[ETO] Council of Leaders Session

[Dutchy]

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Office of the President of the European Treaty Organisation & European Parliament
Private & Encrypted​

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To: Leif Holt, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway; Jericho Bourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireleand
Cc:
Subject: Council of Leaders

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you today to call you to a Council of Leader Summit where I hope to discuss the future of the European Treaty Organisation. The summit will begin once all delegations have arrived, please arrive at your earliest convineince. Security will be provided for by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and escorts have been arranged. For any further inquiries please contact me directly.

Yours Sincerely,
T.VREESWIJK
Thomas van Vreeswijk
President
European Treaty Organisation

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@Jamie, @Odinson​

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[Jamie]

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Office of the Prime Minister​

​

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To:	Thomas van Vreeswijk
Cc:
Subject	RE: Council of Leaders
Security Level:	Private / Encrypted

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Dear Thomas van Vreeswijk,

Thank you for contacting me and for your invitation. I am happy to confirm my attendence in the Council and will arrange for transport immediately.

Kind Regards,
JBourne
Jericho Bourne
Office of the Prime Minister

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?officepm@gov.co.uk​

☎️020 7219 5206​

✉️Rt Hon Jericho Bourne MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA​

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From the UK, Jericho Bourne arranged immediate transportation on a British Army Defender to the Netherlands. Compiled with 5 members of 1 Regiment, RMP, to provide security. It wasn't a long flight, but they'd abide all air traffic control routes and arrive at the closest airport to attend the Council Meeting.

 

[Odinson]

KINGDOM OF NORWAY
OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
​

SUBJECT: Re: Council of Leaders
RECIPIENT: Thomas van Vreeswijk, President of The European Treaty Organization
SECURITY: ENCRYPTED

President Van Vreeswijk,

The King-in-Council has chosen me to attend this Council of Leaders. I look forward to seeing you and making some progress.

Best Regards,

Leif Holt
Prime Minister of Norway

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The Prime Minister departed from Oslo International Airport in a full-fueled, staffed, and stocked aircraft along with a security team of 5 Special Agents from Kripos who were armed with loaded Glock P80 pistols, along with two additional clips. The agents accompanied the Prime Minister throughout his visit to The Netherlands.

 

[Dutchy]

Dutch Air Traffic Control would guide the planes through Dutch airspace to Rotterdam The Hague Airport where both delegations would be greeted by the 1 BSB Peleton from the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. Any security personnel carrying weapons would have them registered before they would be allowed to continue. An escort comprised of 10 Mercedes Benz G-class vehicles would be provided to bring them to the European Treaty Organisation Headquarters.

Upon arrive civil servants would guide them to a conference room where both Prime Minister Jack Wald and President Thomas van Vreeswijk were already seated. Both would stand to greet the newly arrived leaders before returning to their seats ready for the session to begin. The conference room would be made private to ensure the confidentiality of the session.

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President Thomas van Vreeswijk would rise and speak to the world leaders seated in front of him, "Gentlemen, I thank you all for arriving so swiftly. I have called you here today to discuss the future of the European Treaty Organisation. It has been a few years since I took upon myself the task of realising a dream between two nations. A dream of friendship, cooperation and brotherhood. A dream of like-minded people who seek to evolve, to learn and to advance. I was selected to realise a dream of a Europe united for peace, stability and prosperity.

The European Treaty Organisation was to be the realisation of that dream, an organisation to promote European values, to maintain peace and to ensure economic prosperity. However, during my term I have discovered this organisation lacked the solid foundation it required to make these aims a reality. The ETO is slow and inefficient, quiet and unknown. Some of this can be attributed to my absence from the international stage, however I can assure you this was all for good reason.

This organisation has given me so much passion to work towards a brighter future for all Europeans, that over the last year my staff and myself have been working on an evolution. An evolution which I would like to present to you today, the Treaty of the European Federation.

With this treaty I seek to evolve the European Treaty Organisation into a brand new entity. An union built from the ground up for efficiency, increased cooperation and participation, the protection of human rights and a stronger voice for Europe."

Aides would begin handing out drafts of the Federation Treaty to the elected leaders of Great Britain, Norway and the Netherlands.

