Transnational Issues Ethiopia
Disputes - international:
Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia
Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but mutual
animosities, accusations, and armed posturing prevail, preventing
demarcation despite international intervention; Ethiopia refuses to
withdraw to the delimited boundary until technical errors made by
the EEBC that ignored "human geography" are addressed, including the
award of Badme, the focus of the 1998-2000 war; Eritrea insists that
the EEBC decision be implemented immediately without modifications;
Ethiopia has only an administrative line and no international border
with the Oromo region of southern Somalia where it maintains
alliances with local clans in opposition to the unrecognized Somali
Interim Government in Mogadishu; "Somaliland" secessionists provide
port facilities and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; efforts to
demarcate the porous boundary with Sudan have been delayed by civil
war
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 73,927 (Sudan), 15,901 (Somalia),
10,700 (Eritrea)
IDPs: 100,000-280,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000 and
ethnic clashes in Gambela; most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela
Provinces) (2006)
Illicit drugs:
transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia
and destined for Europe and North America, as well as cocaine
destined for markets in southern Africa; cultivates qat (khat) for
local use and regional export, principally to Djibouti and Somalia
(legal in all three countries); the lack of a well-developed
financial system limits the country's utility as a money-laundering
center
This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007
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@European Union
Introduction European Union
Preliminary statement:
The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a regional economic
agreement among six neighboring states in 1951 to today's
supranational organization of 27 countries across the European
continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the annals of
history. Dynastic unions for territorial consolidation were long the
norm in Europe. On a few occasions even country-level unions were
arranged - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire were examples - but for such a large number
of nation-states to cede some of their sovereignty to an overarching
entity is truly unique. Although the EU is not a federation in the
strict sense, it is far more than a free-trade association such as
ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur, and it has many of the attributes
associated with independent nations: its own flag, anthem, founding
date, and currency, as well as an incipient common foreign and
security policy in its dealings with other nations. In the future,
many of these nation-like characteristics are likely to be expanded.
Thus, inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has been deemed
appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World Factbook.
However, because of the EU's special status, this description is
placed after the regular country entries.
Background: Following the two devastating World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, a number of European leaders in the late 1940s became convinced that the only way to establish a lasting peace was to unite the two chief belligerent nations - France and Germany - both economically and politically. In 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert SCHUMAN proposed an eventual union of all Europe, the first step of which would be the integration of the coal and steel industries of Western Europe. The following year the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up when six members, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris. The ECSC was so successful that within a few years the decision was made to integrate other parts of the countries' economies. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the six member states undertook to eliminate trade barriers among themselves by forming a common market. In 1967, the institutions of all three communities were formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a single Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament were initially selected by national parliaments, but in 1979 the first direct elections were undertaken and they have been held every five years since. In 1973, the first enlargement of the EC took place with the addition of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The 1980s saw further membership expansion with Greece joining in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht laid the basis for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic and monetary union - including a common currency. This further integration created the European Union (EU). In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, raising the membership total to 15. A new currency, the euro, was launched in world money markets on 1 January 1999; it became the unit of exchange for all of the EU states except the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In 2002, citizens of the 12 euro-area countries began using the euro banknotes and coins. Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - and in 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined, bringing the current membership to 27. In order to ensure that the EU can continue to function efficiently with an expanded membership, the Treaty of Nice (in force as of 1 February 2003) set forth rules streamlining the size and procedures of EU institutions. An EU Constitutional Treaty, signed in Rome on 29 October 2004, gave member states two years to ratify the document before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006. Referenda held in France and the Netherlands in May-June 2005 rejected the proposed constitution. This development set back the ratification effort and left the longer-term political integration of the EU in limbo.