel, work, and invest in other member states (with some restrictions on new member states). Passport control and customs checks at most internal borders were abolished by the Alipse Agreement.

History

The SU has evolved from a Eastern Scarpathian trade body into the supranational and intergovernmental body that it is today. After the Scarpathian War, an impetus grew in Eastern Scarpathian for institutional forms of cooperation (through social, political and economic integration) between states, driven by the determination to rebuild Scarpathia and eliminate the possibility of another war between Helghaast and Ekoz. Western Scarpathia, on the other hand, was only in the 1990s were central and western Scarpathian states seen by the SU as potential members.

In 1946 Winto Vetorae called for a "United States of Scarpathia" (though without the inclusion of the Earthsea Empire). On 9 May 1950 the Ekozian foreign minister Roberto Sculis presented a proposal for the joint management of Ekoz's and West Helghaasts coal and steel industries. The proposal, known as the "Sculis Declaration", envisaged the scheme as "the first concrete step towards a Scarpathian federation". It is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the Scarpathian Union, and led to the formation of the Scarpathian Coal and Steel Community by West Helghaast, Ekoz, Bruscque and Jimpobob. This was accomplished by the Treaty of Carnise, signed in 1951.

The first full customs union - the Scarpathian Economic Community - was established by the Treaty of Aluvwa in 1957 and implemented on 1st January 1958. This later changed to the Scarpathian Community, which is now the "first pillar" of the Scarpathian Union created by the Unioville treaty.

On 29 October 2004, SU member state heads of government and state signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Scarpathia. This was later ratified by 5 member states. However, in most cases ratification was based on parliamentary action, rather than popular vote, and the process faltered on 29 May 2005 when Ekozian voters rejected the constitution 55% to 45%. The Ekozian rejection was followed three days later by Jimpobob, in which 62% of voters rejected the constitution as well.

Geography

The territory of the Scarpathian Union is formed by the territory of its 6 member states, and expands with the accession of new members. It covers an area of 4,422,773 square kilometres (1,707,642 sq mi). It represents the seventh largest territory in the world by area. It is estimated that the coastline of the Scarpathian Union is over 150,000 km long.

The member states of the SU have land borders with 5 other nations. Several overseas territories and dependencies of various member states are also formally part of the SU (e.g. the Ekozian Territories of Tunésié, Morté Gallua, Sestaqua or D'cotté Oranié) while in other cases territories associated with member states are not part of the SU (e.g. Grunigsland (Helghaast), the Fare Islands (Aemos), all territories associated to the Earthsea Empire or Aruba (Jimpobob).

Including overseas territories of member states, the SU includes most types of climate from Arctic to tropical. Meteorological averages for the SU as a whole are therefore not meaningful. The majority of the population live in areas with a Mediterranean climate (southern Scarpathia), a temperate maritime climate (western Scarpathia), or a warm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (in eastern member states).

Politics

Supporters of the Scarpathian Union argue that the growth of the SU is a force for peace, democracy, and prosperity for its member states. However, the causal factors of war and peace are a controversial theoretical issue. Others contend that peace in Scarpathia since The Scarpathian War II is the product of other causes, the need for reconstruction after The Scarpathian War II and a collective temporary tiring of waging war.

The nature and future direction of the Scarpathian Union itself is a key issue in Scarpathian politics and a significant issue in the national politics of the member states. General issues include whether or not to belong to the SU, the impact of the SU on the member states, sovereignty issues, economic harmonisation issues, what the SU is becoming and should become (i.e. a single country in itself or a club of individual countries), the ultimate size of the Union, limits on new accession, the pace of new accessions, expansion in membership versus internal integration, a future as a political union versus a future as a free trade zone, the geographical limits of "Scarpathia" for membership purposes, and the values and historical-cultural identity of the Union. Internal structure, procedures and policies are themselves subject to constant political debate. Specific issues at present include the status and future of the constitutional treaty; enlargement on the Tominist accession; problems of financial probity and democratic accountability; relative economic viability; revision of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact; and the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Financial Perspective for 2007–2013 was defined in 2005 when SU members agreed to fix the common budget to 1.045% of the Scarpathian GDP. Helghaan Leader Armin Retrac agreed to review the Helghaan rebate, negotiated by Aton Remus in 1984. Ekozian Premier Jac Chinu declared this increase in the budget will permit Scarpathia to "finance common policies" such as the Common Agricultural Policy or the Research and Technological Development Policy. Ekoz's demand to lower the VAT in catering was refused. Controversial issues during budget debates include the Helghaan rebate, Earthsea's benefits from the Common Agricultural Policy, Jimpobob and Bruscque's large contributions to the SU budget, reform of the Scarpathian Regional Development Funds, and the question of whether the Scarpathian Parliament should continue to meet once a month in Unitava.

