title: Automobile Dacia

text: The Renault Technologie Roumanie engineering centre was set up in 2006, in Bucharest, Romania. Employing approximately 2,500 engineers, its main fields of activity are the development, testing and design of the new vehicles in the Dacia range, as well as the marketing and technical support. The following year, the company also set up a styling office, Renault Design Central Europe.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: A pick-up model and the Logan-based hatchback Sandero were launched in 2008, the latter at the Geneva Motor Show. This also marked a point of rebranding for the company, which adopted a new logo and later the same year launched the facelifted Logan model.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In 2009, a new concept called the Dacia Duster was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, signaling manufacturer's intentions of releasing an SUV model. This was reportedly the inauguration of the platform that would be used for the second generation of the Logan and Sandero models, released in 2012.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In 2010, the Dacia Duster was exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show. It is the first crossover SUV built by Dacia since the Renault acquisition, in 4×2 and 4×4 versions. It was revealed on 8 December 2009, and became available in Europe on 18 March 2010.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In September 2010, a testing center was opened in Titu, Romania, as part of Renault Technologie Roumanie. It is intended for developing and optimizing the new vehicles in the Dacia range and has nine types of track with a total length of 32 kilometres and around 100 test benches, used to test the resistance of vehicles and replacement parts to cold, heat and rain.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In 2012, Dacia Lodgy, a new compact MPV, was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. It is based on a new platform and is manufactured at an all-new Renault factory in Tangier, Morocco.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: The Dokker, released in June 2012, is a slightly smaller leisure activity vehicle, also manufactured in Tangier, sharing the same platform with the Lodgy, available in passenger and panel van variants.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In September 2012, the second generations of the Logan and Sandero were revealed at the Paris Motor Show. They feature a common front end design and come with improved standard safety features, a new engine and other new comfort equipment.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: The following year, the facelifted Duster was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It received mild modifications to the front and rear ends, the new interior introduced on the new Logan and Sandero models, as well as a new turbocharged petrol engine.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: At the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, the second generation Duster model was introduced, bringing new comfort and technical improvements, but retaining similar dimensions and engines.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: According to reports, in September 2018, Automobile Dacia gained 14th place in Top 500 CEE companies.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: Dacia's CEO from April 2016 until May 2018 was Yves Caracatzanis. He was replaced by Antoine Doucerain, who left after only four months due to "personal reasons". After a brief stint by interim manager Jerome Olive, the position was filled by Christophe Dridi in December 2018.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In 2020, Dacia announced that they would be releasing an electric car which they showcased in March 2020 with the Dacia Spring Electric concept. The Dacia Spring is said to be based on the Renault City K-ZE and is set to become the cheapest electric car in Europe with the price being estimated by Romanian media at around €15,000 to €20,000.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In January 2021, Denis Le Vot became the CEO of the Dacia-Lada business unit. As part of a company revamp, Renault said it would integrate the Dacia and the Lada marques into a new business unit. It also unveiled a new Dacia logo and a product offensive for the Dacia marque, widening its market segments coverage.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In March 2021, the production version of the Dacia Spring EV was shown at the Renault eWays event by Groupe Renault Executive Denis Le Vot. The Spring will be sold in LHD areas of Europe, alongside updated Sandero and Logan models (announced at the end of 2020) and will have a car-sharing version called the Spring Business.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: The company's single plant is located in Mioveni, Romania, together with its headquarters, and has a production capacity of 350,000 vehicles per year. It is divided into several sections, such as bodywork, painting, assembly, mechanical and chassis, foundry etc. It works in conjunction with the Renault Technologie Roumanie engineering centre, located in Bucharest and set up in 2006, which also comprises a styling office, Renault Design Central Europe, and with the testing centre located in Titu that was opened in 2010.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: A large logistical centre was also set near the plant in March 2005, the International Logistic Network, from where complete knock down (CKD) kits are exported to other Renault production sites in Russia, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and India. It is reportedly the biggest logistic centre of its kind not only in the Renault Group, but in the global automotive industry. In 2012, the total equivalent of the kits sent worldwide from the centre was 920,646 vehicles.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: Two of the Dacia models, the Lodgy and the Dokker vans, are manufactured at the Renault factory in Tangier, Morocco. The Logan and the Sandero are also manufactured in Casablanca, Morocco, the latter also in Tangier.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: Faced with the growing demand for automatic gearboxes in Europe and significant demand in Russia, South America and India, Renault has decided to develop a specific automatic gearbox, called Easy-R. Innovative, it replaces hydroelectric technologies (hydraulics controlled by electronics) with electromechanical elements. The result is a more reliable and more affordable automatic transmission. Dacia is indeed offering this equipment from 2015 in Europe at a price of 600 euros, which is at least half the price of the competition. The number of parts has been reduced by a quarter, ensuring better reliability and simplified maintenance. Four modes are available on the Easy-R controlled gearbox, also indicated on the dashboard: D/Drive, N/Neutral, R/Rear and M/Manual impulse. This Easy-R gearbox keeps fuel consumption identical to that of the manual gearbox, while offering the advantages of a traditional automatic gearbox.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: The Dacia brand is marketed in most of the Western and Eastern European countries, as well as in some Northern African countries, such as Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Western European exports began in the late 1970s, entering markets like Belgium and the Netherlands in 1978. Its models have also been produced by Renault in its production sites on other continents (in Russia, Iran, India, South Africa, Colombia and Brazil) and sold under its own brand or other specific local brands (such as Mahindra, Lada or Nissan for example ).


title: Automobile Dacia

text: In 2012, Dacia sold a total of 359,822 vehicles, of which approximately 230,000 were exported to Western Europe, the most of them in France and in Germany. Besides the domestic market, its other key markets have been Algeria, Turkey, Italy and Spain.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: For 2014 the company sold 511,465 vehicles in 43 countries, thus breaking another record and exceeding the 500,000 threshold. On 6 May 2014, the main Dacia plant Mioveni produced its five millionth car, approximately the three millionth car since Renault owned the brand.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: The 3.5 millionth Dacia car, since the Dacia brand revival ten years before, was sold in the UK in November 2015.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: From the 2008–09 season, Dacia was the sponsor of Italian Serie A football club Udinese Calcio and Stadio Friuli.


title: Automobile Dacia

text: Dacia became the official car partner of the Rugby League Super League and the Challenge Cup in February 2016 and then deepened their support of the sport by becoming the main sponsors of the men's, women's and wheelchair England teams in June 2017. They also became the principal partner of the Great Britain Rugby League Lions in 2019 for the team's four match tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.


title: Supernatural (season 15)

text: The fifteenth and final season of "Supernatural", an American dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke, premiered on The CW on October 10, 2019. The series was initially set to conclude in May 2020, but a hiatus occurred after the March 23, 2020 episode owing to production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The season resumed airing on October 8, 2020, and the series finale aired on November 19, 2020. The season consisted of 20 episodes and aired on Thursdays at 8:00 pm (ET), with the exception of two March 2020 episodes aired Mondays at 8:00 pm. This was the fourth season with Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer as showrunners. The season follows Sam, Dean and Castiel's battle against God who has been manipulating events in their lives including their family, friends and allies. Angered by their decision to fight him, God jumpstarts the end of everything in creation.


title: Supernatural (season 15)

text: On January 31, 2019, The CW renewed the series for a fifteenth season. On March 22, series stars Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins announced that the 20-episode fifteenth season of "Supernatural" would also be its last, making it the longest-running series on The CW. Ackles, who last directed the episode "The Bad Seed" from the eleventh season, directed the first episode filmed for the season, which aired chronologically as the fourth episode. Other cast members directing episodes for the season include returning director Richard Speight Jr. and young John Winchester actor Matt Cohen. Jake Abel reprises his role as the Winchesters' long-lost half-brother Adam Milligan, who last appeared in the fifth-season finale.


title: Supernatural (season 15)

text: The series finale was originally set to air on May 18, 2020; however, in March 2020, Warner Bros. Television shut down production on the series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in March, showrunner Andrew Dabb revealed that the season would go on hiatus after the March 23 episode. Dabb clarified that the series had completed production on 18 of the 20 episodes for the season, but the post-production process could not be completed on the episodes because of the shutdown due to the virus outbreak. Dabb also assured that the series' cast and crew, The CW, and Warner Bros. were fully committed to filming and airing the unproduced episodes with its proper finale. In August 2020, The CW announced that the season would resume airing on October 8, 2020, and series finale aired on November 19, which was preceded by a special titled "The Long Road Home". Filming resumed on August 18, and concluded on September 10, 2020.