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@Odinson, @Jamie​

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[Odinson]

A small bead of sweat appeared on the side of Dr. Holt's head. The worst fears of the most conservative faction of his Conservative Party were now being realized. Quietly, in the back of his mind, he had hoped that the European Treaty Organization would maintain its level of inefficiency so that the different factions in his own party wouldn't have anything to complain about. A series of political compromises were made between the different parties of the government coalition, and one of them was the government's continued support for the ETO. This would definitely create new headaches for him, But this is my job, afterall he thought to himself. Dr. Holt himself was originally very reluctant about joining the ETO, but the King's sway and popularity made it something he couldn't avoid. In the end, the friendship it has helped build with the British and Dutch so far has been invaluable. As a conservative, he was reluctant to change, but in this case it had proved to be fruitful. Despite that, though, Holt hated the idea of surrendering any more of Norway's national powers or responsibilities to other countries.

"What a great proposal," the Prime Minister said after reviewing the treaty for some time. He looked to his British and Dutch colleagues to gage their reactions.

@Dutchy
@Jamie

 

[Jamie]

The British Army Defender had successfully landed, having abode the rules surrounding Air Traffic Control and obeying the requirements set out by Dutch Controllers to get to the correct location. Upon landing, Jericho exited the craft and into the escort that waited to take him to the headquarters of the European Treaty Organisation; arriving safely and taking a seat. He retained his silence whilst the introduction speech was made and a proposal pitched. Slowly reading through the treaty. Reading through the proposal of a 'European Federation' was enough to give the British Prime Minister concerns over handing control over to individuals outside of his own government as 'risky' and a different mandate to what ETO is about, nonetheless, he kept silent about these concerns to begin with and spoke when given the chance.

"I'd like to thank my Dutch counterparts for hosting this council session, and welcome the Norwegian delegation to the chamber. I think we are all in agreement with the concept of a continent working together, from participating in trade and a mutual understanding on the political front to been able to live and co-exist together. The friendship between the UK and Netherlands is a progressive one, from the Dutch Civil War to ISAF, and of course, ETO. Relations with Norway continue to improve and we are all here on the same page.

Reviewing the treaty for the European Federation, I can see the benefits in efficiency. My concerns, however, lay on the difference between that federation and what ETO was originally created for which is seemingly a different mandate; essentially a different organisation to what was expected and could even be considered a 'rapid expansion' given the amount of changes this would include. If this treaty is to be a serious contender for British involvement, it is something I would need to take to my parliament to decide on."

@Odinson
@Dutchy

 

[Dutchy]

Prime Minister Jack Wald would take his chance to voice his opinion, "Good day my friends, I would like to thank you all for arriving here so quickly. While I too share the concerns of handing over certain control to a European Parliament, I do believe that the benefits outweigh the costs. The promotion of economic cooperation, specifically with the required freedom of movement for goods, capital and people requires closer political cooperation."

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President van Vreeswijk would respond to each of the leaders, "Gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for you responses. Before I proceed I would like to make something clear, we will not be singing the treaty today. I called this session in order to bring the topic too the table and to ensure that all your concerns can be addressed."

"Now, the ETO is an economic alliance between our nations, this is something I seek to continue with the formation of the European Economic Area, that treaty which still requires a lot of work will dictate the freedom of movement, the common economic policy and all information in regards to our economic cooperation. Furthermore I will seek to create a European Free Trade Area with the use of a new trade agreement format."

"So to recap, this new organisation will be split into three levels, the first being the core of political cooperation, the Federation. Below that will be the economic alliance, currently an tied part of the Federation, however could in the future be split off to allow membership without political cooperation, however I will lobby against the idea. Lastly the European Free Trade Area will lower all tariffs between members, however there will be no freedom of movement or common policies, therefore requiring no membership to the Federation and the attached political cooperation."

A draft copy of the EEA Treaty would be handed out

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@Jamie & @Odinson​

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[Odinson]

"I will need to bring this before the Storting," Dr. Holt said in agreement with his British counterpart. "The fact that there will be no freedom of movement for the Free Trade Area will be helpful when I'm presenting this to the rest of my party..."

"Mister President, I understand that you and your team have probably worked very hard on this, and I think all of us here can appreciate that. There are some questions I have, though I don't want you to feel like I'm giving you the third-degree..

