04-16-2006
|
 |
Secretary of Defense
Permanently Banned (you wish)
|
|
Member Since: Feb 2006
Location: Denmark
Posts: 2,448
|
|
|
Re: U.S. passport rules are 'war on tourism'
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Iliak
There's no doubt that the U.S. is behind Northern Europe when talking about human rights, but that pretty much completes the picture. The new members are far from fulfilling modern standards with the field, and I'm confident to say that on many areas they're worse than the U.S. To cite a few examples: in Estonia and Latvia 30% of the population are non-citizens with virtually no rights; and Roma minorities are suffering daily abuses in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I don't think that HRW, which by the way is a US based NGO, has any say when it comes to EU membership.
|
I think you are dead wrong on this one. Civil and political rights might on some occasions be worse in many of the new EU countries than they are in the U.S, I do believe that. Officially all the EU member states has to live up to a lot of political, judicial and human rights as you can see below. They are the so-called Copenhagen Criterias that were approved on a EU summit in Copnhagen back in 1993.
Quote:
BETINGELSER FOR MEDLEMSKAB AF EU
EU stiller krav til kommende medlemslande om, at de lever op til normer for demokrati, retssikkerhed og menneskerettigheder, samt at de har en fungerende markedsøkonomi. Disse krav er formuleret i de såkaldte Københavnskriterier.
Før et land kan opnå medlemskab af EU, skal det opfylde Københavnskriterierne, der blev fastlagt på EU-topmødet i København i juni 1993. Kriterierne omfatter krav om:
Demokrati, retsstatsforhold, respekt for menneskerettigheder og beskyttelse af mindretal (det politiske kriterium)
Krav om en fungerende markedsøkonomi økonomisk styrke til at klare konkurrencen i det indre marked (det økonomiske kriterium).
Overtagelse af forpligtigelserne ved medlemskab, herunder overtagelse og håndhævelse af EU’s regelsæt (det såkaldte Acquis Communautaire, som består af 31 kapitler).
Det Europæiske Råd fastslog ligeledes, at EU skal være klar før optagelse af nye medlemslande. Det kan betegnes som EU's "absorptionskapacitet" eller "optagelsesevne".
Ved påbegyndelse af optagelsesforhandlinger er det en forudsætning, at kandidatlandene opfylder det politiske kriterium. EU hjælper landene med at implementere EU-lovgivning og tilbyder finansiel støtte til forbedring af infrastruktur og økonomi.
|
__________________
It all comes down to this on election day: Are you a racist, or do you look down on spastics?
Last edited by Wallaroo; 04-16-2006 at 11:04 AM.
|