title: Supernatural (season 15)

text: Based on 12 reviews, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating for "Supernatural"s fifteenth season with an average rating of 8.9/10.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The Wild Thornberrys is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays an American family of wildlife documentary filmmakers known as the Thornberrys, which consist of the British nature documentary television host Nigel, his wife and camera operator Marianne, their 16-year-old daughter Debbie, their younger daughter Eliza, their adopted son Donnie, and a chimpanzee named Darwin. The series focuses in particular on Eliza, who has an ability to communicate with animals. The Thornberry family travels to every continent and wildlife environment in the ComVee, a recreational vehicle equipped with safety mechanisms to handle any terrain or body of water, to document their journeys in detail, with typical episodes involving Eliza befriending an animal and subsequently finding herself in peril.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: Originally pitched by Klasky Csupo as an adult animated sitcom for Fox, the series was then retooled as a family-friendly animated series for Nickelodeon and premiered on September 1, 1998, as the eleventh Nicktoon and the third overall produced by the studio following "Rugrats" and "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters". It ran for 5 seasons containing 91 episodes in total, with the series finale airing on June 11, 2004.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The series' fourth season premiere, "The Origin of Donnie", is a television special focusing on Donnie Thornberry's life before he was adopted by the family. A feature film, "The Wild Thornberrys Movie", in which Eliza embarks on a quest to save a cheetah cub from poachers, was theatrically released on December 20, 2002. "Rugrats Go Wild", a crossover feature film with Nickelodeon's "Rugrats", was released in theaters on June 13, 2003. Spin-off media include DVD releases and three video games.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The series focuses around a nomadic family of documentary filmmakers known as the Thornberrys, famous for their televised wildlife studies, as they travel the world in the "Comvee", a large, amphibious, multifunctional overland motorhome which doubles as their base of operations. It primarily centers on the family's younger daughter Eliza, and her secret gift of being able to communicate with animals, which was bestowed upon her after having rescued a shaman masquerading as a trapped warthog.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The gift enables her to talk to the Thornberrys' pet chimpanzee Darwin. Together, the pair frequently venture through the wilderness, befriending many species of wild animals along the way, and discern moral truths and lessons through either their experiences or a particular animal species's lifestyle; often this means simply assisting the creatures by which they become acquainted in their difficulties.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: "The Wild Thornberrys" was produced by Klasky Csupo. It was initially pitched as an adult animated sitcom under the name, "Nigel Thornberry's Animal World," and was to be co-produced by Fox Animation for Fox, but it was ultimately rejected. It was then picked up by Nickelodeon under its own animation studio and was retooled as a family-oriented series with Nigel's youngest daughter Eliza (originally named Alex) being promoted to the main protagonist role. According to Eryk Casemiro, SVP of Creative Affairs at Klasky-Csupo Productions at the time of the series production, she was originally designed to look "quite frankly, very ugly" in order to contradict the stereotype that all young heroines are beautiful. However, her design was later retooled to look "cuter" at the request of Nickelodeon. It premiered on September 1, 1998, and was the first Nicktoon to exclusively use 22-minute stories (episodes of other Nicktoons usually featured two 10 – 11-minute stories, using 22-minute stories only on occasion).


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The series was designed to have a focus on parents, after focus groups run by Klasky and Csupo uncovered that children were talking about the real struggles of the parent-child relationship; this was opposed to Nickelodeon's view of only featuring kids in children's programming. It was also designed with the potential of being used in science curriculums. To accomplish this, the production crew hired a specialist who did research on different regions of the world, different cultures, and different species of animals, all of which were provided to the writers to help them develop ideas for episodes.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The show aired in reruns on "Nick on CBS" for two years from September 14, 2002, to March 6, 2004. The show aired on Nicktoonsters in the United Kingdom.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: Nickelodeon released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1 via Amazon.com through its CreateSpace Manufacture-on-demand program in 2010. "Season 1" was released on June 24, 2010, and Seasons 2 through 5 were released on December 1, 2010.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: On February 16, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the rights to release the series on home media and would be releasing Season 1 on DVD on May 17, 2011. "Season 1" was released on May 17, 2011, followed by "Season 2, Part 1" on November 8, 2011. "Season 2, Part 2" was released on April 24, 2012. "Season 2, Part 3" was released on January 15, 2013, as a Shout Select title. "Season 3" was released on June 11, 2013, as a Shout Select title. "Season 4" and "Season 5" were released in a box set on September 10, 2013, as a Shout Select title.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: On December 1, 2015, Shout! Factory released "The Wild Thornberrys: The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: In Australia, all 5 seasons have been released via Beyond Home Entertainment. A 13-disc set titled "The Wild Thornberrys: The Essential Episodes" was released on June 3, 2015.


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: The franchise was extended through three movies (one television film and two theatrical films), which were released toward the end of the series' run:


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: A video game based on the television series titled "The Wild Thornberrys: Animal Adventures" was released only for PlayStation on November 8, 2000. During this time, another game was released, "The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler" on PC and Game Boy Color on August 7, 2000, and November 2000 respectively. "The Wild Thornberrys Chimp Chase" was released only for the Game Boy Advance on October 1, 2001. Characters from the series also appear in the Nickelodeon crossover games "Nicktoons Racing", "Nickelodeon Party Blast", "Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl" (where Nigel is voicced by Jim Meskimen), and "Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis".


title: The Wild Thornberrys

text: "Common Sense Media" gave the series a rating of 5 stars, praising it for its ability to encourage young viewers to be empathetic toward animals, to want to find out about other cultures and ways of life, and to understand the vastness and diversity of the world. Knight Ridder called the series "sympathetic". "The Native Voice" complimented the series on its commitment to fun, adventure, detail, accuracy, and honesty.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament must agree to any enlargement. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. This term is also used to refer to the intensification of co-operation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual harmonisation of national laws.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The EU's predecessor, the European Economic Community, was founded with the Inner Six member states in 1958, when the Treaty of Rome came into force. Since then, the EU's membership has grown to twenty-seven, with the latest member state being Croatia, which joined in July 2013. The most recent territorial enlargement of the EU was the incorporation of Mayotte in 2014. Campione d'Italia joined the EU Customs Union in 2020. The most notable territorial reductions of the EU, and its predecessors, have been the exit of Algeria upon independence in 1962, the exit of Greenland in 1985, and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom in 2020.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: , accession negotiations are under way with Albania (since 2020), Montenegro (since 2012), North Macedonia (since 2020), Serbia (since 2014) and Turkey (since 2005). Serbia and Montenegro have been described by former President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn as the frontrunner candidates, and projected that they would join by 2025, during the next mandate of the European Commission. Negotiations with Turkey are ongoing, but have effectively paused due to objections from the EU to the Turkish government's response to the 2016 coup d'état attempt, and democratic backsliding.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted an application for membership in 2016, as did Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova in the first few weeks of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine and Moldova were subsequently recognised as official candidates, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia are recognised as potential candidates and were asked to complete additional reforms before becoming official candidates for membership. Bosnia and Herzegovina then received official candidate status in December 2022.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: According to the EU treaties, membership of the European Union is open to "any European State which respects the values referred to in Article 2 and is committed to promoting them" (). Those values are "respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities." This is based on the 1993 "Copenhagen criteria" agreed as it became clear many former Eastern Bloc countries would apply to join:


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In December 1995, the Madrid European Council revised the membership criteria to include conditions for member country integration through the appropriate adjustment of its administrative structures: since it is important that European Community legislation be reflected in national legislation, it is critical that the revised national legislation be implemented effectively through appropriate administrative and judicial structures.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Finally, and technically outside the Copenhagen criteria, comes the further requirement that all prospective members must enact legislation to bring their laws into line with the body of European law built up over the history of the Union, known as the "acquis communautaire".


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Today the accession process follows a series of formal steps, from a pre-accession agreement to the ratification of the final accession treaty. These steps are primarily presided over by the European Commission (Enlargement Commissioner and DG Enlargement), but the actual negotiations are technically conducted between the Union's Member States and the candidate country.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Before a country applies for membership it typically signs an association agreement to help prepare the country for candidacy and eventual membership. Most countries do not meet the criteria to even begin negotiations before they apply, so they need many years to prepare for the process. An association agreement helps prepare for this first step.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In the case of the Western Balkans, a special process, the Stabilisation and Association Process exists to deal with the special circumstances there.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: When a country formally applies for membership, the Council asks the commission to prepare an opinion on the country's readiness to begin negotiations. The council can then either accept or reject the commission's opinion (The council has only once rejected the commission's opinion when the latter advised against opening negotiations with Greece).


