Surprising Europe

Surprising Europe

Housing Conditions

As the Eurasian primary destination for immigration, Europe finds itself swarmed with hordes of illegal

African migrants desperately searching for living conditions. Unfortunately, those people are often exploited not only in terms of work, but also when it comes to housing conditions. Sometimes they even end up in a worse situation than in their home countries, because after destroying their papers, to avoid deportation, they are no longer protected by any national law. This is best shown in the example of Paris, one of Europe’s biggest melting pots, where almost 90% of the African immigrants occupy unsafe buildings. It is common for up to three people to live in an apartment of no more than 10m², that is approximately the size of a below average bathroom, without radiator or access to hot water. Despite these

unsanitary circumstances the rents continue to increase. Apart from that, the majority of these buildings show incredible deficiencies in the construction. Such as, dilapidated structures missing fire extinguishers and the complete absence of smoke detectors or emergency exits. More than once such constructional defects resulted in devastating fires, causing numerous deaths. In order to combat these grievances various organizations have been founded, for instance the French “Malaika” company (means “angel” in Arabic). Regarding these developments the original objective of elevating one’s life standard is rarely achieved and the situation is even continuing to aggravate.

EU individual paragraph

Paragraph brainstorming

Original paragraph

Each year the European Union (EU) announces a new focus for the coming year. As it is very important to choose a serious topic to focus on, the EU carefully decides what would be the most worthwhile topic to concentrate on throughout the year. The Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE), which supports the well-being of families, proposed that 2014 should be the year to improve the quality of the lives of European citizens. After receiving several positive reactions from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the COAFCE started the campaign "European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life" for 2014. This topic is considered to be of growing importance, as inequality, social exclusion, and high levels of unemployment constitute the main issues nearly every family is facing today. The campaign will have four core themes, which aim to address and remedy these issues. All in all I consider the 2014 European Year to be truly useful because it not only plans on ensuring work family life balance and improving social integration, but also continues pursuing policy aim from the previous years.

[186 words]

Feedback summary 1

• Change the topic sentence (mention the focus in the topic sentence)
• Leave out or change second sentence

I decided to rewrite the whole paragraph because I did not like the first version after reading over it.

Second Paragraph

Each year the European Union (EU) announces a new focus and they designated 2014 to be the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. As there are several matters that need addressing, it is very important to choose a serious topic to concentrate on throughout the year. Inequality, social exclusion, and high levels of unemployment constitute the main issues nearly every family is facing today. Therefore, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) proposed that 2014 should be the year to improve the quality of the lives of European citizens. After receiving a number of positive reactions from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the COAFCE started the campaign for 2014. The campaign will have four core themes, which aim to address and remedy the above mentioned issues. Besides planning on ensuring work family life balance and improving social integration, the organizations also continues pursuing policy aims from the previous years. All in all the 2014 European Year is going to be truly useful as it provides a great opportunity to concentrate on work and family life balance policies at the same time.
[188 words] 

Feedback summary 2

• Leave out “and” in the topic sentence à rewrite it
• Several matters --> unclear
• Second sentence to general
• Second sentence: I found out that “need to be addressed” is used more frequently than “need addressing” (especially in academic texts).
• Rewrite the concluding sentence
• In my final paragraph I want to have the exact word count

Final paragraph

The European Union (EU) decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. Throughout the year they are going to focus on family life balance policies and work, as inequality, social exclusion, and high levels of unemployment constitute the main issues nearly every family is facing today. Therefore, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) proposed that 2014 should be the year to improve the quality of the lives of European citizens. After receiving a number of positive reactions from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the COAFCE started the campaign for 2014. The campaign will have four core themes, which aim to address and remedy the above mentioned issues. Besides planning on ensuring work family life balance and improving social integration, the organizations also continues pursuing policy aims from the previous years. All in all the 2014 European Year is going to be truly useful as it provides a great possibility to resolve the increasing conflict between family and work life with whom families all over Europe have to deal.

