Publié jeudi 26 juin 2008 à 09h33
par
rikkeindenmark 
dans La nouvelle Europe sociale (vu 892 fois et 10 commentaires)
And now for
something completely different – as Monty Python would say! I’m
moving away from gender issues and on to a completely different
topic, namely education.
I work in the university sector, where tuition fees are currently
a burning hot topic for debate. In my home country we have a long
tradition for free – or rather publicly funded – higher
education. The argument is that when higher education is free
everyone – regardless of social or economic background – has the
opportunity to take a university degree. Basically, as Danes see
it free education is a question of equality and equal access to
education.
However, in globalization the Danish higher education model is
challenged: Denmark is one of very few countries in the world
which does not have tuition fees (correct me if I’m wrong, but I
think there are only 10 countries worldwide with free higher
education!). University education is increasingly becoming
‘internationalized’: more and more universities cooperate across
borders to offer joint degrees; more and more students go abroad
on exchange or take a full degree abroad, etc. With more
cooperation across borders it gets more difficult for Denmark to
stick with the ‘no fee’ policy – since many of the countries we
cooperate...
Publié jeudi 12 juin 2008 à 09h49
par
Desmond O'Toole
dans Démocratie et diversité européenne (vu 473 fois et 0 commentaires)
From 7h00 to
22h00 on Thursday (8h00 to 23h00 CET) polling stations across
Ireland will be open and the great game of democracy will be played
out with pencil and ballot paper. Three million citizens across 43
constituencies will vote Tá (YES) or Níl (NO) to amend our
constitution and allow our government to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
There are over three million citizens registered to vote in this
referendum, the largest number ever in the history of the State.
And the smart money says that voter turnout will be the key to the
final result.
The Irish people had to vote twice to ratify the Nice Treaty. In the first referendum in 2001 the Irish people voted NO by 529,000 votes to 453,000 on a turnout of 35%. At the second referendum a year later we voted YES to Nice by 906,000 votes to 535,000 on a much larger turnout of 49%. Almost all of the extra turnout was YES voters who had abstained in the previous referendum. The big question is whether the same pattern will repeat itself this time? If the NO side has so confused and alienated people from the EU that many decide not to vote and we have a low turnout, then we will lose the referendum and Ireland will fail to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. If, however, the Irish people refuse to be...
Lire la suitePublié lundi 9 juin 2008 à 10h14
par
Desmond O'Toole
dans In the spotlight (vu 540 fois et 2 commentaires)
Dia dhaoibh a
chairde agus fáilte ó Éireann! Hello to everyone and greetings
from Dublin! I'm delighted to have been asked to blog this week
from Ireland because this is the week that the Irish people vote
in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. During this week I will
be reporting from the Labour Party campaign in Ireland and
discussing the key themes and issues that we are addressing.
To begin, however, it might be useful if I sketch the background
to this referendum. When we Irish people gave ourselves a
Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) in 1937 we determined that
any changes to that Constitution could only be made with the
explicit consent of the people in a referendum. As the Lisbon
Treaty involves the transfer of a number of sovereign powers to
the European Union the Irish people have to be consulted directly
for that to happen.
Ireland has benefitted immensely from our membership of the EU.
Our economy and infrastructure have grown rapidly in large part
due to the Single Market and structural and cohesion funding. Our
agriculture and rural communities have secured long-term success
and security due to the Common Agricultural Policy and other
farming supports. Our environmental and social policies have been
greatly enhanced due to legislation from Brussels. But...
Chargement...