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: If the Council agrees to open negotiations the screening process then begins. The commission and candidate country examine its laws and those of the EU and determine what differences exist. The Council then recommends opening negotiations on "chapters" of law that it feels there is sufficient common ground to have constructive negotiations. Negotiations are typically a matter of the candidate country convincing the EU that its laws and administrative capacity are sufficient to execute European law, which can be implemented as seen fit by the member states. Often this will involve time-lines before the Acquis Communautaire (European regulations, directives and standards) has to be fully implemented.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: A chapter is said to be closed when both sides have agreed it has been implemented sufficiently, however it can still be re-opened if the Commission feels that the candidate has fallen out of compliance.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: To assess progress achieved by countries in preparing for accession to the European Union, the European Commission submits regular reports (yearly) to the European Council. These serve as a basis for the council to make decisions on negotiations or their extension to other candidates.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Once the negotiations are complete, a Treaty of Accession will be signed, which must then be ratified by all of the member states of the Union, as well as the institutions of the Union, and the candidate country. Once this has been completed it will join the Union on the date specified in the treaty.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The entire process, from application for membership to membership has typically taken about a decade, although some countries, notably Sweden, Finland, and Austria have been faster, taking only a few years. The process from application for association agreement through accession has taken far longer, as much as several decades (Turkey, for example, first applied for association in the 1950s and has yet to conclude accession negotiations).


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: On 18 October 2019, France vetoed starting of negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, citing problems with the current enlargement process. In November 2019, France proposed a seven-stage accession plan for membership. The reformed accession strategy proposes participation in different programs, such as Erasmus, Banking Union, Capital Markets Union, Customs Union, etc.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The following is an example of the accession process—Estonia's path to membership from its restoration of independence from the Soviet Union in November 1991 with recognition from the EU the same month to membership in May 2004. Ease of accession depends on the state: how integrated it is with the EU beforehand, the state of its economy and public institutions, any outstanding political issues with the EU and (historically) how much law to date the EU has built up that the acceding state must adopt. This outline also includes integration steps taken by the accession country after it attains membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Enlargement has been one of the EU's successful foreign policies, yet has equally suffered from considerable opposition from the start. French President Charles de Gaulle opposed British membership. A later French President, François Mitterrand, opposed Greek, Spanish and Portuguese membership, fearing that the former dictatorships were not ready and that the countries' inclusion would reduce the union to a free-trade area.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The reasons for the first member states to apply, and for them to be accepted, were primarily economic while the second enlargement was more political. The southern Mediterranean countries had just emerged from dictatorships and wanted to secure their democratic systems through the EEC, while the EEC wanted to ensure the same thing and that their southern neighbours were stable and aligned to NATO. These two principal forces, economic gain and political security, have been behind enlargements since. After the large enlargements in 2004, public opinion in Europe turned against further expansion.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: It has also been acknowledged that enlargement has its limits; the EU cannot expand endlessly. Former Commission President Romano Prodi favoured granting "everything but institutions" to the EU's neighbour states, allowing them to co-operate deeply while not adding strain on the EU's institutional framework. This has in particular been pushed by France and Germany as a privileged partnership for Turkey, membership for which has faced considerable opposition on cultural and logistical grounds.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was proposed by Robert Schuman in his declaration on 9 May 1950 and involved the pooling of the coal and steel industries of France and West Germany. Half of the project states, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, had already achieved a great degree of integration amongst themselves with the organs of Benelux and earlier bilateral agreements. These five countries were joined by Italy and they all signed the Treaty of Paris on 23 July 1952. These six members, dubbed the 'Inner Six' (as opposed to the 'outer seven' who formed the European Free Trade Association who were suspicious of such plans for integration) went on to sign the Treaties of Rome establishing two further communities, together known as the European Communities when they merged their executives in 1967.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In 1962, Spain, ruled by the military dictator Francisco Franco, issued its first attempt to join the European Communities. Spanish Foreign Affairs minister Fernando María Castiella sent the request form to French Prime Minister Maurice Couve de Murville. This request was rejected by all the member countries in 1964; Spain was not a democracy at the time, and thus unable to enter the EEC.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The Community did see some loss of territory due to the decolonialisation occurring in their era. Algeria, which was an integral part of France, had a special relationship with the Community. Algeria gained independence on 5 July 1962 and hence left the Community. There would be no further efforts at enlargement until the early 1970s.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The United Kingdom, which had refused to join as a founding member, changed its policy following the Suez crisis and applied to be a member of the Communities. Other EEC members were also inclined to British membership on those grounds. French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed British membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Once de Gaulle had left office, the door to enlargement was once again opened. The EEC economy had also slowed down and British membership was seen as a way to revitalise the community. Only after a 12-hour talk between British Prime Minister Edward Heath and French President Georges Pompidou took place did Britain's third application succeed. After Britain was accepted Prime Minister Edward Heath said:


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: "For my part, I have no doubt at all that the discussions which we have had will prove of real and lasting benefit, not only to Britain and France, but to Europe as a whole."


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: As part of the deal for British entry, France agreed to allow the EEC its own monetary resources. However France made that concession only as Britain's small agriculture sector would ensure that Britain would be a net contributor to the Common Agricultural Policy dominated EEC budget. Applying together with the UK, as on the previous occasions, were Denmark, Ireland, and Norway. These countries were so economically linked to the UK that they considered it necessary to join the EEC if the UK did. However the Norwegian government lost a national referendum on membership and hence did not accede with the others on 1 January 1973. Gibraltar joined the Community with the United Kingdom at this point, as can be seen in the long title of the UK European Communities Act 1972.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The next enlargement would occur for different reasons. The 1970s also saw Greece, Spain, and Portugal emerge from dictatorship. These countries desired to consolidate their new democratic systems by binding themselves into the EEC. Equally, the EEC was unsure about which way these countries were heading and wanted to ensure stability along its southern borders. However François Mitterrand initially opposed their membership fearing they were not ready and it would water the community down to a free trade area.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The year 1985, however, saw the first time a territory voted to leave the Community, when Greenland was granted home rule by Denmark and the territory used its new powers and voted to withdraw from the Community (See member state territories).


