Enlaces de interés/Recommended Links:

• World Elections Information & Results / Información y resultados electorales en todo el mundo

• European Parliament Elections
  

• ¿Qué es el Consejo de Europa? / What is the Council of Europe?
  

• Cronograma electoral de América Latina
  

• Plebiscitos en América Latina:  una breve reseña
  

Antes de empezar este análisis, es prudente recordar que en un Estado democrático de derecho hay muchos mecanismos de participación ciudadana y que estos le sirven al Estado para canalizar las inquietudes de su sociedad y escuchar e interpretar sus reclamos y opiniones. Ello, a su vez, dará sustento a los procesos decisionales y legitimidad al gobierno.

El referéndum y el plebiscito son dos de estos mecanismos, y se les puede definir como ...

Jan.2,2008.– The European Union (EU) was created by six founding states in 1958 (following the earlier establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952) and has grown to 27 member states. There have been six enlargements, with the largest occurring on May 1, 2004, when 10 states joined.  The last two states entered the EU on January 1, 2007:  Rumania and Bulgaria.

In addition to the current twenty-seven member states, a number of other European states will join the European Union in the next two decades. Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are officially candidate countries; Croatia and Turkey are currently in accession negotiations, while negotiations with the Republic of Macedonia are expected to start in 2007.

In order to join the European Union, a state needs to fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993).  That basically requires a secular, democratic government, rule of law and corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht's EU Treaty, each current member state and also the European Parliament have to agree to any enlargement.

Under current legislation the EU is limited to 27 members. Ratification of the new Constitution would have allowed for further expansion but French and Dutch citizens rejected the issue. To expand the EU further would have required ratification of the Constitiution by all members or other extensive legislation be adopted.

The Reading Chronicle - Mar.27,2007- Prime Minister Tony Blair called for Europe's constitutional crisis to be resolved as quickly as possible to give the Union a new set of rules for the future. But he warned that EU leaders could not simply brush aside the fact that Dutch and French voters delivered a resounding "no" to the original constitution plans nearly two years ago.

The EU has been rudderless ever since - but the celebration summit delivered a clear pledge to get the project back on track.

A new EU mission statement - the "Berlin Declaration" - proclaimed: "We are united in our aim of placing the EU on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009."

Without mentioning the constitution by name, the document amounts to a new timetable for agreeing sweeping reforms to streamline decision-making and renew creaking institutions unable to cope with an EU of 27 nations - compared with six at its launch on March 25, 1957. ...

|decision by referendum: no   |decision by referendum: yes   |referendum planned   |ratification by Parliament planned   |ratification by Parliament completed Note: Cyprus and Estonia already completed ratification

Ratified (2000) by all [then] 15 members of the European Union. The last country to ratify it was Ireland which had refused it the first time. This country accepted the Treaty during the second referendum the 19 october 2002 by 62.89%. The Treaty of Nice replaced the Treaty of Amsterdam: See details on Amsterdam Treaty.

This Treaty allowed the European Enlargement. On 9th October 2002, the Commission recommended to close negociations with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The objective was that the first group of new members would join the EU in time for the elections  to the European Parliament scheduled for June 2004 (find link above).