"First, I've only been able to skim through so far," he said as he continued to turn pages, "but I'm not seeing much on limiting the powers of the European Parliament. We've noticed a number of states leaving the General Assembly lately, and what I've heard through the grapevine is that several governments felt that the GA has almost unlimited power and authority when writing international law. While my government and Norway as a whole would be willing to accept political defeats, we wouldn't be willing to accept laws or regulations that compromise our way of life. I'm wondering if you think it would be possible to either add in a section that clearly puts some limits on the Federation as a whole, and maybe also possibly outlines the rights of the member-nations as sovereign entities? An African friend of mine once told me, 'When you're making a government, you have to design it so that the worst people you know can run it and it will still function.' I understand that Section 1 outlines the core values, mission, and the value placed on democratic ideals, but I think we may need to have a more stern statement than that, perhaps?

"Secondly, in Article 7 Section 2, it states that each member nation will have a judge on the court. While I know this isn't a problem at the moment, could our court function if we had ten or so members?"

"Thirdly, part 1 of Article 9 states: 'The electorate shall consist of all individuals, citizen of a member state of the European Federation, above the age of 18.' This wording is a bit... unspecific to me. Does this mean that to vote at the time of an election, a person has to at least be 18 years and 1 day old? Or is it saying that they must at least be 19 years of age to vote?"

"Fourth, I noticed under Article 10 that there is a tentative list of nations that could possibly join the Federation. I may be mistaken, but I don't see that at the moment... Could you please provide me with that, if it's been decided yet?"

"Fifth... I do like the name for Article 11," he said, a bit touched that his country's capital-city had an article named after it. "But I think there are three things I would like to see added to it: One, that citizens have a right to peacefully assemble. Second, that the people must have 'freedom of religion'. I word this carefully, because Christianity is the official religion of my country, since the Lutheran Church of Norway is the state church... but, of course, anyone may choose to practice any religion, or lack thereof, that they so choose.. And thirdly, if I may be so bold, I would say that said nation 'does not exercise capital punishment except in cases of treason...' I'm not sure what the rest of you think of adding those three points? I personally feel quite strongly about them."


"There may be more... but that's all I see at first glance. I say again, Mister President, you and your team did a very good job writing this document. I hope I haven't been too bold, but I thought it may be better to discuss this now than have the Storting force me to bring up some of these things later.."

Dr. Holt set down his copy of the treaty, but then looked up, "By the way, while on the topic of the treaty... Since this is only a rough draft.. Once we have a final draft that is ready to sign, the Kingdom of Norway will be happy to personally pay to have three copies hand-written in calligraphy in each of our native languages so that we may display them, as the original documents, in our capitals.. We ought to have something as founding members, after all."

The Prime Minister was done talking now, he felt he had said enough. Hopefully he hadn't annoyed President van Vreeswijk.

 

[Odinson]

@Dutchy
@Jamie

 

[Jamie]

The British Prime Minister was about to speak before his Norwegian Counterpart proceeded to explain their concerns, the same that the British had but potentially explained better than Jericho Bourne could've pitched it.
He remained sat down, allowing the Dutch Delegates to respond to the points as they were the main issues he had with the proposal. Confirming that the Dutch has the floor.

@Dutchy
@Odinson

 

[Dutchy]

The Dutch Prime Minister would remain silent to allow the President to swiftly respond to the concerns of his counterparts.

President van Vreeswijk would take a sip of water to clear his throat before addressing the Heads of Government, "I would like to thank Mr Holt for offering us such a detailed response. I want to make clear before we proceed that this session is to work on a proper draft for the necessary Federation documents. I am not seeking to rush this process and I do not seek ratification of these documents at this time. I encourage you all, that once we have come to an agreement in regards to what the Federation should and shouldn't be, to bring it to the Parliament and if you wish to the people."

"I will have my staff begin working on documentation to limit the powers of all European Institutions in accordance to you wishes, I'll ensure it is sent to your respective offices once it is ready to be reviewed."

"The European Court of Peace & Justice will act similarly to the International Court of Justice. It will be there to resolve disputes between member states, member states and European Institutions and of course ensure that European law is upheld. While I cannot answer your question at the moment, I do believe that every member state should be seated within the court. With Norwegian experience in heading the ICJ, your nation might be interested in writing guidelines for judicial procedure in order to allow the court to function with such a high number of justices."

"I have amended Article 9 Section 1 in order to be more clear to whom is allowed to vote. Any citizen of a member state aged 18 or over (18>) will be allowed to vote in European Elections."