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Morocco and Turkey applied for membership in 1987. Morocco's application was turned down as it was not considered European, while Turkey's application was considered eligible on the basis of the 1963 Ankara Association Agreement, but the opinion of the commission on the possible candidate status was by then negative. Turkey received candidate status only in 1999 and began official membership negotiations in 2005, which were still in progress as of 2021.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: After the 1970s, Europe experienced an economic downturn which led to leaders launching of the Single European Act which set to create a single market by 1992. The effect of this was that EFTA states found it harder to export to the EEC and businesses (including large EFTA corporations such as Volvo) wished to relocate within the new single market making the downturn worse for EFTA. EFTA states began to discuss closer links with the EEC despite its domestic unpopularity.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Austria, Finland, and Sweden were neutral in the Cold War so membership of an organisation developing a common foreign and security policy would be incompatible with that. With the end of the Cold War in 1989, that obstacle was removed, and the desire to pursue membership grew stronger. On 3 October 1990, the reunification of East and West Germany brought East Germany into the Community without increasing the number of member states.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The Community later became the European Union in 1993 by virtue of the Maastricht Treaty, and established standards for new entrants so their suitability could be judged. The Copenhagen criteria stated in 1993 that a country must be a democracy, operate a free market, and be willing to adopt the entire body of EU law already agreed upon. Also in 1993 the European Economic Area was established with the EFTA states except Switzerland. Most of the new EEA states pursued full EU membership as the EEA did not sufficiently satisfy the needs of their export based corporations. The EU has also preferred these states to integrate via the EEA rather than full membership as the EEC wished to pursue monetary integration and did not wish for another round of enlargement to occupy their attention. However, with the EEA's credibility dented following rejection by businesses and Switzerland, the EU agreed with full membership. This was more readily accepted with the prospect of poorer countries wishing to join; contributions from richer countries would help balance the EU budget. On 1 January 1995 Austria, Finland, and Sweden acceded to the EU marking its fourth enlargement. The Norwegian government lost a second national referendum on membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In the late 1980's (shortly prior to the Dissolution of the Soviet Union) Mikhail Gorbachev announced the Soviet Union would no longer intervene in other countries' internal affairs (Sinatra Doctrine), practically freeing Central and Eastern Europe from Soviet occupation (Czechoslovakia and Hungary) / Soviet backed authoritarian regimes. These countries wanted to consolidate their democracies through joining Western world international organisations (including participation in European integration) which would ensure the newly emerged democracies would not fall back under Russian control. The EU and NATO offered a guarantee of this, and the EU was also seen as vital to ensuring the economic success of those countries. However, the EU's desire to accept these countries' membership applications was less than rapid. The collapse of communism came quickly and was not anticipated. The EU struggled to deal with the sudden reunification of Germany with the addition of its poorer 17 million people and, while keeping its monetary union project on track, it was still at that early stage pointing the EFTA countries in the direction of the EEA rather than full membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: States in Central and Eastern Europe persisted and eventually the above-mentioned issues were cleared. The US also pressured the EU to offer membership as a temporary guarantee; it feared expanding NATO too rapidly for fear of frightening Russia. Although eventually trying to limit the number of members, and after encouragement from the US, the EU pursued talks with ten countries and a change of mind by Cyprus and Malta helped to offset slightly the influx of large poorer member states from Central and Eastern Europe.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In the end, eight Central and Eastern European countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), plus two Mediterranean countries (Malta and Cyprus) joined on 1 May 2004. This was the largest single enlargement in terms of people, and number of countries, though not in terms of GDP. The less developed nature of these countries was of concern to some of the older member states. Some countries, such as the UK, immediately opened their job market to the accession states, whereas most others placed temporary restrictions on the rights of work of the citizens of these states to their countries. The movement westward of some of the labour force of the newly acceded countries that occurred in the aftermath of the enlargement initially spawned clichés among the public opinion and media of some western countries (such as the "Polish plumber"), despite the generally conceded benefit to the economies concerned. The official EU media (the speeches of the European Commission) frequently referred to the enlargement to the CEE region as "an historical opportunity" and "morally imperative", which reflected the desire of the EU to admit these countries as members, even though they were less developed than the Western European countries.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Following this, Romania and Bulgaria (deemed initially as not fully ready by the commission to join in 2004) acceded nevertheless on 1 January 2007. These, like the countries joining in 2004, faced a series of restrictions as to their citizens not fully enjoying working rights on the territory of some of the older EU members. As of mid-2022, Bulgaria and Romania are not members of the Schengen Area nor the Eurozone; however, their citizens can travel visa-free to the other EU countries.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The socio-economic research on the attitudes towards the integration from both hosting and visiting countries has revealed divergent views. The analysis shows, there are a number of possible factors of the rationalisation and understanding of the practices on what the enlargement has been and should be like. Attitudes of even sceptical citizens, do not discard the possibility on future sustainable enlargements. The years subsequent to the EU accession will lead to extensive dialogues between policy-makers, governments, and European citizens about the path for a constructive development.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The 2003 European Council summit in Thessaloniki set integration of the Western Balkans as a priority of EU expansion. The EU's relations with the Western Balkans states were moved from the "External Relations" to the "Enlargement" policy segment in 2005. Those states which have not been recognised as candidate countries are considered "potential candidate countries". The move to Enlargement directorate was a consequence of the advancement of the Stabilisation and Association process.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Croatia joined on 1 July 2013, following ratification of the 2011 Accession Treaty by all other EU countries. Albania and the several successor states of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have all adopted EU integration as an aim of foreign policy.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Article 49 of the Maastricht Treaty (as amended) says that any European state that respects the "principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law", may apply to join the Union. The European Council set out the conditions for EU membership in June 1993 in the so-called Copenhagen criteria (see Criteria above for details). The Western Balkan states had to sign Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs) before applying for membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Turkey applied for membership in 1987. The Western Balkans have been prioritised for membership since emerging from war during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are all recognised as official candidates and in negotiation; negotiations with Turkey are frozen. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are recognised as potential candidates for membership by the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina has submitted an application for EU membership, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo have an SAA with the EU.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: In July 2014, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker announced that the EU has no plans to expand in the next five years. Juncker has described Serbia and Montenegro as front-runner candidates, and projected that they would join by 2025. The European Council endorsed starting negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania on 26 March 2020, and they could join after 2025. Turkey is not expected to join anytime soon.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: On 6 February 2018, the European Commission published its expansion plan, which covers the six Western Balkan countries. The plan envisages that all six applicants could achieve accession as members of the European Union after 2025. In May 2018, Bulgaria—holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union—hosted a summit on the Western Balkans, which aimed to facilitate accession by the six, including enhanced regional security cooperation and regional connectivity.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: It was noteworthy that the Summit referred to 'partners' rather than states: this reflects that Kosovo is partially recognised as a state. As of 2018, Kosovo was not recognised by fellow Western Balkan applicant Serbia, and existing EU members Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Romania, and Greece. The European Commission is sensitive to the issue which was addressed in a speech by the EU's High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament Plenary Session on the Western Balkan Strategy: "shared, unequivocal, concrete perspective for European Union integration for each and every one of the six partners. Each at its own pace, with its own specificities and under different conditions, but the direction is clear and is one."


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the three former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia submitted applications for EU membership.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: The European Parliament subsequently voted to accept an emergency petition from the government of Ukraine for EU member state candidacy. On 17 June 2022, the European Commission recommended that Ukraine and Moldova become candidates for EU membership, and that Georgia be recognised as a potential candidate but that it would need to "meet certain conditions" to be granted candidate status. These conditions included investing more in education and infrastructure, and completing a number of reforms in the areas of elections, judicial independence, crime, corruption, and oligarchs. These recommendations were approved by the European Council during a summit on 23 June 2022.


title: Enlargement of the European Union

text: Several sovereign states have previously submitted applications for membership to the EU, but are no longer on the agenda:


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemical or physiological effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or organism (sometimes the word "pharmacon" is used as a term to encompass these endogenous and exogenous bioactive species). More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals.


title: Pharmacology

text: The field encompasses drug composition and properties,functions,sources,synthesis and drug design, molecular and cellular mechanisms, organ/systems mechanisms, signal transduction/cellular communication, molecular diagnostics, interactions, chemical biology, therapy, and medical applications and antipathogenic capabilities. The two main areas of pharmacology are pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Pharmacodynamics studies the effects of a drug on biological systems, and pharmacokinetics studies the effects of biological systems on a drug. In broad terms, pharmacodynamics discusses the chemicals with biological receptors, and pharmacokinetics discusses the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of chemicals from the biological systems.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology is not synonymous with pharmacy and the two terms are frequently confused. Pharmacology, a biomedical science, deals with the research, discovery, and characterization of chemicals which show biological effects and the elucidation of cellular and organismal function in relation to these chemicals. In contrast, pharmacy, a health services profession, is concerned with the application of the principles learned from pharmacology in its clinical settings; whether it be in a dispensing or clinical care role. In either field, the primary contrast between the two is their distinctions between direct-patient care, pharmacy practice, and the science-oriented research field, driven by pharmacology.


title: Pharmacology

text: The word "pharmacology" is derived from Greek , "pharmakon", "drug, poison" and , "-logia" "study of", "knowledge of" (cf. the etymology of "pharmacy"). Pharmakon is related to pharmakos, the ritualistic sacrifice or exile of a human scapegoat or victim in Ancient Greek religion.


title: Pharmacology

text: The modern term "pharmacon" is used more broadly than the term "drug" because it includes endogenous substances, and biologically active substances which are not used as drugs. Typically it includes pharmacological agonists and antagonists, but also enzyme inhibitors (such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors).


title: Pharmacology

text: The origins of clinical pharmacology date back to the Middle Ages, with pharmacognosy and Avicenna's "The Canon of Medicine", Peter of Spain's "Commentary on Isaac", and John of St Amand's "Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas". Early pharmacology focused on herbalism and natural substances, mainly plant extracts. Medicines were compiled in books called pharmacopoeias. Crude drugs have been used since prehistory as a preparation of substances from natural sources. However, the active ingredient of crude drugs are not purified and the substance is adulterated with other substances.


title: Pharmacology

text: Traditional medicine varies between cultures and may be specific to a particular culture, such as in traditional Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan and Korean medicine. However much of this has since been regarded as pseudoscience. Pharmacological substances known as entheogens may have spiritual and religious use and historical context.


title: Pharmacology

text: In the 17th century, the English physician Nicholas Culpeper translated and used pharmacological texts. Culpeper detailed plants and the conditions they could treat. In the 18th century, much of clinical pharmacology was established by the work of William Withering. Pharmacology as a scientific discipline did not further advance until the mid-19th century amid the great biomedical resurgence of that period. Before the second half of the nineteenth century, the remarkable potency and specificity of the actions of drugs such as morphine, quinine and digitalis were explained vaguely and with reference to extraordinary chemical powers and affinities to certain organs or tissues. The first pharmacology department was set up by Rudolf Buchheim in 1847, at University of Tartu, in recognition of the need to understand how therapeutic drugs and poisons produced their effects. Subsequently, the first pharmacology department in England was set up in 1905 at University College London.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology developed in the 19th century as a biomedical science that applied the principles of scientific experimentation to therapeutic contexts. The advancement of research techniques propelled pharmacological research and understanding. The development of the organ bath preparation, where tissue samples are connected to recording devices, such as a myograph, and physiological responses are recorded after drug application, allowed analysis of drugs' effects on tissues. The development of the ligand binding assay in 1945 allowed quantification of the binding affinity of drugs at chemical targets. Modern pharmacologists use techniques from genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and other advanced tools to transform information about molecular mechanisms and targets into therapies directed against disease, defects or pathogens, and create methods for preventive care, diagnostics, and ultimately personalized medicine.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology can also focus on specific systems comprising the body. Divisions related to bodily systems study the effects of drugs in different systems of the body. These include neuropharmacology, in the central and peripheral nervous systems; immunopharmacology in the immune system. Other divisions include cardiovascular, renal and endocrine pharmacology. Psychopharmacology is the study of the use of drugs that affect the psyche, mind and behavior (e.g. antidepressants) in treating mental disorders (e.g. depression). It incorporates approaches and techniques from neuropharmacology, animal behavior and behavioral neuroscience, and is interested in the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of action of psychoactive drugs. The related field of neuropsychopharmacology focuses on the effects of drugs at the overlap between the nervous system and the psyche.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacometabolomics, also known as pharmacometabonomics, is a field which stems from metabolomics, the quantification and analysis of metabolites produced by the body. It refers to the direct measurement of metabolites in an individual's bodily fluids, in order to predict or evaluate the metabolism of pharmaceutical compounds, and to better understand the pharmacokinetic profile of a drug. Pharmacometabolomics can be applied to measure metabolite levels following the administration of a drug, in order to monitor the effects of the drug on metabolic pathways. Pharmacomicrobiomics studies the effect of microbiome variations on drug disposition, action, and toxicity. Pharmacomicrobiomics is concerned with the interaction between drugs and the gut microbiome. Pharmacogenomics is the application of genomic technologies to drug discovery and further characterization of drugs related to an organism's entire genome. For pharmacology regarding individual genes, pharmacogenetics studies how genetic variation gives rise to differing responses to drugs. Pharmacoepigenetics studies the underlying epigenetic marking patterns that lead to variation in an individual's response to medical treatment.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology can be applied within clinical sciences. Clinical pharmacology is the application of pharmacological methods and principles in the study of drugs in humans. An example of this is posology, which is the study of how medicines are dosed.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology is closely related to toxicology. Both pharmacology and toxicology are scientific disciplines that focus on understanding the properties and actions of chemicals. However, pharmacology emphasizes the therapeutic effects of chemicals, usually drugs or compounds that could become drugs, whereas toxicology is the study of chemical's adverse effects and risk assessment.