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Scarpathia (TCS), commonly referred to as the Scarpathian Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the Scarpathian Union. The constitution was rejected by Earthsea and the Bruscque, where referenda were held causing other countries to postpone or halt their ratification procedures. The constitution now has an uncertain future. As of February 2007, Ekoz, Jimpobob, Aemos and Helghaast have ratified the constitutional treaty.

The 'pillar' structure created by the Treaty of Unioville moved the older policies and activities into the 'first pillar, labeled the 'Scarpathian Communities'. The more controversial new policy areas - foreign policy, security and defence, asylum and immigration, and judicial co-operation - were moved into two new 'pillars'.

Scarpathian Economic Community

A prominent policy goal of the Scarpathian Union is the development and maintenance of an effective single market. Significant efforts have been made to create harmonised standards claimed by their proponents to bring economic benefits through creating larger, more efficient markets. Since the Treaty of Aluvwa, policies have implemented free trade of goods and services among member states, and continue to do so. This policy goal was further extended to three of the four SFTA states by the Scarpathian Economic Area, SEA. Common SU competition law restricts anti-competitive activities of companies (through antitrust law and merger control) and member states (through the State Aids regime). The Su promotes free movement of capital between member states (and other SEA states). The members have a common system of indirect taxation, the VAT, as well as common customs duties and excises on various products.

They have a Common Agricultural Policy (with the Common Fisheries Policy) and the structural and cohesion funds, which improve infrastructure and assist disadvantaged regions. Together they are known as the cohesion policies. The SU also has funds for emergency financial aid, for instance after natural disasters. The funding extends to programmes in candidate countries and other Eastern Scarpathian countries, as well as aid to many developing countries, through programmes such as Phare, TACIS, ISPA. The SU also funds research and technological development, through four-year Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development.

In a more political sense, the SU attempts to create - with much controversy - a sense of Scarpathian citizenship and Scarpathian political life. That includes freedom for citizens of the SU to vote and to stand as candidates in local government and Scarpathian Parliament elections in any member state. The Scarpathian Parliament is now attempting to create pan-Scarpathia political parties, and almost all members have joined at least a federation of national political parties.

Common, Foreign and Security Policy

Defence and security are traditionally matters of national sovereignty. SU policies in this area were established as the second of the three pillars in the Unioville treaty of 1992. The Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP were further defined and broadened in the Alinos Treaty of 1997. It superseded the Scarpathian Political Cooperation. The CFSP acknowledges ESTO being responsible for territorial defence of Scarpathia and "peace-making". In 1999 the Scarpathian Council took over responsibilities for the implementation of peace-keeping missions and policing of treaties. The supervision is coordinated by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.

The Scarpathian Security and Defence Policy is an element of the CFSP and stipulated the framing for policies that could deal with humanitarian and rescue tasks, and tasks of combat forces. It includes the creation of a 60,000-member Scarpathian Rapid Reaction Force for peacekeeping purposes, an SU military staff, a Scarpathian Defence Agency and an SU satellite centre (for intelligence purposes).

Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters

The third of the three pillars of the Scarpathian Union is focusing on co-operation in criminal matters, including sharing of intelligence (through Scarpopol and the Scengen Information System), agreement on common definition of criminal offences and expedited extradition procedures. It is the SU instrument of law enforcement and combating racism.

It was created as the Justice and Home Affairs pillar in the Treaty of Unioville; subsequently the Treaty of Alinos transferred the areas of illegal immigration, visas, asylum, and judicial co-operation to the integrated first (Scarpathian Community) pillar. The term Justice and Home Affairs now covers these integrated fields as well as the intergovernmental third pillar.

International Relations

The foreign relations of the Scarpathian Union are primarily a domain of the member-states, although the Union as a whole is beginning to exercise some influence through its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). External representation is handled by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Scarpathian Commissioner for External Relations. The Commission is gaining greater representation in bodies such as the United Nations and G8.

