In 2012 output was 1.76 million pages. Of this 76% was done in-house and the rest was done by contractors (translation companies and freelance translators. A page is 1 500 typed characters not including spaces.

DG Translation's workload is steadily rising, because of the constant expansion in the Commission's areas of activity and since more official EU languages have been added. With Croatia the EU will count 24 languages.

The cost of translation is estimated at € 300 million a year or some € 0.60 for every citizen.

Politicians have asserted for years that the EU's acquis communautaire- the body of EU legislation which European companies, charities and individuals have to comply with is roughly 80,000 pages long. However, if you total up pages in the many volumes of the EU's Official Journal of legislation, you will find that the EU has passed a staggering 666,879 pages of law since its inception in 1957. If you research the EU's legislative database Eur-lex, you will find that 26% of all EU regulations passed since 1957 are still active.

Consultation has been described as 'a second order of citizen engagement' that aims to include the interests of the addressees of policies and/or for the general public in the decision-making process. However, the decision-making process remains in the hands of politicians. The traditional green and white paper mechanisms, exposure drafts of legislation, focus groups and surveys are familiar ways of gathering citizens' views about particular initiatives. On legislative or policy matters affecting citizens at large, plebiscites may also be used.

We're now the ASSOCIATION OF ACCREDITED PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCATES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION but keeping the acronym and logo 'AALEP' in order to maintain the brand name continuity because it has gained worldwide recognition over the years.

At current best practice, the public affairs function combines both sophisticated communications and influencing strategies and processes (internal and external) with analysis and management of the external social and political issues that affect a business. By doing so, it contributes at a high level to the achievement of a company’s business imperatives.

The Travel & Tourism Competiveness Report produced by the World Economic Forum assesses 140 economies worldwide based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sectors. Switzerland tops the list. For 2013, only 6 EU countries make it among the top 10 (Germany, Austria, Spain, UK, France and Sweden). Here below is the ranking for EU 28

Day after day, senior economists continue inveighing against austerity strategies. But none of these people seem capable of explaining in plain, simple language why imposing austerity is utterly foolhardy and in fact just plain stupid.

According to the data compiled by the National Statistics Institute, the last quarter of 2012 closed with 5,965,400 unemployed, representing 26.02% of the labour force. 1 out of every four Spaniards of working age is now unemployed.

According to the latest data from the Labour Force Survey, the number of households in Spain with all its members unemployed reached 1,833,700 in 2012

Unemployment rate under the age of 25 now stands at a staggering 60%

Spain’s overall unemployment rate is more than double the EU average

The President of the Front National (FN) Marine Le Pen has made a formal request to French President François Hollande to organize a referendum in January 2014 for the exit of France from the European Union.

The four reforms wanted by the FN are the following :

1 –an organised return to the national currencies;

2 –the dissolution of the Schengen space allowing free circulation within 22 of the 27 member states;

As expressed by Ms. Vivian Reding, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, the proposal would be as follows:

1. Prior to the European elections in 2014, European leaders would agree that the next Commission President, once elected by the European Parliament would also become the President of the European Council, to ensure a stronger European political leadership.

2. The new President would convene a convention to elaborate a Treaty on European Political Union (EPU).