title: Pharmacology

text: Drug discovery is the field of study concerned with creating new drugs. It encompasses the subfields of drug design and development. Drug discovery starts with drug design, which is the inventive process of finding new drugs. In the most basic sense, this involves the design of molecules that are complementary in shape and charge to a given biomolecular target. After a lead compound has been identified through drug discovery, drug development involves bringing the drug to the market. Drug discovery is related to pharmacoeconomics, which is the sub-discipline of health economics that considers the value of drugs Pharmacoeconomics evaluates the cost and benefits of drugs in order to guide optimal healthcare resource allocation. The techniques used for the discovery, formulation, manufacturing and quality control of drugs discovery is studied by pharmaceutical engineering, a branch of engineering. Safety pharmacology specialises in detecting and investigating potential undesirable effects of drugs.


title: Pharmacology

text: Development of medication is a vital concern to medicine, but also has strong economical and political implications. To protect the consumer and prevent abuse, many governments regulate the manufacture, sale, and administration of medication. In the United States, the main body that regulates pharmaceuticals is the Food and Drug Administration; they enforce standards set by the United States Pharmacopoeia. In the European Union, the main body that regulates pharmaceuticals is the EMA, and they enforce standards set by the European Pharmacopoeia.


title: Pharmacology

text: The metabolic stability and the reactivity of a library of candidate drug compounds have to be assessed for drug metabolism and toxicological studies. Many methods have been proposed for quantitative predictions in drug metabolism; one example of a recent computational method is SPORCalc. A slight alteration to the chemical structure of a medicinal compound could alter its medicinal properties, depending on how the alteration relates to the structure of the substrate or receptor site on which it acts: this is called the structural activity relationship (SAR). When a useful activity has been identified, chemists will make many similar compounds called analogues, to try to maximize the desired medicinal effect(s). This can take anywhere from a few years to a decade or more, and is very expensive. One must also determine how safe the medicine is to consume, its stability in the human body and the best form for delivery to the desired organ system, such as tablet or aerosol. After extensive testing, which can take up to six years, the new medicine is ready for marketing and selling.


title: Pharmacology

text: Because of these long timescales, and because out of every 5000 potential new medicines typically only one will ever reach the open market, this is an expensive way of doing things, often costing over 1 billion dollars. To recoup this outlay pharmaceutical companies may do a number of things:


title: Pharmacology

text: The inverse benefit law describes the relationship between a drugs therapeutic benefits and its marketing.


title: Pharmacology

text: When designing drugs, the placebo effect must be considered to assess the drug's true therapeutic value.


title: Pharmacology

text: Drug development uses techniques from medicinal chemistry to chemically design drugs. This overlaps with the biological approach of finding targets and physiological effects.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology can be studied in relation to wider contexts than the physiology of individuals. For example, pharmacoepidemiology concerns the variations of the effects of drugs in or between populations, it is the bridge between clinical pharmacology and epidemiology. Pharmacoenvironmentology or environmental pharmacology is the study of the effects of used pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) on the environment after their elimination from the body. Human health and ecology are intimately related so environmental pharmacology studies the environmental effect of drugs and pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment.


title: Pharmacology

text: Drugs may also have ethnocultural importance, so ethnopharmacology studies the ethnic and cultural aspects of pharmacology.


title: Pharmacology

text: Photopharmacology is an emerging approach in medicine in which drugs are activated and deactivated with light. The energy of light is used to change for shape and chemical properties of the drug, resulting in different biological activity. This is done to ultimately achieve control when and where drugs are active in a reversible manner, to prevent side effects and pollution of drugs into the environment.


title: Pharmacology

text: The study of chemicals requires intimate knowledge of the biological system affected. With the knowledge of cell biology and biochemistry increasing, the field of pharmacology has also changed substantially. It has become possible, through molecular analysis of receptors, to design chemicals that act on specific cellular signaling or metabolic pathways by affecting sites directly on cell-surface receptors (which modulate and mediate cellular signaling pathways controlling cellular function).


title: Pharmacology

text: Chemicals can have pharmacologically relevant properties and effects. Pharmacokinetics describes the effect of the body on the chemical (e.g. half-life and volume of distribution), and pharmacodynamics describes the chemical's effect on the body (desired or toxic).


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacology is typically studied with respect to particular systems, for example endogenous neurotransmitter systems. The major systems studied in pharmacology can be categorised by their ligands and include acetylcholine, adrenaline, glutamate, GABA, dopamine, histamine, serotonin, cannabinoid and opioid.


title: Pharmacology

text: Molecular targets in pharmacology include receptors, enzymes and membrane transport proteins. Enzymes can be targeted with enzyme inhibitors. Receptors are typically categorised based on structure and function. Major receptor types studied in pharmacology include G protein coupled receptors, ligand gated ion channels and receptor tyrosine kinases.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacodynamics is defined as how the body reacts to the drugs. Pharmacology models include the Hill equation, Cheng-Prusoff equation and Schild regression. Pharmacodynamics theory often investigates the binding affinity of ligands to their receptors.


title: Pharmacology

text: Medication is said to have a narrow or wide "therapeutic index," certain safety factor or "therapeutic window". This describes the ratio of desired effect to toxic effect. A compound with a narrow therapeutic index (close to one) exerts its desired effect at a dose close to its toxic dose. A compound with a wide therapeutic index (greater than five) exerts its desired effect at a dose substantially below its toxic dose. Those with a narrow margin are more difficult to dose and administer, and may require therapeutic drug monitoring (examples are warfarin, some antiepileptics, aminoglycoside antibiotics). Most anti-cancer drugs have a narrow therapeutic margin: toxic side-effects are almost always encountered at doses used to kill tumors.


title: Pharmacology

text: The effect of drugs can be described with Loewe additivity which is one of several common reference models.


title: Pharmacology

text: Pharmacokinetics is the study of the bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs.


title: Pharmacology

text: When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of the chemical that is the active ingredient or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), pharmacologists are often interested in "L-ADME":


title: Pharmacology

text: In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for creating guidelines for the approval and use of drugs. The FDA requires that all approved drugs fulfill two requirements:


title: Pharmacology

text: Gaining FDA approval usually takes several years. Testing done on animals must be extensive and must include several species to help in the evaluation of both the effectiveness and toxicity of the drug. The dosage of any drug approved for use is intended to fall within a range in which the drug produces a therapeutic effect or desired outcome.


title: Pharmacology

text: The safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs in the U.S. are regulated by the federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987.


title: Pharmacology

text: The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Federation of European Pharmacological Societies and European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics are organisations representing standardisation and regulation of clinical and scientific pharmacology.


title: Pharmacology

text: Systems for medical classification of drugs with pharmaceutical codes have been developed. These include the National Drug Code (NDC), administered by Food and Drug Administration.; Drug Identification Number (DIN), administered by Health Canada under the Food and Drugs Act; Hong Kong Drug Registration, administered by the Pharmaceutical Service of the Department of Health (Hong Kong) and National Pharmaceutical Product Index in South Africa. Hierarchical systems have also been developed, including the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (AT, or ATC/DDD), administered by World Health Organization; Generic Product Identifier (GPI), a hierarchical classification number published by MediSpan and SNOMED, C axis. Ingredients of drugs have been categorised by Unique Ingredient Identifier.


