The Bulgarian government led by Boyko Borisov resigned on 20 February after days of increasingly vio

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2013 was the year in which the eurozone crisis was no longer the dominant rent a car usa theme – although, as Cypriots can attest, the single currency was far from secure. As the year drew to a close, the focus moved from the EU's long-term budget to 2014, when a new European Parliament and European Commission will take office. We look at how the year unfolded.
As Ireland began its presidency of the European Union's Council of Ministers, its nearest rent a car usa neighbour was causing a stink. David Cameron, the UK's prime minister, under pressure from Eurosceptics in his own party and the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party, gave a speech in which he sought to re-write the UK's relationship with the EU. He called for an 'in-out' referendum on EU membership in the first half of the next British parliament (between 2015 and 2017), and in doing so opened up the possibility of the UK becoming the first country ever to leave the Union.
Cameron based his speech (delayed by a week because of a hostage crisis in Algeria) on the expectation that the EU would embark on some kind of reform through treaty change after the elections to the European Parliament this year. He said he would argue in those treaty negotiations for a major repatriation of powers.
Although there were some supportive words from EU politicians, the response was mostly negative. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, predicted that Cameron's speech rent a car usa "will not impress many of the UK's European partners", while Fran ois Hollande, France's president, told MEPs in early February that no member state could "cherry-pick" the EU policies rent a car usa that suited.
High on the list of foreign-policy concerns for the EU at the beginning of the year was Mali, after France sent in troops in response to a military offensive by Islamists. At an international donors' conference in May, the EU promised rent a car usa to provide 1.35 billion to help Mali recover from its security, political rent a car usa and humanitarian crises.
There was a change at the top of the Eurogroup (the monthly meeting of the eurozone's finance rent a car usa ministers) when Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, replaced Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who had been the Eurogroup's president since the post was created in 2005.
There was a sting in January's tail when a report by the European Food Safety Authority claimed that a pesticide widely used throughout the EU could be causing the bee population to decline. There were immediate calls for the substance to be banned. At a meeting at the end of April, member states failed to block a proposal to ban three types of seed treatment pesticides that it was feared may be harmful to bees. A majority of member states – 15 – voted to approve the Commission's proposal. Although this was not enough to achieve a qualified majority based on weighted voting, the result gave the Commission a mandate to enact the ban.
Milos Zeman scored a comprehensive victory in a presidential rent a car usa election in the Czech Republic. Zeman, who was Czech prime minister between 1998 and 2002, defeated Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign rent a car usa minister. Zeman took office on 7 March.
Germany succeeded in changing the content of a European Commission proposal on the liberalisation of railways. The Commission withdrew an element of the proposal that would have obliged member states to separate the companies that run train services rent a car usa from the companies that own and manage the tracks. rent a car usa The idea was fiercely opposed by Deutsche Bahn, Europe's biggest rail company. rent a car usa February
In the early hours of 8 February, leaders of the EU's member states emerged from 15 hours of negotiations with a deal on the headline figures of the EU's next long-term budget (2014-20). Spending commitments would not exceed 960 bn, they decided, while actual payments would be capped at 908bn. That was exactly what Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, had wanted, and exceeded the demands of some of the EU's budget hawks. For the first time, the EU's budget had gone down rather than up. No matter what their position was before the talks, every EU leader rent a car usa claimed to be delighted with the result. It "was one of the happiest days of my life", said a rather excited Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark's prime minister, had threatened to veto the budget unless Denmark was added to the list of rebate beneficiaries. She won 130m per year. The budget ball was now firmly in the European Parliament's court.
The budget deal meant that stalled talks on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could be re-started. EU leaders had decided that overall CAP spending rent a car usa for 2014-20 would be reduced by 13% compared to the 2007-13 period.
The Bulgarian government led by Boyko Borisov resigned on 20 February after days of increasingly violent protests against rising energy bills. The country's energy regulator – later sacked by Borisov – had ordered a 13% hike in bills back in July 2012, but the full effects were not felt until winter bills arrived. Borisov, of the centre-right GERB party, later rejected a request by President Rosen Plevneliev to form an interim administration. That led to snap elections on 12 May at which there was a record low turnout (51.3%) and no clear winner. On 29 May, Plevneliev succeeded in breaking the deadlock by persuading the national parliament to back a technocratic rent a car usa government supported by the centre-left, with Plamen Oresharski as prime minister.
There was also upheaval in Slovenia, where Janez Jansa was ousted as prime minister over a corruption scandal. Alenka Bratušek, a financial expert from the opposition centre-left Positive Slovenia, the largest party in parliament, was asked to form a new government. In June, Jansa was given a two-year jail term for taking money for awarding a defence contract to a Finnish company.
Ireland, in the first major breakthrough of its six-month presidency, brokered a deal on rules to strengthen economic convergence in the eurozone. Negotiations between member states and MEPs on the 'two-pack' had taken seven months. As a result, the European Commission will have greater say over national budgets. The Commission will inspect each budget plan before it goes to the national parliament, and will warn member states if the plan does not conform to stability-and-growth pact obligations. The Commission will also have greater powers over eurozone countries that it judges to be experiencing "severe difficulties".
A general election in Italy caused consternation around the EU, with 57% of the votes going to parties arguing against a continuation of the spending cuts introduced by Mario Monti, a former European rent a car usa commissioner who was installed as caretaker prime minister in November 2011. There was instability until late April, when Enrico Letta, deputy leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, was sworn in as prime minister.
Fisheries ministers voted to end the controversial practice of discarding fish (when unwanted or unusable fish are dumped overboard after being caught). Under the agreement, discards would be phased out between 2015 and 2016, later than proposed by the Commission and MEPs.
Nicos Anastasiades became president of Cyprus after a sweeping rent a car usa victory in an election on 24 February. The centre-right Anastasiades won 57.5% of the vote, the largest popular mandate for a president in decades.
The scandal over beef sold in the UK that contained horsemeat spread to a European level after the meat in question was found to have travelled throughout the EU. The European Commission and the member states rent a car usa began a testing programme to check for horse DNA in beef products and for an illegal horse drug in the food chain. The Commission released the results in April, revealing that horse DNA was found in 5% of beef products tested across the EU. March
The centre-left gained power in Malta for the first time in 15 years after a decisive victory in a general rent a car usa election on 9 March. Labour, led by Joseph Muscat, a former member of the European Parliament, secured 55% of the vote, with the centre-right Nationalist Party, led by Lawrence Gonzi, picking up 43%. Gonzi resigned, rent a car usa to be replaced as Nationalist leader by former MEP Simon Busuttil.
The European rent a car usa Commission gave its backing to a plan for Europe's main political parties to put up candidates for the post of Commission president as part of their manifestoes for the elections to the European Parliament. The hope is that it will increase voter turnout, which was just 43% in the 2009 election.
Alarm bells rang when Hungary's parliament approved far-reaching changes to the country's constitution once again. The amendments, the fourth set of adjustments since the constitution was revamped in 2012, change the constitutional court's powers, the definition of marriage, restrict political advertising, and adjust how religious groups are recognised. The presidents rent a car usa of the European Commission and European Parliament joined the Council of Europe in warning that the changes could threaten the rule of law. In April, Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, became embroiled in a spat with Europe's main centre-right party, rent a car usa of which she is a member, about her perceived aggressive stance towards the Hungarian government.
The first major eurozone crisis of the year was unfurling in Cyprus. Finance ministers had struck a deal under which the eurozone rent a car usa and the International Monetary Fund would lend the strick