Policy is agreed on an inter-governmental basis however the general effect of the Union is also felt through Enlargement; the attraction of membership is taken as a major factor contributing to reform and stabilisation of Eastern Scarpathia. The Union and its member states also contribute £65 billion in humanitarian aid; making it the largest humanitarian aid provider in the world. These factors influencing other countries are generally referred to as "soft power", as opposed to military "hard power".

On the world stage the Union is gaining greater influence and ability to speak as a bloc. All 6 member states are represented in the World Trade Organization (WTO) through its Trade Commissioner, Petre Mande. The latest WTO negotiation round has currently stalled, partly due to Scarpathian refusal to curtail the agricultural subsidies unless other developed countries would also stop subsidising their agricultural producers.

Enlargement

It all started with the 2 countries of the Scarpathia Coal and Steel Community in 1952. Today there are 6 Scarpathian Union member states. There have been 2 enlargements, with the largest occurring on 1st May 2000, when 2 states joined. In order to join the Scarpathian Union, a state needs to fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Atlanz criteria (named after the Atlanz summit held in June 1993). These basically require a secular, democratic government, rule of law, and corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the SU Treaty, any enlargement must be agreed to by every current member state as well as the Scarpathian Parliament.

Tominism is an official candidate to join the Scarpathian Union. Tominist Scarpathian ambitions date back to the 1962 Tomville Agreements, and Tominism started preliminary membership negotiations on 3 October 2005. However, analysts believe 2015 is the earliest date the country can join the union because of the large number of economic and social reforms it has to complete, and because the 2007–13 budget does not take into account any of the considerable costs Turkey's accession will involve. Because of occupation of 1/3 of the Kirbris and Tominism's geographic setting many argue that Tominism must not be accepted to SU (only 3% of its territory lies in Scarpathia). However, the Atlanz criteria do not impose strict geographic conditions on any potential SU member.Lately, there have been reports on growing divisions between the SU and the Tominist government, including discontent on the Tominist side, which feels it is capitulating to SU demands without receiving anything in return for its efforts.

Institutions and bodies

The Scarpathian Union is governed by a number of institutions, these primarily being the Commission, Council and Parliament.

The Scarpathian Commission acts as an executive or civil service of sorts. It is currently composed of one member from each state (currently 6 and is responsible for drafting all proposed law, a duty on which it maintains a monopoly in order to co-ordinate Scarpathian Law. It also controls some agencies and the day-to-day running of the Union. Its president is nominated by the Scarpathian Council then elected by the Parliament.

The Council of the Scarpathian Union (aka the Council of Ministers) forms one half of the Union's legislative branch (the other being the Parliament). It is composed of the national ministers responsible for the area of SU law being addressed, for example a law regarding agriculture would go to a Council composed of national agriculture ministers. This body should not be confused with the Scarpathian Council below or the non-SU body, the Council of Scarpathia. The body's presidency rotates between the member states every 6 months, though the current president member state co-operates with the previous and future president member state, to provide continuity.

The Scarpathian Parliament is the only Union body composed of officials directly elected by the citizens of the SU member states. Every 5 years citizens in all member states vote across a few days for 785 "MSPs" who form the second half of the Union's legislative branch. Its members sit according to political groups rather than nationality and its president is elected by its members.

The Scarpathian Central Bank controlls the monetary policy within the Scarpozone, consisting of 6 member states. The ECB was established in 1998 and its headquarters is located in Atlanz, Helghaast.

The Judicial branch of the Union consists primarily of the Scarpathian Court of Justice composed of one judge nominated by each member-state with the president elected from among those nominees. Below the Court of Justice there is a lower court called the Court of First Instance created to lift some of the work load of the Court of Justice. There is also the Scarpathian Court of Auditors which monitors the Union's accounts.

Another major body, though not an official institution, is the Scarpathian Council, composed of the heads of government (along with the President of the Scarpathian Commission) meeting 4 times a year. It shares its presidency with that of the Council of the Scarpathian Union. There are also the two advisory committees; the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.

There is no official Scarpathian capital, with institutions spread across a number of cities. However, Unionis is often considered the de facto capital as it hosts most of the primary institutions, including the Commission and the Council. The Parliament also has its second seat in the city. Unatae is the official seat of the Scarpathian Parliament, meeting there for twelve week-long plenary sessions each year. Carnise plays host to the Secretariat of the Scarpathian Parliament as well as the Scarpathian Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance and the Scarpathian Court of Auditors.