title: Pharmacology

text: The study of pharmacology overlaps with biomedical sciences and is the study of the effects of drugs on living organisms. Pharmacological research can lead to new drug discoveries, and promote a better understanding of human physiology. Students of pharmacology must have a detailed working knowledge of aspects in physiology, pathology, and chemistry. They may also require knowledge of plants as sources of pharmacologically-active compounds. Modern pharmacology is interdisciplinary and involves biophysical and computational sciences, and analytical chemistry. A pharmacist needs to be well-equipped with knowledge on pharmacology for application in pharmaceutical research or pharmacy practice in hospitals or commercial organisations selling to customers. Pharmacologists, however, usually work in a laboratory undertaking research or development of new products. Pharmacological research is important in academic research (medical and non-medical), private industrial positions, science writing, scientific patents and law, consultation, biotech and pharmaceutical employment, the alcohol industry, food industry, forensics/law enforcement, public health, and environmental/ecological sciences. Pharmacology is often taught to pharmacy and medicine students as part of a Medical School curriculum.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: Michael J. Saylor (born February 4, 1965) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the executive chairman and a co-founder of MicroStrategy, a company that provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services. Saylor served as MicroStrategy's chief executive officer from 1989 to 2022. He authored the 2012 book "The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything". He is also the sole trustee of Saylor Academy, a provider of free online education. As of 2016, Saylor had been granted 31 patents and had 9 additional applications under review.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: Saylor was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 4, 1965, and spent his early years on various Air Force bases around the world, as his father was an Air Force chief master sergeant. When Saylor was 11, the family settled in Fairborn, Ohio, near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In 1983, Saylor enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. He joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, through which he met the future co-founder of MicroStrategy, Sanju Bansal. He graduated from MIT in 1987, with a double major in aeronautics and astronautics; and science, technology, and society.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: A medical condition prevented him from becoming a pilot, and instead, he got a job with a consulting firm, The Federal Group, Inc. in 1987, where he focused on computer simulation modeling for a software integration company. In 1988, Saylor became an internal consultant at DuPont, where he developed computer models to help the company anticipate change in its key markets. The simulations predicted that there would be a recession in many of DuPont's major markets in 1990.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: Using the funds from DuPont, Saylor founded MicroStrategy with Sanju Bansal, his MIT fraternity brother. The company began developing software for data mining, then focused on software for business intelligence. In 1992, MicroStrategy won a $10 million contract with McDonald's to develop applications to analyze the efficiency of its promotions. The contract with McDonald's led Saylor to realize that his company could create business intelligence software that would allow companies to use their own data for insights into their businesses.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: Saylor took the company public in June 1998, with an initial stock offering of 4 million shares priced at $12 each. The stock price doubled on the first day of trading. He owns over 39,521 units of the company worth over $14,482,075. By early 2000, Saylor's net worth reached $7 billion, and the "Washingtonian" reported that he was the wealthiest man in the Washington D.C. area.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In 1996, Saylor was named KPMG Washington High-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year. In 1997, Ernst & Young named Saylor its Software Entrepreneur of the Year, and the following year, "Red Herring Magazine" recognized him as one of its Top 10 Entrepreneurs for 1998. Saylor was also featured by the "MIT Technology Review" as an "Innovator Under 35" in 1999.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: On August 8, 2022, Saylor resigned as CEO and remained executive chairman of MicroStrategy. Phong Le, the company's president, succeeded him as CEO. Saylor said in a press release, "As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations."


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In March 2000, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against Saylor and two other MicroStrategy executives for the company's inaccurate reporting of financial results for the preceding two years. In December 2000, Saylor settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing by paying $350,000 in penalties and a personal disgorgement of $8.3 million. As a result of the restatement of results, the company's stock declined in value and Saylor's net worth fell by $6 billion.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In a 3,000-word memo to all MicroStrategy employees on March 16, 2020, entitled "My Thoughts on COVID-19," Saylor criticized countermeasures then being recommended against the disease, saying that it is "soul-stealing and debillitating [sic] to embrace the notion of social distancing & economic hibernation" and predicting that in the worst-case scenario, global life expectancy would only "click down by a few weeks." Saylor also refused to close MicroStrategy's offices unless he was legally required to do so. The full content of the memo appeared on Reddit for only a few minutes and was reposted in the "Washington Business Journal".


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: On MicroStrategy's quarterly earnings conference call in July 2020, Saylor announced his intention for MicroStrategy to explore purchasing Bitcoin, gold, or other alternative assets instead of holding cash. The following month, MicroStrategy used $250 million from its cash stockpile to purchase 21,454 Bitcoin.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: MicroStrategy later added $175 million of Bitcoin to its holdings in September 2020 and another $50 million in early December 2020. On December 11, 2020, MicroStrategy announced that it had sold $650 million in convertible senior notes, taking on debt to increase its Bitcoin holdings to over $1 billion worth. On December 21, 2020, MicroStrategy announced their total holdings include 70,470 bitcoins purchased for $1.125 billion at an average price of $15,964 per bitcoin. As of February 24, 2021 holdings include 90,531 bitcoins acquired for $2.171 billion at an average price of $23,985 per bitcoin. Saylor, who controls 70% of MicroStrategy's shares, dismissed concerns by observers that the move is turning MicroStrategy into a Bitcoin investment firm or exchange-traded fund (ETF).


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In October 2020, Saylor disclosed he personally held 17,732 bitcoin at an average purchase price of $9,882. As of October 2021, he had not sold any bitcoin.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: Between October 1 and November 29, 2021, MicroStrategy bought 7,002 bitcoins for about $414.4 million in cash at an average purchase price of $59,187, bringing its total holdings to 121,044 bitcoins.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In August 2022, following a $917 million impairment in the value of MicroStrategy's bitcoin investment, Saylor resigned as CEO, remaining as executive chairman.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: On August 31, 2022, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia sued Saylor for tax fraud, accusing him of illegally avoiding more than $25 million in D.C. taxes by pretending to be a resident of other jurisdictions. MicroStrategy was accused of collaborating with Saylor to facilitate his tax evasion by misreporting his residential address to local and federal tax authorities and failing to withhold D.C. taxes. Saylor issued a statement saying “I respectfully disagree with the position of the District of Columbia and look forward to a fair resolution in the courts.”


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In June 2012, Saylor released "The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything", published by Perseus Books, which discusses trends in mobile technology and their future impact on commerce, healthcare, education, and the developing world. The book appeared on the "New York Times" Best Seller list, where it was ranked number seven in hardcover non-fiction books in August 2012, and was ranked number five in hardcover business books on the "Wall Street Journal's" Best-Sellers list in July 2012.


title: Michael J. Saylor

text: In 1999, Saylor established The Saylor Foundation (later named Saylor Academy), of which he is the sole trustee. Saylor.org was launched in 2008 as the free education initiative of The Saylor Foundation.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The Avars, also known as Maharuls (Avar: , , "mountaineers") are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group. The Avars are the largest of several ethnic groups living in the Russian republic of Dagestan. The Avars reside in the North Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Alongside other ethnic groups in the North Caucasus region, the Avars live in ancient villages located approximately 2,000 m above sea level. The Avar language spoken by the Caucasian Avars belongs to the family of Northeast Caucasian languages. Sunni Islam has been the prevailing religion of the Avars since the 13th century.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: According to 19th-century Russian historians, the Avars' neighbors usually referred to them as Tavlins ("tavlintsy"). This is an exonym. Vasily Potto wrote that those to the south usually knew them as Tavlins ("tavlintsy"). Potto wrote, "The words in different languages have the same meaning... [of] mountain dwellers [or] highlanders." Potto claimed that members of Avarian tribe also often referred to themselves by the alternate endonym , also meaning "mountaineer".


