Yearbook 2017 Portugal. According to Countryaah.com, Portugal suffered several major forest fires during the year. In June, some 60 people died in a forest fire in the Pedrógão Grande in central parts of the country; most of the dead were caught by the flames as they sat in their cars on the road between Figueiro…
Category: Europe
WESTERN EUROPE
France comprises extensive flat to hilly lowlands, basins and plateaus, which are clearly delimited by the Atlantic and Mediterranean, by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Vosges. Only the Massif Central and the Cevennes in the south are mountains that reach greater heights.
Between the Vosges and the Massif Central, on the one hand, and the Jura and the Alps, on the other, lies a wide rift zone followed by the Saone and Rhone rivers. North of the Ardennes, in the area of the mouths of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, there is a broad transition zone to Central Europe.
Great Britain is characterized by the contrast between the flat, undulating step landscapes of south-east England and the Caledonian or Variscan low mountain range of the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands and the Cambrian Mountains. Ireland shows similar contrasts.
SOUTHWEST EUROPE
The south-western Mediterranean area is determined by the juxtaposition of high mountain landscapes and the Mediterranean Sea, including its islands.
The older mountains come from the Variscan phase (Massif Central, core of the Iberian Peninsula, highlands of the Schotts). The younger mountains of the Alpidic phase (Cordillera, Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, Er Rif, Atlas) are closely interlinked with them.? Between the European and North African mountains lies the Mediterranean, whose islands can be assigned to the Alpidic phase. Their z. Active volcanism (cf. Atlas 136.2) also indicates active tectonics, as does severe earthquakes. Large plains (Po), ditches (Rhone), valleys (Ebro) or wide-span basins lie between or embedded in the mountains(Castile). They are of particular importance for settlement and economy, the same applies to the more or less wide coastal fringes. For more information about the continent of Europe, please check neovideogames.com.
Poland 2017
Yearbook 2017 Poland. In January, Poland began the largest deployment of American troops in Europe since the Cold War. About 1,000 soldiers with tanks and heavy armored vehicles were welcomed at a ceremony in the city of Zagan. A total of 4,000 US soldiers were deployed in Poland and the Baltic during the year, which…
Norway 2017
Yearbook 2017 Norway. The consequences of the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s mass murder in Oslo and at Utøya in 2011 continued to plague Norway. The sentiments were strong against Breivik being right in court that his human rights were violated through isolation in prison. In March, however, the Court of Appeal overturned the district court’s…
Northern Macedonia 2017
Yearbook 2017 Northern Macedonia (until 2019 Macedonia). According to Countryaah.com, Macedonia has been without a functioning government since 2015, but in early June, Social Democratic leader Zoran Zaev succeeded in forming a government, on behalf of President Gjorge Ivanov. Zaev’s government is backed by 62 of Parliament’s 120 members. In 2015, an eavesdropping scandal had…
Netherlands 2017
Yearbook 2017 Netherlands. In the March elections, Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal Party VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) managed to stay in power, despite a 10-seat reduction in parliament. The party now received 33 seats, Geert Wilder’s right-wing populist PVV (Freedom Party) increased by 5 seats to 20, progressive D66 received 19 seats,…
Montenegro 2017
Yearbook 2017 Montenegro. According to Countryaah.com, Montenegro became NATO member at the end of March. The US Senate approved the accession agreement with the 97-2 votes. In April, President Donald Trump signed the agreement. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as country profile of Montenegro. During the year, further revelations…
Monaco 2017
Yearbook 2017 Monaco. According to Forex Bank’s Holiday Index, Monaco is one of the most expensive countries in the world to holiday in. And even more expensive to live in. It certainly seemed that the janitor of Saint Nicholas Cathedral was trying to wipe out her household cash by stealing from the poverty box, which…
Moldova 2017
Yearbook 2017 Moldova. The year was marked by a bitter political conflict between the country’s new Prorussian President Igor Dodon and the EU-friendly coalition government. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as country profile of Moldova. Dodon met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in January, saying he wants to…
Malta 2017
Yearbook 2017 Malta. One of Malta’s landmarks, a limestone arch known as the Azure Window, collapsed in March. The arch, located on the island of Gozo, was a popular tourist destination and has also been featured in the TV series “Game of Thrones” and in the movie “Clash of the Titans”. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used…
Luxembourg 2017
Yearbook 2017 Luxembourg. According to Countryaah.com, Luxembourg’s Minister of Infrastructure François Bausch announced in January that a legal process will be pursued against the Volkswagen car ticket following the so-called diesel street scandal in 2015, which revealed cheating with the cars’ diesel engines. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as…
