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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate The European Politics Thread

Discussion in 'Community' started by DANNASUK, Feb 16, 2017.

  1. yankee8255

    yankee8255 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 31, 2005
    You cover everything quite well. All I’ll add is that Mrs Yankee is heading out to vote right now and still not really sure whom she wants to for, is quite unhappy with her choices.
     
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  2. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I thought VAT had to be a minimum of 15% under European-wide tax harmony?
     
  3. Violent Violet Menace

    Violent Violet Menace Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 11, 2004
    It's 14% here for groceries and 25% for everything else.
     
  4. Darth_Omega

    Darth_Omega Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Can't blame her, normally I'd vote for either greens or liberals but with the threshold threat looming it seems almost feels like a wasted vote. Voting for ÖVP is pretty much a vote for FPÖ. Voting for SPÖ is out of the questions after the scandals.
    I'm going to quote Wikipedia here: "For example, different rates of VAT are allowed in different EU member states. However Directive 2006/112 requires Member States to have a minimum standard rate of VAT of 15% and one or two reduced rates not to be below 5%."

    In the Netherlands the basic rate is 21% but foods, medicine, water, agriculture products and several services such as barbers have reduced rate of 6% which will now increase to 9%. Which admittedly is more than one or two exceptions. :confused:
     
  5. Violent Violet Menace

    Violent Violet Menace Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 11, 2004
    Well, I oversimplified somewhat above. Norway is not an EU member, but we're part of the EEA and therefore adhere to EU directives regardless. So, I checked now and, sure enough, the 14% rate on foodstuffs has been adjusted up to 15 since 2012. Cultural and leisure services, such as cinema and theatre tickets, sporting events, museum entrance and the like are 10%, as well as transport fares and lodging. Everything else is 25%.
     
  6. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
    The limit on the number of exceptions isn't on the number of products concerned, it's about the total number of VAT rates. Put simply this means that a country can't have 25 different rates of VAT; each country can have max 3 different rates, of which one must be 15% or more and two can be between 5 and 15%.

    The lower rates are usually for basic necessities (e.g. medicines, diapers, essential foodstuffs like rice, sugar, flour etc) and cultural products.
     
  7. Darth_Omega

    Darth_Omega Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Thanks that makes sense now, reading comprenhesion fail on my part. :p

    Anyway Austrian election exit poll:
    ÖVP 30.2, FPÖ 26.8, SPÖ 26.3, NEOS 5.3, Greens 4.9, Pilz 4.3
     
  8. yankee8255

    yankee8255 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 31, 2005
    It’s changed a bit, Darth Omega. 1. ÖVP 2. SPÖ 3. FPÖ 4.Neos 5.Pilz 6. Greens

    The Greens will likely finish below the 4% cutoff, which is a disaster. Pilz is a former Green Party member who was eased out the door to early retirement, formed his own list and will be sitting in parliament while his former colleagues spend the next 5 years hand-washing their hairshirts.

    Latest results, including absentee ballot projections

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
  10. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
  11. Rylo Ken

    Rylo Ken Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 19, 2015
    My wife and son both sent in absentee ballots for this election and are of course disappointed with the results if not exactly surprised.
     
  12. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Missed this earlier. There are a lot more than two human rights courts, and the term human rights courts is under inclusive. And we do have human rights courts all over the world, and they are considered valuable in general.

    The problem is not the courts, but getting sovereigns to listen to some court even if said sovereign is a state party to a court. And ideally we wouldn't even need such courts because nation states would have their own domestic courts capable of addressing human rights concerns. The supranational courts are a backstop in case this doesn't work -- a court of last resort.

    The Hague is a city in the Netherlands, the seat of government (not the capital).

    The Hague hosts a number of international institutions, among the oldest of which is the International Court of Justice (formerly the Permanent Court of International Justice, under the League of Nations) at the Peace Palace. The ICJ is one of the principal organs of the United Nations, and the Statute of the ICJ was part of the series of treaties that created the ICJ. The ICJ is NOT a human rights court, but it is a court aimed at resolving questions of international law or arbitrating disputes *between nations* whether as part of the court's optional jurisdiction or as part of a specific treaty's arbitration clause.

    The International Criminal Court, also at The Hague, is a creation of the Rome Statute. It is NOT a UN organ but is closely associated with the UN because of a mechanism wherein the Security Council may make referrals to the ICC for prosecution. The ICC is a criminal court and it prosecutes recognized crimes under the Rome Statute for which there is individual liability under international law, whether you're a rando soldier or a head of state. These are grave breaches of the laws of armed conflict, crimes against humanity, genocide, etc.

    Also in The Hague? The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.

    All three of the above courts are commonly referred to by American media under the metonym "The Hague" and who knows if they know the difference.

    The European Court of Human Rights sits in Strasbourg and is a creature of the Council of Europe (NOT the European Union; so the UK is still a party to it regardless of Brexit. Turkey is a party, too. So's Russia.). It is a regional human rights court, akin to the Inter-American Court in the Western Hemisphere. It is supranational and can, among its many functions, hear appeals from national courts. There is an individual right of complaint but you usually have to have exhausted your remedies at local courts, and the ECtHR takes into account local laws and customs (subsidiarity; it doesn't always overrule national courts even when perhaps it should). The ECtHR enforces rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights which established it, which parallels (but not exactly, and sometimes exceeds) UN treaties such as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Int'l Cov on Economic and Social Rights.







    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
  13. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    The Tories want to leave the ECoHR, too. Which is one of the most dangerous ******' ideas in British politics. Most voters are unaware the Council of Europe and the European Union are two completely different entities; most Tory MP's honestly believe the ECoHR is controlled by the EU.

    It is not.
     
  14. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
  15. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000

    [​IMG]

    I used to work across the road, this was the view from my window.

    :-B

    At the end of the nineteenth century, Europe was arming itself at an unprecedented rate. This worried the Russian Czar. He organised the first international Peace Conference, in 1899. It was held in The Hague because the Netherlands were neutral at the time. At the Conference, the Permanent Court of Arbitration was created.
    Russian and American diplomats agreed the Court needed a home. Thanks to a gift by Andrew Carnegie, they were able to start construction of a "Peace Palace" in 1907. It was finished in 1913. A year later, the first ever World War started.
     
  16. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I envy that view. You were very lucky, Watto.
     
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  17. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Yep, that's when they had The Hague Conventions on peace and the laws of war and stuff.... just in time for everyone to break all those laws in WWI. Yikes.


    Still, the Peace Palace is a pretty cool name and a rad looking building.


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
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  18. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000
    I've always found it a bit pompous. But still nice.
     
  19. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Exactly. I do dig pompousness. :p


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
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  20. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
  21. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Spain is set to suspend Catalan autonomy. Article 155 is to be triggered.
     
  22. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000
    Interesting dilemma:
    I think we have a good system of representative government in the Netherlands. So I'm against referenda.
    Now there's a new law on the books: a dragnet law, which would allow the police to spy on a whole neighbourhood if there's one suspect. I'm against that law as well.

    So I get asked to sign a petition for a referendum against the law. What to do?
    I didn't do it. Is that sticking to a higher ideal, or convenient laziness?
     
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  23. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    I'm from the US, but if I lived in the Neatherlands, I'd have signed it. It maybe a good government system over there, but a law like that scares the fool out of me.
     
  24. yankee8255

    yankee8255 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 31, 2005
    I hate referenda except in very limited, constitutional type circumstances. There are other avenues towards attacking specific legislation.
     
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  25. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012