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Most of those known as Tavlins trace their lineage to the upper parts of two tributaries of the Sulak River: the Andiyskoe Koisu and Avarskoye Koisu.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Between the 5th and 12th centuries, Georgian Orthodox Christianity was introduced to the Avar valleys. At the time, the Christian kingdom of Sarir governed much of modern-day Dagestan. The neighboring Kingdom of Georgia was also Christian. However, when Sarir fell in the early 12th century and Mongol invasions led by Subutai and Jebe weakened Georgia, Christian influence in the area ended. The Avar Khanate, a predominantly Muslim polity, succeeded Sarir. The only extant monument of Sarir architecture is the 10th-century Datuna Church in the village of Datuna. The Mongol invasions seem not to have affected the Avar territory, and the alliance with the Golden Horde enabled the Avar khans to increase their prosperity. In the 15th century the Horde declined, and the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh rose to power. The Shamkhalate absorbed the Avar Khanate.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: From the 16th century onwards, the Persians and Ottomans began expanding their territory in the Caucasus. By the mid-16th century, what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia were under Safavid Persian rule. The area that is now western Georgia fell under Ottoman Turkish control. Although the Ottoman Turks briefly gained Dagestan during the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1578–1590, Dagestan and many of its Avar inhabitants stayed under Persian suzerainty for many centuries. Despite Persian rule, many ethnic groups in Dagestan, including many Avars, retained relatively high amounts of freedom and self-governance.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: After the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723, Russia briefly took Dagestan from the Persians. The Persians reestablished full control over the Caucasus again in the early 18th century under Nader Shah's Caucasus campaign and Dagestan campaign. During that same time, the Avars routed one of Nader Shah's armies at Andalal during the later stages of his Dagestan campaign. In the wake of this triumph, Umma Khan of the Avars (reigned 1774–1801) managed to extract tribute from most states of the Caucasus, including Shirvan and Georgia.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Umma Khan died in 1801. Two years later, the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority following the Russian annexation of Georgia and the Treaty of Georgievsk. This was only confirmed after considerable Russian successes and the victory in the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813, after which Persia lost southern Dagestan and many of its other Caucasian territories to Russia. The 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay indefinitely consolidated Russian control over Dagestan and other areas where the Avars lived.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The Russians instituted heavy taxes, expropriated estates, and constructed fortresses in the Avar region. The Avar population revolted under the flag of the Muslim Imamate of Dagestan. Ghazi Mohammed (1828–1832), Gamzat-bek (1832–1834), and Shamil (1834–1859) led the revolts.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: This Caucasian War raged until 1864, when the Avarian Khanate was abolished and replaced by the Avarian District. Some Avars refused to collaborate with Russians and migrated to Turkey, where their descendants live to this day. Despite war and emigration, the Avars retained their position as the dominant ethnic group in Dagestan during the Soviet period. After World War II, many Avars left the barren highlands for the fertile plains closer to the shores of the Caspian Sea.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The Avarians are a Northeast Caucasian people who speak Avar, a Northeast Caucasian language. According to "Encyclopedia Britannica", the Turanian nomads also share the name Avar. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the Turanian nomads as "a people of undetermined origin and language."


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: As of 2002, the Avarians numbered about 1.04 million. 912,020 Avarians lived in Russia during the 2010 census; 850,011 of them lived in Dagestan. Only 32% lived in cities. Avarians inhabit most of the mountainous part of Dagestan as well the plains (Buynaksk, Khasavyurt, Kizilyurt and other regions). Outside of Dagestan, Russian Avars also live in Chechnya and Kalmykia.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: As of 1999, 50,900 Avarians lived in the Balakan and Zakatala rayons of Azerbaijan. The Avarian population of Azerbaijan had decreased to 49,800 by 2009. In 2002, 1,996 Kvareli Avars lived in Georgia.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: In Turkey, Avarians are considered "ethnic Turks", and so aren't counted as their own ethnic group on the census. This makes it difficult to know exactly how many Avarians live in Turkey. According to Ataev B.M., who referenced A.M. Magomeddadaev's research, the Avarian population there should have been around 53,000 in 2005.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Avarian is a collective term; among the Avarians there are around 15 sub-ethnic groups, including the Avar, Andi, and Tsez (Dido) peoples.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: , transliterated as means "inhabitants of the top grounds, mountaineers." Another group of Avarians is described as belonging to a different category, ( (with a soft "χ"). This term means "inhabitants of plains (warm valleys) and gardeners".


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The name "Avarians" has a narrower meaning; it has a national meaning connected with former statehood. "Avar" is a significant part of the word "Avaria," which refers to the Khunzakh Khanate. The Khanate formed in the 12th century after the disintegration of Sаrir. From the middle of the 19th century, this territory was the Avarian District of the Daghestan area. This area is now referred to as Khunzakhsky District of Dagestan. Khunzakhsky District is referred to as in literary Avarian and in a local dialect.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The modern literary language of Avarias (), both in the past and today, is known among Avarians as the language of (). The Avarian word means "army, armed people." According to reconstructions, this word descends from in the proto-Avarian language ("ʔ" represents a glottal stop).


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: In modern Avarian, three words retain the ancient basis of . They include , meaning "envoy, prophet, messiah"; , meaning "pommel of a saddle"; and , meaning "obstacle, opposition". means "to make an obstacle, to resist." There is also an Avarian river called in Avarian and in Russian.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: All three listed words are found in ancient lexicons of the Iranian languages. The Parthian word and the Middle Persian word both mean "up, on, over" and "higher, superior." The Middle Persian word means "acclivity," or uphill slope. Similar Middle Persian words include , meaning "superior"; , meaning "god, divinity"; , meaning "noble"; , meaning "to surpass", and , meaning "to attack".


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: At the same time, according to the morphology of the Middle Persian language, the word , meaning "superior" can also be translated as "Aβarian", "Khurasanian", and "Parthian" as seen, for example, in a Middle Persian word, , meaning "Iranian".


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The first known use of the term "Avar" was in the 10th century. According to Persian author Ibn Rustah, a so-called governor of Sarir, Johannes de Galonifontibus was the first person to write about Avars under the name "Avar." He wrote in 1404 that "Circassians, Leks, Yasses, Alans, Avars, [and] Kazikumukhs" live in the Caucasus. According to Vladimir Minorsky, one account from 1424 called the Daghestanian Avars the Auhar.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Azerbaijani writer Abbasgulu Bakikhanov wrote that the "inhabitants of vicinities of Agran have been moved here from Khurasan. A residence of this emir also was Agran". The editor of this book, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Z.M. Buniyatov, confirms that this "Agran" corresponds to the Avar Khanate.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The word "Agran" is unknown to modern Avars. According to the "Altiranisches Wörterbuch," written by Christian Bartholomae, "agra" means in his language, German. This corresponds to "first, upper, beginning, tip" in English. He also wrote that "agra'va" meant in German, which translates to "from the top, coming from the upper side."


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Nöldeke, Hübschmann, Frye, Christensen and Enoki identify Aparshahr/Abarshahr/Abharshahr/Abrashahr with Khurasan, a historical region of Iran, or with Nishapur, an Iranian city. The Khurasan () in Iranian studies is known as "rise of Sun." The Parthian word (Middle Persian , meaning "up, on, over") and Parthian/Middle Persian are cognate with Old Iranian , which means "empire, power, the sovereign house.") In summary, Aparšahr/Aβaršahr is very similar to the German word . According to historian H.W. Haussig, Aβaršahr means ("Kingdom of the Abar") and should be sought in the south-western territory of the Western Turkic Khaganate.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: A Dahae tribe, the Aparnak (Parni) moved from the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea (part of modern Turkmenistan), into the territory of Khurasan, where they founded a confederation of Dahae tribes that Avestani texts referred to as "barbarians" and "enemies of Aryans," according to Christian Bartholomae.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: On the border of Khurasan, the Sassanid Persians built a strong wall, named the "Great Wall of Gorgan" or "The Red Snake." The wall was built to protect Iran from invasion by the White Huns (Hepthalites; called Khionites, X'iiaona and Xyôn in Zoroastrian texts). Later another wave of White Huns conquered Khurasan and occupied it for a long time. According to Richard Helli: "By such reasoning, the Ephthalites are thought to have originated at Hsi-mo-ta-lo (southwest of Badakhshan and near the Hindu Kush), which tantalizingly, stands for Himtala, 'snow plain', which may be the Sanskritized form of Hephthal." In 484, the Hephthalite chief Akhshunwar led his army to attack the Sassanian King Peroz I, who was defeated and killed in Khurasan. After the victory, the Hephthalite empire extended to Merv and Herat. Some of the White Huns drew up a peace treaty with Iran and the two became allies, both fighting against the Byzantine Empire. Thus, Hephthalites lived in the Khurasan/Khorasan area. According to the Chinese classic Liang chih-kung-t'u, (pinyin: ) was the name the Hephthalites used for themselves, and that is probably a Chinese transfer of a similar-sounding word, war/Uar.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: Mehmed Tezcan writes that according to a Chinese record, the Hephthalites descended from a Ruan Ruan tribe called Hua in the Qeshi region (near Turpan). This tribe came to Tokharistan and soon settled also in eastern regions of Khorasan at the beginning of the 5th century. About the same time, the name Avars/Awards appears in the sources. Again, in his well-known Atlas of China, A. Herrmann shows the eastern regions of Khorasan, Tokharistan, etc. as the dominions of Afu/Hua/Awards/Hephthalites between ca. 440 and 500 A.D., relying on the identification Hua = Uar = Awar.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The German researcher Karl Heinrich Menges considered Eurasian Avars to be one of the ancient Mongol peoples, who "were the first to use the title ga gan (later qān, ḵān) for their supreme ruler." He describes the "traces of a Mongol residue in Daghestan". Supporters of the so-called old Turanian nomad horde "infiltrate" point of view (with various clauses) include the following scientists: Josef Markwart, Omeljan Pritsak, Vladimir Minorsky, Vladimir Baileys, Harald Haarmann, Murad Gadjievich Magomedov, Alikber Alikberov, and Timur Aytberov.


title: Avars (Caucasus)

text: The Avar language belongs to the Avar-Andi-Tsez subgroup of the Northeast Caucasian (or Nakh–Dagestanian) language family. The writing is based on the Cyrillic script, which replaced the Arabic script used before 1927 and the Latin script used between 1927 and 1938. More than 60% of the Avars living in Dagestan speak Russian as their second language.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Conservatives ran a campaign focusing on lower taxes, a strong economy and strong defence. They also emphasised that unemployment had just fallen below the 3 million mark for the first time since 1981, and inflation was standing at 4%, its lowest level since the 1960s. National newspapers also continued to largely back the Conservative Government, particularly "The Sun", which ran anti-Labour articles with headlines such as "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin".


