The Year in Review: How 2020 Changed Europeia






The Year in Review
How 2020 Changed Europeia

Written by Xecrio, Seva, Giovanniland, Forilian, and Maowi




2020 was a tumultuous year for a huge number of reasons. How did Europeia weather the storm? This compilation of the year's turning points by the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) is intended to serve not only as an informative read, but crucially also as a useful repository of knowledge for the future.

The Senate

MinComm’s log, Kuramia Newsroom 4 March 2020, Senate Snoop reporting

First report of the year and already I can see that it will be an exciting one for the EBC. Calvin Coolidge’s controversial Executive Order (EO) 97 was followed by a thorough senatorial review of the role of EOs, culminating in a bill to significantly bridle their power - only for Chief of State Pichtonia to veto the legislation. We got a good article out of that discussion already, but it will be interesting to see where the Senate goes next with its compromise proposal.

On a different note, Deepest House’s opinion piece the EBC dropped yesterday about the inadequacy of the Executive Split seems to have caught on with people - this might be a debate to keep an eye on …

MinComm’s log, Kuramia Newsroom 28 June 2020, Senate Snoop reporting

Boy has the Senate been busy since my last update! That “debate to keep an eye on” turns out to have ended up with an overhaul of the structure of the Executive branch. It took 20 pages of Grand Hall discussion, 25 combined pages of Senate debate, and a public referendum, but we’re here now - back to a system where, after many months of a split Executive, the president has ultimate authority over both the domestic and foreign branches of government, and Senate confirmation thresholds for Cabinet members have been raised to make scrutiny of presidential picks more effective and tackle bloat.

We also got an intensive revision of the Judicature Act - the culmination of six months of work - bringing it up to date and making a variety of policy changes.

And of course, the Senate had to close out June with a bang. Upon re-election, Senator Darkslayer proposed an Arnhelm Investigatory Committee, as per his platform, but received a lot of public pushback from those who saw it as an attempt to shut down Arnhelm, the roleplay body that not long ago replaced the Citizens’ Assembly, in which citizens were once able to draft legislation pertaining to Europeia itself. Despite its proponents’ assertions that the committee would merely serve a fact-finding purpose, the proposal was ultimately tabled.

MinComm’s log, Kuramia Newsroom 30 September 2020, Senate Snoop reporting

Okay, the Senate might not have completely reconstructed the Executive again, but these three months have still been jam-packed. First came a modification to the Senate size voting mechanism, which changed from a complex method dividing the options into sets to an approval system (there was later a move to apply this to presidential voting too, which was decided against).

Dominating this stretch of time, however, were attempts to modify the position of vice president created by June’s Executive Modernisation. There was an attempt to remove the requirement for the vice president to serve on the Cabinet - a holdover from the Executive Split era that was widely viewed as a success during that time - as well as to bar holders of the position from simultaneously serve on the Senate; this bill failed at vote. When it was proposed again with each section split out into a separate bill, the ban on Senate service passed, while the removal of the Cabinet requirement once again failed, although a version of it was finally passed later, in August.

The Senate also strengthened standards for oversight on the Executive, as well as cleaning up and revamping both the Senate Protocol Act and the Charter of Rights.

MinComm’s log, Kuramia Newsroom 22 December 2020, Senate Snoop reporting

Ho ho ho! Tis the season to be jolly, but the Senate in recent times has received occasional criticism for lack of activity in EBC satisfaction polls. Given the legislative rollercoaster that was early- to mid-2020, a breather from all the intensity is somewhat welcome. Of note recently have been the clarification of the status of treaties in Europeian law, as well as discussions about the requirement for presidents and vice presidents to officially declare their respective portfolios for their term. Looking forward to 202, and may it be a year of senatorial splendour!

The Executive

2020 presented itself as a year of opportunity for Europeia. Calvin Coolidge was approaching the midterm of his first ministership. To start the year, then-Chief of State HEM released an address to the region titled “The Promise of 2020.” A year that started with such anticipation perhaps ended in the opposite way to how many imagined the year would go. For Europeia, however, big changes were certainly on the horizon.