Lithuania 2017
Yearbook 2017 Lithuania. During the year, around 1,000 NATO soldiers were stationed in Lithuania with the intention of increasing Lithuania’s defense in the shadow of the Russian military build-up in the region. NATO troops came from several countries, were under German command and were equipped with over 200 tanks. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and…
Liechtenstein 2017
Yearbook 2017 Liechtenstein. The informal network of women foreign ministers, led by Margot Wallström and Liechtenstein’s Aurelia Frick, in September presented its annual buffet dinner to Liechtenstein’s UN representation in New York. Among those attending were Australia’s Julie Bishop, Canada’s Chrystia Freeland, Colombia’s María Ángela Holguín, India’s Ruchi Ghanashyam and Kenya’s Amina Chawahur Mohamed. According…
Latvia 2017
Yearbook 2017 Latvia. According to Countryaah.com, Latvia’s population continued to decline at a worrying rate during the year. Birth rates for the first quarter of the year decreased significantly compared to the corresponding period the year before, and at the same time the death rates increased. The Ministry of Education statistics show that the number…
Kosovo 2017
Yearbook 2017 Kosovo. In June, Kosovo held a new election since the government in May cast a vote of no confidence in Parliament. The cooperation between the government’s largest parties, the center-right party PDK and conservative LDK, had long been strained. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as country profile…
Italy 2017
Yearbook 2017 Italy. The regional elections in Sicily in November aroused strong fears and expectations before the impending parliamentary elections in spring 2018. The result was a resounding victory for right-wing populists, and a stinging defeat for the ruling Socialist Democratic Party (PD). According to Countryaah.com, the election result led to the 81-year-old former Prime…
Ireland 2017
Yearbook 2017 Ireland. According to Countryaah.com, Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced in March his departure as party leader for the Christian Democratic Party Fine Gael after 15 years in the post. He was replaced in early June by 38-year-old Leo Varadkar, who shortly thereafter also became the country’s head of government. Varadkar is the son…
Iceland 2017
Yearbook 2017 Iceland. In January, Iceland gained a new government, more than two months after the parliamentary elections. Bjarni Benediktsson, leader of the Conservative Independence Party, became prime minister of a coalition with the two small liberal parties the Reform Party and the bright future. The government had the smallest possible majority in the parliament,…
Hungary 2017
Yearbook 2017 Hungary. The refugee issue also dominated Hungarian policy in 2017. The government refused to accept asylum seekers under the EU’s mandatory quota system for redistributing refugees among the member states. At the beginning of the year, the government also decided to put asylum seekers and migrants in camp at the border, a method…
Greece 2017
Yearbook 2017 Greece. According to Countryaah.com, Greece’s strained economy recovered during the year. But at the beginning of the year it looked bad; In a new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU’s view of the Greek economy was based on “significantly more optimistic assumptions” than those presented by the IMF: in 2060,…
Germany 2017
Yearbook 2017 Germany. According to Countryaah.com, Angela Merkel had a tough year. Only by a slight margin did it look as if the Chancellor could form a government after the September elections. Long into December, the government negotiations were ongoing. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party CDU/CSU declined sharply but still became the largest party with 33.0%…
France 2017
Yearbook 2017 France. This spring’s presidential election was held in France for the first half of the year. In the Socialist primary elections on January 22, former Housing Minister Benôit Hamon won 35% of the vote, against former Prime Minister Manuel Valls who got 31%. Both thus went on to the second round on January…
Finland 2017
Yearbook 2017 Finland. According to Countryaah.com, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä was indicted at the beginning of the year for a conflict of interest since he led a business delegation during an official visit to India, including a company owned by his children. In addition, it was reported that the company in question was rescued from…
Faroe Islands 2017
Faroe Islands. At the beginning of the year, the self-government government decided that a referendum on a proposal for a new constitution would be held in April 2018. The Faroese would then have to say yes or no to increased self-determination, where the Danish government cannot prevent the islanders from deciding whether to leave the…
Estonia 2017
Yearbook 2017 Estonia. In the shadow of the increased tension between the Russian Federation and NATO, about 1,000 British, French and Danish NATO soldiers were deployed in Estonia in the spring. They were stationed 15 miles from the Russian border at the military base Tapa, which used to be a Soviet air base. The NATO…
Denmark 2017
Yearbook 2017 Denmark. Also in 2017, the political debate was largely about immigration and refugees. The Social Democrats (S) approached the bourgeois government’s support party of the Danish People’s Party (DF) in both the immigration issue and tax and distribution policy, and it was speculated in future government cooperation between the two. S and DF…
