The European Union (EU) has an independent parliament and civil service which is distinct from those of the 27 member states. It has to pay for expenditure on common policies throughout the EU. Therefore, the EU has an agreed budget of €862 billion for the period 2007-2013. By comparison, the UK expenditure for 2004 alone was estimated at about €759 billion.
The EU has three elements to its government: the Council of Ministers, the European Commission and the European Parliament. All three take a part in setting the annual budget.
The EU obtains most of its revenue indirectly by payments from treasuries of member states. Revenue is divided into three categories.
Traditional own resources are taxes raised on behalf of the EU as a whole, principally import duties on goods brought into the EU. These are collected by the state where import occurs and passed on to the EU. States are allowed to keep a proportion of the revenue to cover administration.
VAT based own resources are taxes on EU citizens as a proportion of Value added tax in each member country. VAT rates and exemptions vary in different countries, so a formula is used to create the 'harmonised tax base'. The starting point for calculations is the total VAT raised in a country.
GNI based own resources currently forms the largest contribution to EU funding. A simple multiplier is applied to the calculated GNI for the country concerned. Revenue is currently capped at 1.24% of GNI for the EU as a whole.
The largest single expenditure item is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) at around 45% of the total budget. The second largest element is the regional policy, at 30%. Foreign policy consumes 8%, administration 6%, research 5%.
Wittingen
Wittingen is a small town in the north of the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has 12.268 inhabitants (2005). Wittingen is located at 52° 43′ N, 10° 44′ E and its postal codes are 29378 and 29379.
Around Wittingen, there are 26 villages:
Wittingen was first mentioned in a document of 781
Golden Gloves
The Golden Gloves is the name given to competitions held every year for amateur boxing in the United States. The Golden Gloves is often the term used to refer to the National Golden Gloves competition, but it can also mean a few other amateur tournaments, including regional golden gloves tournaments and other notable tournaments such as the Intercity Golden Gloves, the Chicago Golden Gloves, and the New York Golden Gloves.
The Golden Gloves are open to all non-professional boxers age 16 and over. There is also a Silver Gloves amateur tournament, which is for young amateur male boxers age 8 to 15 years old.
Sonny Liston
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (May 8, 1932 – December 30, 1970) was an American boxer. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1962 to 1964. He was a boxer who was disliked by much of the public because of his criminal history and rumored association with organized crime characters. Liston served prison sentences for armed robbery and assaulting a police officer. However, he was a skilled boxer and gained a shot at the heavyweight title held by Floyd Patterson. He knocked Patterson out in the first round to gain the title in 1962. He defeated Patterson by another first round knockout in their rematch in 1963.
He lost the championship to Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) when he quit in his corner before the start of the seventh round in their 1964 fight. He was then knocked out in the first round during their second fight, which happened in 1965.
Liston continued to box, but died from a drug overdose in 1970 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Buckwheat
Buckwheat (or common buckwheat) is a plant whose seeds may be used as a cereal. Buckwheat is not a true grass. It is not related to wheat, because wheat "is" a true grass, and buckwheat is not.
Buckwheat seeds look like small beech tree seeds. Both seeds have three sides. "Beech" is also called "buck", which is how buckwheat got its name.
Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Buckwheat is referred to as a "pseudocereal" because its seeds are used in cooking the same as cereals, because they have complex carbohydrates.
The cultivation of buckwheat grain declined sharply in the 20th century with the adoption of nitrogen fertilizer which increased the productivity of other staples.
Kinston Indians
The Kinston Indians were a Minor league baseball team in Kinston, North Carolina. The team played in the Carolina League from (1956–1957, 1962–1974 and 1978–2011). Professional baseball in Kinston started in 1908, and there have been many teams since then. 2007 was the twenty-first season the Kinston team had been known as the Indians. Before that they were known as the Eagles and the Blue Jays. The Indians, or K-Tribe as they were nicknamed, played their home games in Grainger Stadium. The Indians' mascot was a dog named Scout.
The Kinston Indians won their league championship in 1988, 1991, 1995, 2004 and 2006.
For the 2012 season the Indians moved to Zebulon, North Carolina to become the Carolina Mudcats. The team still plays in the Carolina League.
Columbia University
Columbia University (officially Columbia University in the City of New York) is a research university in the United States. It is an Ivy League university and often considered one of the best in the world. It is the fifth oldest college in the United States.
It was ranked 2nd best college in the United States by Times Higher Education in 2017. It was ranked 8th best university in the world by U.S. News & World Report.
The university was founded as "King's College" by royal charter from King George II of Great Britain. It was the first college in New York, and the fifth college in the Thirteen Colonies. A lot of the money that paid for the school came from slavery. After the American Revolution it was renamed "Columbia College" in 1784 and renamed once again to "Columbia University" in 1896 when it moved to its current location in Morningside Heights.
Ninety-Six Nobel Prize winners have been at Columbia, the second most in the United States after Harvard University. Five Founding Fathers attended Columbia: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Robert Livingston, Gouverneur Morris and Egbert Benson. Three U.S. Presidents have attended Columbia: Barack Obama, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. Ten Supreme Court Justices have attended Columbia including the most recent Associate Justice, Neil Gorsuch, and the first Chief Justice, John Jay. Other famous alumni include: Warren Buffett, Madeline Albright, and Lou Gehrig.
Columbia is home to the Pulitzer Prize for good work in journalism, literature and music. FM radio was created at Columbia. The school is where the foundation of modern genetics was discovered. Its Morningside Heights campus was the first North American site where the uranium atom was split.
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and College of Dental Medicine are in Washington Heights in Northern Manhattan.
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange, sometimes called the Grand Exchange was the exchange of goods and ideas from Europe, Africa, and Asia and goods and ideas from the Americas. It also spread different diseases. It started in 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in the West Indies (North America).