Eurolinks’s Weblog

The European Commission

Presentation

The European Commission is, with the European Parliament and the European Union Council, one of three main institutions of the European Union. The building on the photo is the Berlaymont, the seat of the European Commission, located in Brussels.

Role

The Commission acts independently from the members states , but has to report any case to the European Parliament which can censor it. Its mandate is of five years.

The Commission has three principal roles:

* To safe guard the treaties
* To make suggestions
* To carry out instructions

Composition

The Commission includes 20 police commissioners, appointed for 5 years. Approximately 25 000 persons work for it. Its current president is the Portuguese José Manuel Barroso since November 22nd, 2004.

The European Union Council

Presentation

At least twice a year the heads of state or the heads of government of twenty seven member states of the European Union and the president of the European Commission gathers the European Council.

The building on the right is the seat of the European Union Council, it’s Justus Lipsius and it’s located in Brussels.

Composition

The council has a President and a General Secretary. The presidency of the council is exercised during six months by every Member state, by rotation.

The composition of the council varies depending on the subjects dealt with, for example:

* General business and external relations
* Environment
* Transport, telecommunications and energy…

Role

The council decides, along with the Parliament in certain cases, on the proposition of the Commission. The Presidency of the council is alternately entrusted to every Member state during 6 months.

To cook you need (for 6 people from 20 to 25 pancakes) :

o 500 grammes of flour
o 1 litre of milk
o 6 eggs
o 2 pinches of salt

Instruction:

1. In a big bour, mix the flour with milk into smooth batter mixture
2. Add the eggs as if it were an omelet and salt
3. Allow to settle from 1 to 2 hours
4. About the cooking, it’s 30 seconds side
5. Then, you can savour your pancakes with sugar, nutella and lots ofreceipe. If you want some ideas of receipes, we can tell you some ones of them.

Exchange with Culford.

Culford school is situated from 15 minutes from Cambridge by car, in England? The school welcomes pupils from 6 to 18 years. It is composed of many buildings. The main one is situated at the antrance all. Inside, there are some classrooms a library, a theater and some studyrooms.
There is alse a sport building. Here you can practise swimming, handbaal, football, basketball, tennis, dancing… All the other buildings are fot classromms except two wich are the dormitories.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/Culford_School_L.jpg/350px-Culford_School_L.jpg
Culford

One of them is especially for the boys from 15 to 18, and there is a lot of things to do.
We went to Culford School from the 3rd March to the 11th March 2007. The pupils of JEAN XXIII who were at the bording school were Tracy, Jade, Marie, Lisa, Xavier and Pauline.
During the week we visited Mr Tussaud’s museum, Cambridge, London and Bury St Edmond.

http://www.bugbog.com/images/galleries/england_pictures/england-cambridge.jpg
Cambridge

Goethe Institut

Goethe Institut is an organisation to promote the German language and Culture. It is financed by Germany, and it costs 278 Millions €. The institut has 3300 employees for 144 institutes. This organisation used to be called Deutsche Akademie, it was in 1925. Goethe is the name of a German poet and writer.
Goethe Institute is the only thing who can give the certificate of German language. There are 13 Certificates.
In our school, we can take fit 1 und 2. We have already pass Fit 1, and now we can take Fit 2. There are 18 who want to pass Fit 2 in our school. There isn’t a Goethe Institut in Metz, and they must go to Nancy.
The fit 2 is composed of 4 thing: oral comprehension; writer comprehension; speaking in German; writing a text.
It isn’t very difficult.

European Classes

The English and Spanish European classes are used for the motivated pupils to improve the selected language, to discover new civilization, new countries and to express themselves better.

Our English European class contains 35 pupils. There is a good atmosphere but sometimes it is too noisy as there is too much chattering… We do group work and all is well: work is shared. We have a great solidarity.

Last year, we went to Culford where it was really fantastic, where we could improve our spoken English… We discovered a new country with beautiful landscapes.

In the Spanish European class, the pupils are 27. There is a good atmosphere even if some group were formed.

They already went twice to Spain and their trip was super with some exceptions.

To finish, the European classes have a good school level.

KET : Votre navigateur ne gère peut-être pas l’affichage de cette image.

The Ket is an exam from the University of Cambridge representing a general basic ability in English. Pupils who take the Ket are tested on spoken English for 10 minutes, Reading and Writing 1h10 and Listening for 30 minutes. It costs 63 euros to take the Ket consequently it’s not compulsory. Pupils from different classes can try to get it. This year it will take place at our school. Finally, if you pass it, the indications are: pass or pass with merit.

The Ket is a great experience to assess your skills on English.

European mention on the Bac :

When we take the high school diploma and pass it we get the “European” Distinction provided. You get 12/20 or more for the language’ test and 10/20 or more on the spoken test. You must be in a European’ class during your secondary school’ years to get this distinction. You must comment on a history document in the language you have chose during the Bac.

You can be assessed in English, Spanish, German or Italian.

It’s an opening on the world and an advantage to be able to speak fluently in other countries.

Raffle tickets:

Every year in our school there’s a tradition: the raffle tickets. Usually it’s when the open door day of the school approach. Our principal teacher gives us one tickets book by pupils and we are supposed to sell them in our village or city to our neighbours, family, friends etc. one ticket costs one euro. The draw lot takes place during the open door day and the peoples who have bought tickets can win a great prize or a consolation prize.

Sport:

At the open day 3 sports were presented at the school. The archery, the climbing and the table tennis.

Archery: it took place at the back of college.

It was teached by Aurélie Chazeaud: she’s a champion of France (of the 13-14 years old).

The game was free; you could shoot 3 arrows with Aurélie’s help.

The targets were 10 meters away.

Climbing: it took place at the artificial wall of the school. There were different levels of difficulty starting from the easiest (left of the wall) to arrive to the hardiest (right of the wall).

You could climb in a total security because of the help of the other students.

The wall is 8 meters high and you could have a great pleasure climbing it.

Table tennis: it was set in the gymnasium. The handicapped Champion: Maxime Thomas was here. He was playing against the students strangely, nobody wined.

• First, you bake the pancake ;

• After that, you put sugar on it.

• You add on the pancake some alcohol ( you can choose the alcohol, it’s just to blaze the pancake )

• Finally, you light a match and set fire to the pancake :

• And you give it to your parents to eat. ( alcohol…)

We have chosen this restaurant because we think that it’s the best in Metz.

The Menu in French…

Menu Epicurien 49 €

Sushi de thon rouge aux pousses de soja, coriandre et gingembre frais, quelques quartiers de pamplemousse rose
…

Dos de sandre doré, rizotto à l’essence de truffes et son émulsion
…

Pièce d’agneau en croûte d’herbes servie avec un caviar d’aubergines
…

Nage de clémentine aux épices, glace vanille

The Menu in English…

Menu Epicurien 49 €

Red Tuna sushi with Soja sprouts, fresh coriander and ginger, some sections of pink grapefruit

…

Roasted zander’s back, rice with truffels’ essence

…

Piece of Lamb served in a herb crust with aubergine caviar

…

Clementine with spices, Vanilla ice-cream

The Restaurant…

By : Delaitre Marie, Didier Callisto, Casciola Elodie, Poinsignon Claire-Emmanuelle, Gruszewski Marion.