I was tempted to call these definitions, but it could be argued that they are subjective and so should only be used as terms of reference. I’ll add to these as we go along.

1. Short-term – covering or applying to a relatively short period of time. I’m taking this to cover periods of 1-2 yrs as most policies take a yr to consider and start to implement and then another year to bed in and take affect
2. Long-term – covering a relatively long period of time. 3 yrs up. Although perhaps wise to curtail to 3-5 yrs as 5 yrs would cover our normal electoral cycle now
3. Downstream – the benefits or costs that will ultimately result from decisions made today. Most people I know consider the future effects of important decisions they make on their lives
4. EU member states – 28 countries party to the founding treaties of the union and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European_Union
5. Single Market – the free movement from one EU member country to another of goods, people, services and capital and the rules used to govern it. https://fullfact.org/europe/what-single-market/
6. Eurozone – which the UK is not a part of and has a veto on ever having to join: officially called the euro area it’s a monetary union of 19 of the 28 EU member states which have adopted the euro (€) as their common currency and sole legal tender: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone
7. Schengen Area – the Republic of Ireland and the UK are not part of this and maintain opt-outs. The Schengen Area is the area including 26 European countries that have abolished passport and any other type of border control at their mutual borders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area
8. World Trade Organisation (WTO) – The WTO is a member-driven organisation composed of governments and customs territories (such as the EU). It sets the framework for trade between its members with decisions taken on a consensus basis. For our purposes think of the WTO as being all other countries of the World and the EU (as a united trading bloc) having thrashed out trading relationships and tariffs. http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/eu-and-wto
9. Institute for Fiscal Studies – Established as an independent research institute they are fiercely proud of remaining independent from political parties and governments and tell us how well or badly the govt of the day is doing with the economy and what are the likely impacts of future country-wide policies and decisions. http://www.ifs.org.uk/about/

#FactCheck: official govt information: https://fullfact.org/europe/governments-eu-leaflet-introduction/

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Created: 18th June 2016, Published: 19th June 2016
Updated: 5th November 2018 – Minor grammar changes, heading style updates & copyright inclusion; 13th September 2019 – addition of Previous & Next links and subscription block.

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