"Article 10 refers to a draft resolution which will be put forward to the European Parliament, it will be a document that can be amended in the future to add or remove nations from the list." Aides would walk through the room handing out the draft of the European Resolution for Eligible Nations

"In regards to your wishes to Article 11, Human Rights will be guaranteed by the European Resolution on Human Rights." Aides would once again walk around handing out draft copies of the European Resolution on Human Rights.

"I would also like to thank you for your offer in regards to financing the calligraphy of this founding document, I am sure that on behalf of all of us here I can graciously accept your offer."

@Jamie
@Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"I would argue that Turkey shouldn't be in the Eligible Nations resolution, seeing as 95% of the country is in Asia, and it's more identified as a Middle Eastern nation than a European one," Dr. Holt said. He glanced over the European Resolution on Human Rights and payed special attention to the parts on the death penalty. In Norway, at the moment, the death penalty was only authorized in cases of treason and high treason - while an argument could be made either way, he figured Norway could justify taking this course in the future if necessary. He wasn't an attorney but he figured it could be justified within the confines of the resolution.

"I look forward to having them made.. I feel like I've done enough talking. What do the rest of you think?" Holt said finishing his comments.

@Dutchy
@Jamie

 

[Jamie]

The British Delegate waited for an apt opportunity before stepping up to speak:

"Regarding Federation Membership, whilst I understand my Norwegian Counterparts concerns regarding their eligibility, I do think having them stay as a country that is eligible would be justified. Whilst they are recognised as both in Europe and Asia, even if more so Asia.. they're still a member of Europe too. I do think it'd be fair to ensure that they are eligible and to be able to join the federation if they wish. Whilst we're discussing membership, the Federation Treaty highlights the Membership Action Plan can be approved by a 2/3 Majority. This is something I disagree with, I think it should require a full house of approval. If one country has an issue with another, and it gets through simply on 2/3 majority, it could cause a fundamental break down of cooperation and raise issues within the future."

There was a short pause whilst the European Resolution on Human Rights was reviewed:

"The Human Rights aspect, are something we're most happy with. It's somewhat existing with the Global Assembly but to have it in a more refined version for European Countries is definitely a plus."

@Dutchy
@Odinson

 

[Dutchy]

Jack Wald would use the opportunity to respond, "I agree with the statement made by Mr Bourne that an unanimous vote in favour must be required when it comes to approving both the Membership Action Plan and the final commitment on ascension to the Federation. All members must be able to fully cooperate on a range of issues and any conflict between nations could be damaging to the Federation.

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"While I am looking to avoid the use of a unanimous vote in most situations as I do not wish to see the ability to govern the organisation being impeded by veto's. However, on the topic of membership I stand behind your arguments and will make the changes," van Vreeswijk would say as he scribbled down a note. "I have also offered your staff access to the draft Resolution on Sovereignty where we can cooperate on ensuring that the Federation and its Member States can work together productively." He would be primarily looking to the Norwegian Prime Minister in regards to his assistance on this resolution.

@Odinson
@Jamie

 

[Odinson]

"A unanimous vote for membership would be something I would support as well. Good idea, Prime Minister. I'm sure my staff will get to work on helping with the Resolution on Sovereignty immediately," Dr. Holt said.

@Dutchy
@Jamie

 

[Jamie]

Jericho patiently listened for the responses given by the Dutch, acknowledging the approval shortly after by his Norwegian Counterparts. "In the meantime, once we have the section about Sovereignty part of the treaty, I will be able to bring it to my Cabinet to discuss for their thoughts and feedback prior to the House of Commons who would be the deciding factor as to Britain's involvement. Whilst it's something I can support, there's always the risk of the democratic process taking that the opposite way. Nonetheless, I'd do what I can to ensure that didn't happen."

@Odinson
@Dutchy

 

[Dutchy]

van Vreeswijk responded, "now that I have introduced the treaty, I would like to suggest that we conclude this meeting in order to allow our staff teams to work together on finalising the details. Unless there are any important topics that I have forgotten and you would like to discuss."

@Odinson
@Jamie

 

[Odinson]

Dr. Holt shook his head, "I don't think there's anything for me to bring up. I'm happy we were able to have this discussion," Dr. Holt said. His mind began to race as to how he was going to explain this to his coalition.

 

[Dutchy]

@Jamie

 

[Jamie]

"There is no further agenda for me to bring up, all I can do is thank you both, to you personally and your governments for your continued support for cooperation and we look forward to seeing further meetings to discuss the future."

@Dutchy
@Odinson