[180 words] 

Corrected final paragraph
The European Union (EU) decided (tense) to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. Throughout the year they are going (tense) to focus on family life balance policies and work, as inequality, social exclusion, and high levels of unemployment constitute the main issues nearly every family is facing today. Therefore (ref.?), the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) proposed that 2014 should be the year to improve the quality of the lives of European citizens. After receiving a number of positive reactions from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the COAFCE started the campaign for 2014. The campaign will have four core themes, which aim to address and remedy the above mentioned (punct.) issues. Besides planning on ensuring work family life balance (punct.) and improving social integration, the organizations also continues pursuing policy aims from the previous years. All in all the 2014 European Year is going to be truly useful as it provides a great possibility (MNN) to resolve the increasing conflict between family and work life with whom families all over Europe have to deal.

The European Union (EU) has decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life as a way to ensure the balance on family life and work. Today families face certain obstacles such as inequality, social exclusion, and high levels of unemployment. Therefore, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) proposed that 2014 should be the year to improve the quality of the lives of European citizens. After receiving positive feedback from the European Parliament and the European Commission, the COFACE started the campaign for 2014. The campaign will have four core themes, which aim to address and remedy the above-mentioned issues. Besides ensuring work/family life balance and improving social integration, the EU also continues pursuing policy aims from the previous years, such as to make people aware of the many ways they can take advantages of the EU. All in all the 2014 European Year is going to be truly useful as it provides a great opportunity to resolve the increasing conflict between family and work life with which families all over Europe have to deal. 

The European Union - Five related topics

1.) Environment within the EU (EAP)
A topic that, to my mind, is becoming increasingly important, is the EU related to the environment. Pollution is a serious issue worldwide, but why do we need environmental policy? I read a number of articles and have dealt with this subject a few times so it seems to be just the right topic for me. It would be challenging and exciting to find out how the EU deals with pollution and how they are connected to environment protection. What are they doing in order to protect our planet? Are they doing anything? Are there any programs/organizations to stand up against pollution? Are there any events arranged in behalf of the environment?
I would like to write about the environmental protection in the EU because this is a topic that has always been of great importance for me. It fascinates me how some people put all their effort in protecting our planet and their dedication truly touches me. I am thinking about much more that my academic paper will cover, but this is just a little foretaste. I am working on a draft for my work and I will try to focus on one specific topic I want to dwell on.

2.) The EU and Croatia
As I was thinking about some possible topics for my academic paper related to the EU, the first thought that crossed my mind was the newest and youngest member of the EU - Croatia. I was thinking about what could actually be interesting for me and due to the fact that my parents were born in Croatia and I am a Croatian citizen, it would pretty sure be the most interesting topic for me. It would be exciting to find out, what's the background behind Croatia becoming a member of the EU, as it is my home country. In this topic I am planning to analyze why it had become a member? What criteria have to be fulfilled in order to become a member state? Why did they want to become a member? Has something changed since then? If yes, what? If not, why? Are there going to be great changes? When will the "Kuna" be replaced by the "Euro"? Will they be able to adopt the Euro as its currency?

3.) Campaign for 2014
The focus on the coming year 2014 is the wealth of families and their work-life balace. The year is designated as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. The COFACE stand up for equality, aim to ensure work family life balance, improve social integration and address child and fimily poverty. These are all very interesting topics to be concerned with. In my academic paper I would like to present the aims of this organization, their current process and answer some important questions some might have on this campaign.

4.) Abortion law within the EU
The abortion law is regulated by law all over the world and is of great importance for woman. Since I have dealt with this topic over the summer (it was one of my KGP topics), I would really like to write my academic paper about it to acquire even more knowledge about this interesting topic. How is abortion regulated by law in the countries within the EU? Are they same in every country? Why is the abortion law so restrictive in Ireland, even though Ireland is in the EU?

5.) Jobs in the EU 
It is well known that it is not so easy to gain and keep a job in Brussels for instance. How "good" do you have to be, to be able to work for the EU? Even though I would like to start with EU jobs in general, in this topic I will especially refer to the translation jobs within the EU, as this will probably be my future job. Which languages are in high demand? How can someone get such a great job as a translator?

These are my five topics that I've chosen. I've come up with some ideas how to make a structure but I am still kinda undecided which topic is the most interesting and suitable for me. It is not easy to decide which topic I want to write about in my academic paper due to the fact that the EU is an environment that inspired me with a incredible amount of great ideas. Please let me know which topic you like the best! Thanks ;)