Czech Republic 2017
Yearbook 2017 Czech Republic. The year was marked by political conflict surrounding Finance Minister Andrej Babiš and his private affairs. The fight went straight through the government, where Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka accused Babiš of tax fraud. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as country profile of Czech Republic. According…
Cyprus 2017
Yearbook 2017 Cyprus. Negotiations in Geneva on the reunification of Cyprus continued between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akıncı. According to Countryaah.com, UN chief Ant車nio Guterres said in January that there was hope for the future. However, a major stumbling block was the 30,000 Turkish soldiers on the island. These Anastasiades…
Croatia 2017
Yearbook 2017 Croatia. During the refugee crisis of 2015-16, Croatia became one of several transit countries for migrants en route to the EU. When both Hungary and Slovenia closed their borders against Croatia by building barbed wire fences, many migrants risked getting stuck in the country. Croatia also faced major problems in guarding the 32…
Bulgaria 2017
Yearbook 2017 Bulgaria. In March, Bulgaria went to parliamentary elections. According to Countryaah.com, victory made the center-right party GERB with about 33% of the vote. The Socialist Party (BSP) got about 28%. GERB’s party leader Boiko Borisov was able to form government again. He was previously prime minister in 2009-13 and 2014-16. In connection with…
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2017
Yearbook 2017 Bosnia and Herzegovina. The six Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), not yet members of the EU, met in May at a summit in Brussels. However, only Montenegro and Serbia are currently holding formal EU negotiations. According to EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, it is of great…
Belgium 2017
Yearbook 2017 Belgium. According to Countryaah.com, terrorism has characterized Belgium for much of the year. During the winter several anti-terrorism trees were carried out with house searches. In early February, at the request of the Belgian police, the Malmö Police conducted a house search of relatives of 24-year-old Osama Krayem, who is suspected of involvement…
Belarus 2017
Yearbook 2017 Belarus. In January, the regime decided to abolish the visa requirement for Belarus for 80 nationals, including all EU countries and the United States. The freedom of visa is valid for five days for tourists and business people, but not for official travel. Since Belarus and the Russian Federation abolished checks at their…
Austria 2017
Yearbook 2017 Austria. During the year, Austria got Europe’s youngest head of government in 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, when his People’s Party (ÖVP) won the new election in October. The conservative and Christian democratic ÖVP received 31.6% of the vote, the Social Democratic SPÖ 26.9% and the right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) 26%. According to Countryaah.com,…
Andorra 2017
Yearbook 2017 Andorra. The world’s best health care is in Andorra, according to the long-term study Global Burden of Disease, which measures the state of health in the world and asks how big the risk is of dying from 32 selected diseases. Sweden is in fourth place. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related…
Albania 2017
Yearbook 2017 Albania. At the June parliamentary elections, the ruling Socialist Party and Prime Minister Edi Rama got their own majority. With 46% of the vote, the party got 74 out of the 140 seats in Parliament. The Democratic Party, which is the largest opposition party, received 29% of the vote and 43 seats. One…
Aland 2017
Yearbook 2017 Aland. There was political controversy during the year about the provincial government’s proposal for municipal reform, with 16 municipalities to become five. Of Åland’s nearly 29,000 residents, just over a third live in Mariehamn and the rest in smaller municipalities, where Sottunga is the smallest with just under 100 residents. The largest opposition…
Languages in Europe
According to Countryaah, Europe is bordered to the north by the Arctic Glacial Ocean, to the east with the Ural Mountains. The majority of Europe’s people speak languages belonging to the Indo-European language family, which are represented by a number of different language branches. The eastern group of Indo-European languages, the satem group, includes Albanian,…
Landmarks of Paris, France
The top platforms of the Eiffel Tower or the dome of the Eiffel Tower are among the best-known and best viewpoints in the city of Paris Sacré-Cœur. Impressive impressions can also be gained from the 56th floor of the Tour Montparnasse. Not quite as high, but no less interesting for that reason, are the views…
United Kingdom Population
The majority of the population are English, as well as Welsh, Scots and Irish. At 9.23% (2017), the proportion of foreigners is well above the average for the EU (7.55%). Most of the immigrants come from the former British colonies, the EU countries and China. – English is spoken throughout the kingdom. Welsh is spoken…
Sierra Nevada and Costa Verde, Spain
Sierra Nevada in Spain Sierra Nevada means on German“Snow-capped mountains”. This has a maximum height of 3,482 meters, making it the highest mountain range in Spain. The Sierra Nevada from November to May with snow covered. The Sierra Nevada lies in the Spanish Provinces of Granada and Almeria. These belong to the autonomous community of…