Tuesday 10 November 2009

Petition Of The Week

Over at petitions.number10.gov.uk:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop referring to the EU as "Europe".

The European Union (EU) is not Europe. Europe is a continent containing many countries, most of which are in the EU. The EU does not cover the whole continent, it does not represent the whole of the continent and the British Government's Europe Minister doesn't form policy on the whole continent of Europe.

The Prime Minister, the British government and the EU itself should stop claiming the whole continent for the EU. The EU should not be referred to as "Europe" and the Europe Minister should be called the EU Minister. Similarly, the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights should be known as the EU Court of Justice and the EU Court of Human Rights.

The Prime Minister should issue guidance on the use of the word "Europe", rename the Europe Minister to the EU Minister and petition the EU to name their institutions appropriately."


Via.

5 comments:

Paul Lockett said...

I tend to agree with all of that, except for the comment on the European Court of Human Rights, which isn't an EU body.

The ECHR has jurisdiction over all members of the Council of Europe, which includes non-EU states such as Norway, Switzerland and Russia. As the only recognised European state which isn't a member is Belarus, I don't think it's too unreasonable to refer to it as a European body.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Paul, well spotted! I'm happy to say I didn't draft it, else I'd be kicking myself.

John Page said...

Brown knows just what he's doing saying this, of course - just as there's no state spending, just investment in public services.

it's the old drip drip drip.

James Higham said...

Agreed - but one wouldn't expect him to appreciate the distinction.

Anonymous said...

Hmm!?

The USA is not America and America is not the USA. So the EU is not Europe and Europe is not the EU.

The odd paradox here is the difference in attitudes. The people bothered about conflating the 1st two terms in the US are left wing moonbats. In contrast, European moonbats see no problem whatsoever in conflating the latter two terms.