Introduction to the European Union

Angleter

EUROPEAN UNION

AN INTRODUCTION

What is the European Union? We are a community, based on the NationStates region European Union, of roleplayers (RP) and gameplayers (GP). We roleplay our nations and the political and cultural characters within them, in a modern-day, more or less real-time world; and we also work together as a community to get the most out of the game of NationStates.

There's plenty for everyone to get involved in here, and if you have a question, query, or comment, don't hesitate to contact one of the admin team or post in the Any Questions thread.

THE ADMIN TEAM

The admins are a group of long-term players who manage and moderate these forums, and set the basic framework of roleplay and gameplay. The currently active admins, and their main areas of expertise, are:

@Miraco (chief web admin – technical)
@Angleter (chief gameside admin – gameplay and roleplay)
@Inquista (roleplay)
@Duxburian-Union (war system, gameplay)

The admins are here to help and will be happy to answer any questions you might have about the region.

GETTING STARTED

The basics for a new member state are to let us know a little bit about your nation. The main things to do are:

Create a factbook – as brief or as detailed as you like – for your nation in The European Factbook
Enter some economic statistics for your nation in European Central Bank
Read about our war system and then tell us about your nation's military in War Lists

Also note that member states of the European Union necessarily accept that the Constitution and the Acquis Communautaire (the laws passed by the European Council) have effect in their nations.

Once you've done all that, you're free to start taking part in our roleplay and gameplay!

ROLEPLAY

There are two main aspects to roleplay in the European Union. The first is taking part in our regional government, which has three branches:

The European Council, the legislative chamber where every nation, including yours, has an equal voice and vote
The European Commission, the executive body consisting of three members, elected by the European Council every four months
The European Court of Justice (or ECoJ), the judicial body consisting of five members, elected by the European Council every four months

All member states are entitled to propose legislation and amendments, debate, and vote in the Council, and to run and vote for the Commission and ECoJ.

The other side to our roleplay is developing our own nations and diplomatic interactions between them. This predominantly takes place in the Roleplay Realm area of the forums, which consists of:

European News Consortium, where nations' news organisations report what's going on in their nations
Politics and Incidents, where most political and diplomatic events go
Culture and Sport, where most cultural and sporting events go
European Stock Exchange, where most business and economic activities go
Government Offices, where national governments issue press releases and other updates
Treaty Organisations, where matters related to international organisations go
Warzone, where any civil and international conflicts go

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay forums are where we organise our region's activity within the game of NationStates, although a lot of this activity is likely to take place on the NationStates website itself. This includes:

European Union Security Council, an organisation of major players who govern the general direction of the EU's security and diplomatic policy within NationStates
Eurocorps, the region's military force on NationStates
World Assembly (or WA), where member states can vote for a new WA Delegate or debate how the WA Delegate should vote on resolutions

We also have International Embassies with friendly regions from across NationStates.

RULES AND ETIQUETTE

While we are a NationStates region, our roleplay on these forums often diverges from NationStates in order to give us more freedom and realism. The main rules of the RP are:

Your country's population is 5% of its NationStates population up to 400 million (= 20 million), and then 0.5% of NationStates population above that. So if you have 800 million population on NationStates, in the RP your population will be 22 million, for example.
The RP takes place in an alternate, modern-tech universe with the same physics and technologies as the real life (RL) world, but a different map. Technological innovations are possible provided they're realistic and are RPed well.
The economics and military of your nation are governed by the economics and war systems.
RL nations, like China, do not exist in the RP. The only nations recognised in the RP are those on the map.
RL characters, institutions, and locations (like Donald Trump, Google, and Birmingham) do not exist in the RP, until someone claims them for their nation. If someone has claimed a character, institution, or location, or used their likeness for one of their characters, institutions, or locations, please respect that.

A happy and healthy community is based on abiding by those rules and by maintaining some basic etiquette, both relating to the RP and more generally. For example:

RP should be realistic, and may be vetoed by the admins if it isn't. It's possible to have plenty of drama, comedy, fun, and excitement without doing something totally off the wall like nuking everyone for no reason.
RP characters are human and should have motives, traits, and flaws. Their actions should at least make some sense and have some consequences. No character, institution, or government is perfectly good or perfectly bad.
All forums are in-character (or IC), except for Welcome Centre, the Gameplay forums, Maintenance, and Chamber of Loose Lips, which are out-of-character (or OOC). If you wish to make an OOC post or topic in an IC forum, please start it with [OOC].
Please do not use the names or likenesses of real people who are not public figures.
If you wish to retcon something significant, please seek admin permission first. Please do not abuse the edit or delete functions to retcon anything significant, especially if doing so will impact on other players.
Spam belongs in Chamber of Loose Lips and nowhere else.
Please be respectful of other players. Your characters and nations are free to disrespect each other as much as possible, but personal flaming, baiting, trolling, doxing, and bullying will not be tolerated.