The first major event concerning the executive was in regards to Executive Order 97, which was administered by First Minister Calvin Coolidge. The order stated that all public elections must have hidden results during the election, meaning the results would only be known once the election had concluded. The executive order was met with much opposition, with GraVandius stating that the order was a “clear circumvention of the regular legislative process,” while Kari declared that the executive order was a “massive overreach.” In the end, the executive order served very little practical purpose, as it was struck down and revoked by the Senate a matter of days after it was announced on January 17.

The first election of 2020 witnessed three relative newcomers put their names forward for the top position in Europeia. Maowi, who had served as minister of communications, and as minister of recruitment, stood with Sopo; Xecrio, who had just come off of a term as minister of communications, picked GraVandius as his running mate. In perhaps a shocking entail, Cookiespaigentland, a member who had only joined a couple of weeks prior to the election, ran with Cuddles. Maowi and Sopo ultimately won with 68.8 percent of the vote, in comparison to Xecrio and GraVandius’ 17.1 percent. Cookiespaigentland and Cuddles received three votes. Maowi’s tenure only lasted for around 14 days, as she announced her resignation and subsequent break from NationStates as a whole.

In the second election of that month, Pichtonia and Aexnidaral were elected chief of state and vice chief of state on February 3. They ran unopposed and were elected unanimously by the Senate 7-0-0. Perhaps one of Pichtonia’s most prominent events of his term came in a clash with the Senate. The then-chief of state had vetoed the Senate’s Executive Scope Order Amendment, continuing with what some viewed as a power struggle between the legislative and the executive branches.

Following on from Maowi’s resignation, Sopo continued the “resignation rodeo” by resigning after 15 days, only 5 days after his minister of communications, Xecrio, tendered his resignation. Sopo’s Second Minister Dax nominated Istillian to the position of second minister, as she inherited the position of first minister. In that term, the Ministry of Radio was a ministry that many viewed as struggling. As a result, Cuddles was released from his position as minister of radio and went unreplaced for the final few weeks of Dax’s administration. Dax nominated Darcness for an ovation at the end of her term.

Istillian and Hezekon beat United Vietussia and his running mate Kuramia in the first minister election of April 2020, making him the fourth head of the executive of the year so far. The other election occurring at this time of the year saw Malashaan and Dax elected chief of state and vice chief of state.

June 21 perhaps witnessed Europeia’s most competitive first minister election of 2020, with McEntire and Monkey beating Xecrio and Ervald by 34 votes to 31, in a run-off after the first round of votes resulted in a 31-30-1 scenario. Around this time, the Senate also passed the Executive Modernisation Omnibus Act, reunifying the executive to serve under a president, effectively making McEntire the last first minister. McEntire also served a much shorter term than normal, roughly 35 days.

McEntire did run in this next election, as did Lloenflys, but they ultimately lost out to Sopo and Monkey who became the first president and vice president of the new merged era. It was also around this time that the Ministry of Radio saw a boost in activity, with Darkslayer serving two consecutive terms, and overseeing a large portion of the ministry’s achievements.

Sopo did not run for a second consecutive presidential term, instead passing the baton to Peeps and Pichtonia, who were successful in beating a Lime/Calvin Coolidge ticket by 36 votes to 29. The Peeps administration oversaw regular Region of the Week events, such as with The Kingdom of Great Britain.

With Peeps leaving the presidency in mid-December, there was no head of the executive who served for more than one term this year. Pichtonia and Kuramia heavily beat a Calvin Coolidge/Sopo ticket. Darkslayer originally put his name forward for president with Calvin Coolidge as his running mate but dropped out due to external circumstances.

Ministries

MinComm’s log, Kuramia Newsroom April 20 2020, Ministry Mirror reporting

We have been instructed to investigate what the ministries have accomplished so far in 2020. The Ministry of Interior has seen an impressive recruitment drive, first with a 1v1 tournament encouraging raw numbers, and then on March 2 introducing a new daily dose system under Minister Calvin Coolidge, concentrating on consistency. Less successful was the Ministry of Research & Development, which did not turn out to be a government mainstay. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture has seen Weekend Games being played regularly under ministers Dax (in January) and trivia mastermind Olde Delaware, who has been in the office ever since. The Council of World Assembly Affairs is not often mentioned in regional discussion, but Minister Izzy set out to change that, recently launching the Pokemon Program to reward resolution drafting and voting. Time will tell whether it will prove to be a success. The Council of Foreign Affairs recently produced two treaties: with Kantrias and NationStates Today, both ratified by the Senate. That concludes the report, and it will also be interesting to see how Europeian ministries will be affected by the new video by youtuber Drew Durnil that was just released five minutes ago ...

