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Icelandic Presidential Election, 2016
Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 25 June 2016. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, elected in 1996, stepped down after serving five consecutive terms. The history professor Guðni Th. Jóhannesson was elected after receiving a plurality of 39.1% of the vote. He took office on 1 August, as the first new president of Iceland in twenty years. Electoral system The President of Iceland is elected by plurality in a single round of voting. Candidates must be Icelandic citizens and at least 35 years of age on election day. Campaign On 1 January 2016 incumbent president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson announced that he would not seek a sixth term in the office, wanting "to transfer the responsibilities of the president onto other shoulders". He later retracted and decided to run in April, citing political unrest after the fallout of the Panama Papers leak, which implicated Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and forced him to resign after large anti-government prote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, the former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and compiled with similar leaks into a searchable database. The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials previously private. Their publication made it possible to prosecute Jan Marsalek, a person of interest to a number of European governments and revealed his links with Russian intelligence, and international financial fraudster Harald Joachim von der Goltz. While offshore business entities are legal , reporters found that some of the Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 cities across 150 countries. Its main regional headquarters are based in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. AFP publishes stories, videos, photos and graphics in French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and German. Two-thirds of its turnover comes from its own commercial activities, with the remaining one-third being provided by the French government (amounting to 113.3 million euros in 2022) as compensation for carrying out its mission of general interest. In December 2024, AFP was ranked as the 27th most visited news site in the world, with over 105 million monthly readers. History Agence France-Presse has its origins in the Agence Havas, founded in 1835 in Paris by Charles-Louis Havas, making it the world's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Direct Democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy model which occurs in the majority of established democracies. The theory and practice of direct democracy and participation as its common characteristic constituted the core of the work of many theorists, philosophers, politicians, and social critics, among whom the most important are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, and G. D. H. Cole, G.D.H. Cole. Overview In direct democracy the people decide on policies without any intermediary or representative, whereas in a representative democracy people vote for representatives who then enact policy initiatives. Depending on the particular system in use, direct democracy might entail passing executive decisions, the use of sortition, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The EEA links the EU member states and three of the four EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an internal market governed by the same EU laws. These rules aim to enable free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital within the European single market, including the freedom to choose residence in any country within this area. The EEA was established on 1 January 1994 upon entry into force of the EEA Agreement. The contracting parties are the EU, its member states, and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. New members of EFTA would not automatically become party to the EEA Agreement, as each EFTA State decides on its own whether it applies to be party to the EEA Agreement or not. According to Article 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2016 United Kingdom European Union Membership Referendum
The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 to ask the electorate whether the country should continue to remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU). The result was a vote in favour of leaving the EU, triggering calls to begin the process of the country's withdrawal from the EU commonly termed "Brexit". Accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities, Since 1973, the UK had been a member state of the EU and its predecessor the European Communities (principally the European Economic Community), along with other international bodies. The constitutional implications of membership for the UK became a topic of debate domestically particularly regarding sovereignty. 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated population of over 449million as of 2024. The EU is often described as a ''sui generis'' political entity combining characteristics of both a federation and a confederation. Containing 5.5% of the world population in 2023, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around €17.935 trillion in 2024, accounting for approximately one sixth of global economic output. Its cornerstone, the European Union Customs Union, Customs Union, paved the way to establishing European Single Market, an internal single market based on standardised European Union law, legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football championship of Europe organised by UEFA. It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain national football team, Spain were the two-time defending champions, having won the UEFA Euro 2008, 2008 and UEFA Euro 2012, 2012 tournaments, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy national football team, Italy, Portugal national football team, Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France national football team, France, in UEFA Euro 2016 final, the final played at the Stade de France. For the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since UEFA Euro 1996, 1996. Under the ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iceland National Football Team
The Iceland national football team () represents Iceland in men's international Association football, football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of Iceland, and have been a FIFA member since 1947 and a UEFA member since 1957. The team's nickname is ''Strákarnir okkar'', which means ''Our Boys'' in Icelandic language, Icelandic. The team enjoyed success in the second half of the 2010s. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA), qualifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the playoffs before losing to Croatia national football team, Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands. After reaching the knockout stages of Euro 2016, Iceland UEFA Euro 2016 knockout phase#England vs Iceland, defeated England in the round of 16, advancing to the quarter-finals, where they lost to host nation France nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icesave
The Icesave dispute was a diplomatic dispute among Iceland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It began after the privately owned Icelandic bank Landsbanki was placed in receivership on 7 October 2008. As Landsbanki was one of three systemically important financial institutions in Iceland to go bankrupt within a few days, the Icelandic Depositors' and Investors' Guarantee Fund () had no remaining funds to make good on deposit guarantees to foreign Landsbanki depositors, who held savings in the Icesave branch of the bank. History When Landsbanki was placed into receivership by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (FME), 343,306 retail depositors in the UK and Netherlands that held accounts in the "Icesave" branch of Landsbanki lost a total of €6.7 bn of savings. Because no immediate repayment was expected by any Icelandic institutions, the Dutch and British national deposit guarantee schemes covered repayment up to the maximum limit for the national depo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cod Wars
The Cod Wars (; also known as , ; ) were a series of 20th-century confrontations between the United Kingdom (with aid from West Germany) and Iceland about Exclusive economic zone, fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with an Icelandic victory. Fishing industry in England, Fishing boats from Britain had been sailing to waters near Iceland in search of catch since the 14th century. Agreements struck during the 15th century started a centuries-long series of intermittent disputes between the two countries. Demand for seafood and consequent competition for fish stocks grew rapidly in the 19th century. The modern disputes began in 1952 after Iceland expanded its territorial waters from 3 to . The United Kingdom responded by banning Icelandic ships landing their fish in British ports. In 1958, Iceland expanded its territorial waters to and banned foreign fishing fleets. Britain refused to accept this decision, which led to a series of confrontations over 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
