July 12 Update
A Whole New Term
Written by Maowi
Pichtonia Elected First Minister
In what turned out to be an uncontested election last week, Pichtonia secured the position of first minister (FM) with a comfortable 76.7 percent of the vote. 23 votes were placed in his favour with Whitmark as his deputy, defeating the 7 votes supporting the re-opening of elections. The election took place amid discussion about the apparent lack of interest in the FM position, with speculation that the role may seem daunting to relative newcomers - who perhaps feel better at ease as senators with less individual responsibility.
Following his success, Pichto made a speech to the region in which he addressed the up-coming ‘summer slump’ and his plans to tackle what is usually a period of stagnation in Europeia. He has selected a comparatively fresh team, in the hope that their enthusiasm and determination will power the region through the summer months.
Senate Confirms Ministerial Nominees
Newly-elected FM Pichtonia this week proposed to the Senate his nominations for this term’s Cabinet. Nominees responded to questions posed by senators regarding their plans for the term ahead. In the subsequent votes, all of Pichto’s nominations were confirmed unanimously, save for those who hold senatorships too and abstained from their own votes.
Minister of Culture - DictatorAnna10 (DAX)
As Minister of Culture, DAX intends to re-initiate scheduled weekend games, as well as forum games, roleplays and chess tournaments, to spark life back into a lately inactive ministry. She believes that ensuring the planning of events and the offering of rewards will rekindle interest in such activities, and wishes to attract newcomers to the ministry by ensuring it is publicised in the employment section of the forum. She has already opened the term's first culture event: a writing competition.
Minister of Recruitment - Whitmark
In his opening address, Whitmark expressed hopes of high participation in recruitment, which he intends to push for this term in order to maintain activity levels throughout the region as a whole. He also appointed Brí Shakespeare as his deputy minister to bring fresh energy to the ministry and to make sure that Europeia thrives with new blood even throughout the dreaded summer slump.
Minister of Integration - Astrellan
Astrellan has laid out plans for the Ministry of Integration which will convert the hard work carried out by Whitmark’s recruitment efforts into tangible effects on Europeia’s community and liveliness. As well as projects to rewrite forum guides to make them more accessible and inviting to newcomers, he believes that more needs to be done to make any residents who are only active gameside aware of the opportunities presented on the forum.
Minister of Communication - Hezekon
Although this is Hezekon’s second consecutive term as Minister of Communications, he has new ideas for the ministry. He has indicated that he wishes to continue his work in revitalising the ministry, but in the long term, he has plans to create specialised roles for those involved in order to foster a sense of purpose and importance - and also to give the ministry’s employees more freedom of choice in what they write about, hopefully broadening the range of topics covered.
Attorney General - Darcness
Similarly to Hezekon, Darcness also held the post of Attorney General throughout the last term. His invaluable work in the position so far has led to Pichto and Kuramia’s joint decision to nominate him for another term. He plans to maintain his round-robin assessment assignment system which has so far successfully effected all-round engagement across Europeia’s law clerks, and also to complete the Policy Assessment project he began in his last term.
Senate Passes First Bill of the Term
For the first time under Europeia’s new FM, the Senate voted by four votes to one in favour of a bill, which now awaits confirmation by the FM. The Inherent Moderator Self-Appointment Amendment Act (2019) makes amendments or additions to sections 10 and 11 of the Communication Platform Administration Act (2017) clarifying a procedure by which the FM and the Chief of State must select moderators for public or private government platforms and delineating that the FM and the Chief of State may not appoint themselves as moderators.The proposed new procedure avoids situations, the likes of which have previously occurred in Europeia, in which executives take on the role of moderator and, upon leaving office, fall inactive but retain their position as moderators. Pichto has not confirmed whether he intends to approve or not, in anticipation of the provision of a legislative assessment from the Attorney General. However, were the FM politically opposed to the legislation, one would expect him to have voiced his stance to the Senate or to the wider region prior to this point in time.
Europeian Military Success
In the last week, the Europeian Republican Navy conducted two successful military operations. To kick off the action, four members of the navy invaded Rivendell, returning laden with elven wine and mead. Ensign Prim, Mate Kuramia, Midshipman Istillian, and Lt. Commander Darcness efficiently plundered the region and the elves were unable to resist against their military prowess. Not long after the conclusion of this operation, Grand Admiral HEM and Lt. Commander Darcness ventured on a quest to put their tag raiding to the test - a test passed with flying colours through an impeccable raid of Democrats. Congratulations to all involved!