MinComm’s log, September 3 2020, Ministry Mirror reporting

How long has it been since the last log entry? It certainly feels like an eternity. That video that I mentioned ended up causing an unprecedented boom in activity worldwide, for a short while completely reshaping the landscape in ministries. Arguably even more important was the return to a unified executive a month ago, with Sopo currently president in a transition term. Interior, with the new Double Dose and Dose Streak additions, has sent out tens of thousands of telegrams, though failure to get as many new citizens as some may have expected raised the question whether Integration is effective enough. The result was a shift to a welcoming package rather than any official program. A bold and successful decision was the creation of a welcoming squad in the discord lobby. Culture at first benefited greatly from the Drew boom, but has since seen a lull in Weekend Games participation. In stark contrast - what on Earth happened to Radio? Minister Calvin Coolidge and later his protege Darkslayer not only initiated a revival of it but made it one of the most booming ministries. You really should listen to the show about law “Guilty by Association”, or the revived “Sopo Showpo”.

Communications does not have many things to report, but you may have noticed no Weekly Updates are coming in. Nevertheless, quantity or quality has not suffered, especially with the addition of “Getting to know Europeians” by Forilian. Dispatches are back in the ministry, but have not been an often sight this term, and the Upvote Squad is usually mobilised for World Assembly information. Meanwhile, Attorney General Bowzin disappeared from the face of the Earth after the unexpected revelation of his attempted coup of Balder, resulting in no legislative assessments being published. Lloenflys took charge but had to resign after two months in office, leaving Law Clerk training in a state of uncertainty. The now-Ministry of World Assembly Affairs has shocked everyone in the most positive way. Ever since Maowi was appointed it has witnessed unprecedented interest in resolution drafting. The WA101 Program attracted even more people. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also did its fair share of work, most notably launching the highly popular Region of the Week program with many of our allies participating, though a lot of credit also went to Peeps who took care of the implementation of the program with his initially controversial one-man Council of Coordination. The Union of Democratic States, our newest ally, was featured in one of such events. Peeps did not stop at that, also fostering much-needed activity in the Navy. The region of South Pacific was held with allies to much praise. Should we expect Peeps to run for president?

MinComm’s log, December 31 2020, Ministry Mirror reporting

The year is coming to an end, and the region did not seem to suffer because of the falling nation count. It actually has thrived under presidents Peeps and Pichtonia, even though a couple of poll takers have complained about "stagnation.” Interior, while seeing slightly lower recruitment numbers, collaborated actively with Culture to produce a contest, while on the Integration front everything has been largely about updating resources, though a new innovative Success Stories program is in progress. Culture, revived by regional healer Calvin Coolidge, has shifted from regular Weekend Games to a rather colourful mix of scheduled, impromptu, and Region of the Week games. Radio was not a quiet ministry in any meaning of this word. Shows have been flowing in, including many people having their debuts or being featured in Xecrio's BritCast, and foreign guests appearing on other shows.

While with fewer articles, the Ministry of Communications has produced a series of dispatches, diligently upvoted (there were so many that the Upvote Squad is now only pinged for crucial ones!). The column system has changed slightly, with Satirical Corners being added but Managing Directors recently removed.

It turned out no training had been done in the Ministry of Justice - never fear, attorney general for half a term Darkslayer came to rescue untrained law clerks! World Assembly Affairs implemented President Peeps' platform plank, the Heroes program, designed to Commend Europeians. As for Foreign Affairs, a new ally has been found in Caer Sidi, with a treaty prompted by joint military and cultural operations and events. Finally, the Navy has continued its successful training of newcomers, as well as holding further regions such as Spaghetti Land.

Log entry out, and happy 2021!

Events

The year of 2020 was an eventful time for Europeia. The region turned 13 years old on March 7, meaning that, if Europeia was a person, it could finally use the NationStates forums and Discord. The Europeian community wouldn't have lasted if it wasn't for the effort of many citizens, especially those honoured—which brings us to the first major event.