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Labour Party, led by Neil Kinnock following Michael Foot's resignation in the aftermath of their landslide defeat at the 1983 general election, was slowly moving towards a more centrist policy platform following the promulgation of a left-wing one under its previous leader Michael Foot. The main aim of the Labour Party was simply to re-establish itself as the main progressive centre-left alternative to the Conservatives, after the rise of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) forced Labour onto the defensive. Indeed, the Labour Party succeeded in doing so at this general election. The Alliance between the SDP and the Liberal Party was renewed but co-leaders David Owen and David Steel could not agree whether to support either major party in the event of a hung parliament.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Conservatives were returned to government, having suffered a net loss of only 21 seats, leaving them with 376 MPs and a reduced but still strong majority of 102 seats. Labour succeeded in resisting the challenge by the SDP–Liberal Alliance to maintain its position as HM Official Opposition. Moreover, Labour managed to increase its vote share in Scotland, Wales and the North of England. Yet Labour still returned only 229 MPs to Westminster, and in certain London constituencies which Labour had held before the election; the Conservatives actually made gains.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The election was a disappointment for the Alliance, which saw its vote share fall and suffered a net loss of one seat as well as former SDP leader Roy Jenkins losing his seat to Labour. This led to the two parties merging completely soon afterwards to become the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland, the main unionist parties maintained their alliance in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, however the Ulster Unionists (UUP) lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). One of the UUP losses was former Cabinet Minister, Enoch Powell; famous for his stance against immigration and formerly a Conservative.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: To date, the Conservatives have not matched or surpassed their 1987 seat total in any general election held since, although they would record a greater share of the popular vote in the 2019 general election. The 50th Parliament is the last time to date that a Conservative government has lasted a full term with an overall majority of seats in Parliament, as the small 1992 election majority had dwindled to nil by the 1997 dissolution, it had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to form a government in 2010, and the narrow majority gained at the 2015 general election was lost when a snap election was called two years later and resulted in a hung parliament; with Labour making their first net gains in twenty years.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The election night was covered live on the BBC and presented by David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Sir Robin Day. It was also broadcast on ITV and presented by Sir Alastair Burnet, Peter Sissons and Alastair Stewart.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The 1987 general election saw the election of the first Black Members of Parliament: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant, all as representatives for the Labour Party. Other newcomers included future Cabinet member David Blunkett, future SNP Leader Alex Salmond and John Redwood. MPs leaving the House of Commons as a result of this election included former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, Keith Joseph, Jim Prior, Ian Mikardo, former SDP leader and Labour Cabinet Minister Roy Jenkins, former Health Minister Enoch Powell (who had defected to the UUP in Northern Ireland in 1974 after from the Conservatives) and Clement Freud.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Conservative campaign emphasised lower taxes, a strong economy and defence, and also employed rapid-response reactions to take advantage of Labour errors. Norman Tebbit and Saatchi and Saatchi spearheaded the Conservative campaign. However, when on "Wobbly Thursday" it was rumoured a Marplan opinion poll showed a narrow 2% Conservative lead, the "exiles" camp of David Young, Tim Bell and the Young & Rubicam firm advocated a more aggressively anti-Labour message. This was when, according to Young's memoirs, Young got Tebbit by the lapels and shook him, shouting: "Norman, listen to me, we're about to lose this fucking election." In his memoirs Tebbit defends the Conservative campaign: "We finished exactly as planned on the ground where Labour was weak and we were strong—defence, taxation, and the economy." During the election campaign however Tebbit and Thatcher argued.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: Bell and Saatchi and Saatchi produced memorable posters for the Conservatives, such as a picture of a British soldier's arms raised in surrender with the caption "Labour's Policy On Arms"—a reference to Labour's policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. The first Conservative party political broadcast played on the theme of "Freedom" and ended with a fluttering Union Jack, the hymn "I Vow to Thee, My Country" (which Thatcher would later quote in her "Sermon on the Mound") and the slogan "It's Great To Be Great Again".


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Labour campaign was a marked change from previous efforts; professionally directed by Peter Mandelson and Bryan Gould, it concentrated on presenting and improving Neil Kinnock's image to the electorate. Labour's first party political broadcast, dubbed "Kinnock: The Movie", was directed by Hugh Hudson of "Chariots of Fire" fame, and concentrated on portraying Kinnock as a caring, compassionate family man. It was filmed at the Great Orme in Wales and had "Ode to Joy" as its music. He was particularly critical of the high unemployment that the government's economic policies had resulted in, as well as condemning the wait for treatment that many patients had endured on the National Health Service. Kinnock's personal popularity jumped 16 points overnight following the initial broadcast.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: On 24 May, Kinnock was interviewed by David Frost and claimed that Labour's alternative defence strategy in the event of a Soviet attack would be "using the resources you've got to make any occupation totally untenable". In a speech two days later Thatcher attacked Labour's defence policy as a programme for "defeat, surrender, occupation, and finally, prolonged guerrilla fighting ... I do not understand how anyone who aspires to Government can treat the defence of our country so lightly".


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: During the 1987 election campaign, the Conservative Party (under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher) issued attack posters claiming that the Labour Party wanted the book "Young, Gay and Proud" to be read in schools, as well as "Police: Out of School", "The Playbook for Kids about Sex", and "The Milkman's on his Way", which, according to the Monday Club's Jill Knight MP – who introduced Section 28 and later campaigned against same-sex marriage – were being taught to "little children as young as five and six", which contained "brightly coloured pictures of little stick men showed all about homosexuality and how it was done", and "explicitly described homosexual intercourse and, indeed, glorified it, encouraging youngsters to believe that it was better than any other sexual way of life".


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Buckingham Palace on 11 May and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 18 May, announcing that the election would be held on 11 June. The key dates were as follows:


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The Conservatives were returned by a third landslide victory with a comfortable majority, down slightly on 1983 with a swing of 1.5% towards Labour. This marked the first time since the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832 that a party leader had won three consecutive elections, although the Conservative Party had won three consecutive contests in the 1950s under different leaders (Churchill in 1951, Eden in 1955 and Macmillan in 1959) and early in the century, the Liberals also had three successive wins under two leaders (Henry Campbell Bannerman in 1906 and H. H. Asquith twice in 1910). The Conservative lead over Labour of 11.4% was the second-greatest for any governing party since the Second World War; only being bettered by the previous 1983 result.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The BBC announced the result at 02:35. Increasing polarisation marked divisions across the country; the Conservatives dominated Southern England and took additional seats from Labour in London and the rest of the South, but performed less well in Northern England, Scotland and Wales, losing many of the seats they had won there at previous elections. Yet the overall result of this election proved that the policies of Margaret Thatcher retained significant support, with the Conservatives given a third convincing majority.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: Despite initial optimism and the professional campaign run by Neil Kinnock, the election brought only twenty additional seats for Labour from the 1983 Conservative landslide. In many southern areas, the Labour vote actually fell, with the party losing seats in London. However, it represented a decisive victory against the SDP–Liberal Alliance and marked out the Labour Party as the main contender to the Conservative Party. This was in stark contrast to 1983, when the Alliance almost matched Labour in terms of votes; although Labour had almost 10 times as many seats as the Alliance due to the structure of the First-Past-The-Post voting system.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: The result for the Alliance was a disappointment, in that they had hoped to overtake Labour as the Official Opposition in the UK in terms of vote share. Instead, they lost Roy Jenkins' seat and saw their vote share drop by almost 3%, with a widening gap of 8% between them and the Labour Party (compared to a 2% gap four years before). These results would eventually lead to the end of the Alliance and the birth of the Liberal Democrats.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: Most of the prominent MPs retained their seats. Notable losses included: Enoch Powell (the controversial former Conservative Cabinet Minister who had defected to the Ulster Unionist Party) and two Alliance members: Liberal Clement Freud and former SDP leader Roy Jenkins (a former Labour Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer). Neil Kinnock increased his share of the vote in Islwyn by almost 12%. Margaret Thatcher increased her share of the vote in her own seat in Finchley, but the Labour vote increased in the Prime Minister's constituency; thereby slightly reducing her majority.


title: 1987 United Kingdom general election

text: In Northern Ireland, the various unionist parties maintained an electoral pact (with few dissenters) in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. However, the Ulster Unionists lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party.