Starting on March 18, Kuramia's ovation occurred. Several events took place throughout it, including a special game called Europia, related to Europeia's early history, in which citizens were given either the Monarchist or the Anarcho-Republican role and had to defeat the enemy group. Ten days later, the first edition of the Paradoxical festival happened. It was a highly successful event, and residents from Europeia and afar participated in multiple roleplay competitions with interesting awards. Further editions of Paradoxical were hosted later in the year, such as the viking-themed edition in October.

On the first day of April, Max Barry announced this year's April Fools prank: the second election for World Assembly Secretary General, in which Aexnidaral ran. Unfortunately the Europeian candidate didn't advance to the final round, so the region later supported the Trans Anarcho-Communist Lesbian Catgirls/McMasterdonia ticket in that round, but that ticket didn't win either. In the same month, a YouTuber called Drew Durnil released a video about NationStates in April, even featuring a recruitment telegram from Istillian. Thousands of nations were then created, many of which joined Europeia. The result was that Europeia almost reached 2,000 nations at one point, and Delegate Aexnidaral broke 500 endorsements, smashing the previous record.

Near the end of April, Pichtonia was granted the second ever Community Betterment Award, an exclusive award by the Office of the Supreme Chancellor. Furthermore, Darcness was given an Ovation in the next month, the celebration for which included forum games related to Darcness' notable technological skills, and another edition of Hunger Games. Later in May, the region of West Europeia was founded for Regional Message Board (RMB) roleplay, allowing nations to continue roleplaying without clogging up the main regional RMB.

The second iteration of EuroPride was hosted during June in order to celebrate Pride month and promote equality for LGBTQ+ people. The event included many speeches about the theme, as well as Weekend Games and other interesting activities. The 2020 edition of Republic Day was also celebrated in the same month, commemorating the transition from monarchy to republic that happened in early Europeian history. In the event, citizens were asked to complete various tasks pertaining to each ministry. Seva earned the most points in those challenges, and then reigned as Supreme Leader for a few days until the republic was triumphantly reestablished.

In the next few months, no major events took place, perhaps because of the ongoing Executive reunification. However, the annual N-Day event happened late September, during which nations formed factions to protect each other from nuclear destruction. Europeia joined the Ba Sing Se faction, which finished third overall and also managed the incredible feat of zero radiation, meaning that all nukes launched were defended by the faction's shields. Z-Day happened one month later near Halloween, and Europeia chose to spread the horde in this zombie apocalypse event.

Near the end of the year, some unexpected events occurred: after Aexnidaral left the region in November, a World Assembly Delegate transition was set in motion and Prim was appointed the new Delegate. However, the region remained stable and participated in the annual UCR Con later in the month, an event celebrating user-created regions. It's worth noting that the Europeian booth was one of the most active amongst all booths, showing the popularity and importance of the region. Last but not least, in order to bring the year to a perfect end, the first Honoured Citizens' Day celebration was held in December. The event took place in order to celebrate all citizens who have been recognized for their contributions to the region with Europeia's highest possible honour.

Arnhelm

Stardate 3256.2 (7 March 2020)
Arnhelm has been off to a rough start to 2020. The city is in an executive emergency, and Mayor GraVandius has fallen ill. There are proposals to abolish Arnhelm. TheNationOfThePeople has been elected mayor now, and hopefully he can help raise the city up from its current state.

Stardate 3329.1 (30 April 2020)
Peeps (formerly known as TheNationOfThePeople) has certainly brought Arnhelm to new heights in terms of activity! Although this can be attributed partly to the Drew boom, activity in the city had been picking up even before. There were bills passed on things ranging from a space program to rubbish collection. The number of city councilors has exploded to 25, and new bills are being proposed every day. The current focus is the May election, however; there's an unprecedented 4 candidates running for mayor. There's even a radio show on it, but unfortunately it was lost to time.

Stardate 3390.8 (18 May 2020)
Carathetopia won the May election, but unfortunately Arnhelm has fallen into an activity lull since the election, with an inquiry launched against the mayor for inactivity. There have been attempts to revive activity in the city, including a contest to determine Arnhelm's symbolism by election runner-up Forilian. As 28 days have passed since the Drew boom, nations from then have started to cease to exist, and it's anybody's guess as to what will happen from here.

Stardate 3511.9 (29 June 2020)
The City has seen some increase in activity under Mayor Forilian, but it gained prominence again by two separate incidents. The first was the Arnhelm Investigatory Committee (AIC) proposed by Senator Darkslayer, which was withdrawn after public backlash. A later poll by the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) would reveal that 63 percent of the Europeian population were against the committee. However, Senate Speaker and Financial Deputy of Arnhelm GraVandius was fired by the mayor before the crisis was resolved, which, despite a later apology, has left a blemish in Forilian's career. The other is the Arnhelm Committee of Public Safety, proposed by Deputy Mayor Monkey, which led to a heated argument that eventually caused Monkey to resign from his post. However, this was largely overshadowed by the AIC. This term further saw two awards given out, including the Star of Arnhelm to Mayor Peeps, and the Arnhelm Crisis project, which saw little participation and was scrapped just a few days into the event.

Stardate 3998.9 (1 October 2020)
Arnhelm has seen yet another lull in activity since June. Under Mayor Prim, the Arnhelm Chronicle was started, and a second issue was published in late August by Mayor Forilian. However, under Mayor Vivanco, the City only saw one discussion. Although the roleplay platform under which Vivanco ran was at first seen as a promising idea, Vivanco was plagued by inactivity issues and did not get to finish much of his platform. During this time, Arnhelm also saw its first birthday, with minor celebrations taking place in the city.

Stardate 4420.7 (13 December 2020)
Mayor Bronyleader has overseen an uptick in activity, with critical changes to the city such as the Board of Trustees and the Municipal Court. Bronyleader was also the first mayor in 7 months to seek re-election, and won unopposed. The December Mayoral election also saw another heated election, with 4 candidates such as former Mayor Olde Delaware. Rotasu won the election with a vote higher than 50 percent. Since then, Bronyleader has been nominated for the Star of Arnhelm, to widespread support. As Arnhelm heads into 2021, the City seems to be as active as ever, marking the end to a year that has shaped most of Arnhelm's identity and given birth to many political leaders.

The Courts

Stardate 3482.9 (17 June 2020)
The Court is the Court, and it spends a lot of its time in a silent slumber, but this first half of the year has seen plenty of life. United Vietussia’s Advisory Opinion request led to an examination into Europeian law on the administration of organisation platforms presided over by Chief Justice OnderKelkia, with the applicant as well as then-Attorney General Prim and head of the Europeian Cosmopolitan Party Izzy making submissions. The ultimate result of the discussion was the passage of new, clarifying language by the Senate. Then-Chief of State Pichtonia later sparked controversy by placing Attorney General Bowzin in first place on his Line of Succession following a bet made via discord; Bowzin proceeded to post a Judicial Review request (later redacted), after which point Pichtonia modified the Line of Succession once more. There were no real consequences to this sequence of events aside from general confusion.

Stardate 4580.1 (29 December 2020)
As we wrap up the year, the second half of 2020 received its fair share of action. In late June we saw Chief Justice OnderKelkia deny Attorney General Lloenflys’ request for an Advisory Opinion regarding the equivalence between British and American spellings in Europeian legislation. Perhaps most dramatically, however, a Criminal Case was opened against Forilian on the charge of Unlawful Interference with Recruitment or Welcoming, bringing to mind the conviction in December 2019 of Bri Shakespeare on the same charge. The case was subsequently dismissed by the Prosecution after consultation of the evidence provided by the Defence about Forilian’s unconventional but entirely honest and lawful recruitment method. To close out 2020, Senate Speaker Lime's request for an Advisory Opinion about the legality of a senator on Leave of Absence being active in the Senate simultaneously with their Senate substitute is accepted and opened, in response to such activities by Senator JayDee.
 
What an incredible and comprehensive recap of an entire year's worth of Europeian political events. Having had a behind-the-scenes look, I can definitely appreciate the amount of work it took from multiple individuals to get this piece done. I do not doubt that this will become an important historical document for all sorts of people in the coming years considering its quality.

This article is very, very useful to me. With the pandemic distorting my sense of time, it's crazy to look back and see what has happened this year. First Minister Maowi & Dax feels like mid-2019 at the latest, and even events like EuroPride just seem to be so long ago in a previous life.

I also gain a sort of pride when reading through this. I was not here for the entirety of 2020, taking some well-needed breaks, but this reminds me of just how much we, as a region, accomplished or even just how much happened. What a damn year!
 
What a wild ride. What a very very very long year.
 
Wow, this is great! There's a lot in here I missed entirely or cataloged in my mind as afterthoughts
 
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