Summary : The League of Arab States, a grouping of 22 Arab states established in 1945, has the potential to become the most important regional organisation in the greater Middle East. The changes triggered by the Arab Spring have led to the reorientation of the League's traditionally conservative policies on established Arab political regimes, while the civil wars in Libya and Syria have highlighted the League's potentially constructive role in supporting transition in the southern Mediterranean. The organisation's newfound relevance has been recognised by the European Union, which has worked to enhance the once-limited bilateral relations. A milestone for the partners' cooperation was the second EU - Arab League Foreign Affairs ministerial meeting, convened in Cairo in November 2012, which resulted in a joint declaration outlining an ambitious work programme in a range of fields. In parallel, the European Parliament has advanced inter-parliamentary cooperation with the newly-established permanent Arab Parliament composed by representatives of national parliaments. While the Arab Parliament's role is still limited, the organisation has the potential to grow in the future, as the region moves towards more democratic structures of governance. This provides impetus for the European Parliament to be proactive and enhance its cooperation with the Arab Parliament. In addition, closer relations with the Arab Parliament would allow the European Parliament to increase its visibility and interaction with national parliaments in Arab countries.

Authors : Andreas KETTIS (with contributions from Irene FERNANDEZ MOLINA) (Policy Department, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, European Parliament)

Committees : Foreign affairs

Summary : Like a number of former Soviet Union republics in Central Asia, Turkmenistan has recently recorded quite high economic growth rates — often in the double digits — mainly thanks to the increasing global demand for energy and other raw materials, which are abundant in the country. Despite recent progress, the country's economic growth is still hampered by inefficient economic and public structures, still largely inspired by Soviet models and lacking modern infrastructure. The geographical location of Turkmenistan, a land-locked country with some 'difficult' neighbours (such as Iran and Afghanistan), also negatively influences its development. Among the former Soviet Union republics, Turkmenistan has what is probably the worst record in terms of economic and trade liberalisation. Despite growing public revenues, malnutrition still plagues remote rural areas, and poverty is widespread.

Authors : Roberto BENDINI (Policy Department, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, European Parliament)

Committees : International trade

Summary : Freezing assets is an EU competence; recovering them, on the other hand, is a competence of the Member States. For the EU, recovering the assets of the ousted Tunisian and Egyptian regimes is an issue of political commitment and credibility, with the Union's reputation in Arab Spring countries partly at stake. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (in force since 2005) makes clear that recovering assets is a priority in a coordinated international fight against corruption. There exists a lack of efficient cooperation between 'requesting' and 'requested' states, as well as a paucity of reliable information about the amounts in question. The EU Council has recently adopted a decision to make it easier to share information relating to Egyptian and Tunisian funds in the EU. There are still many procedural problems to tackle, especially in the case of Egypt. An EU special task force could be set up to explore practical ways to better coordinate and exchange best practices between EU Member States and Tunisia and Egypt. The UK is a frontrunner in establishing a central structure facilitating the legal proceedings to recover assets. The European Parliament can send a clear signal of the EU's political commitment to helping Tunisia and Egypt recover their assets.

Authors : Andreas KETTIS and Pekka HAKALA (EP, DG EXPO, Policy Department)

Committees : Foreign affairs

Summary : This note seeks to provide an initial appraisal of the European Commission's Impact Assessment accompanying its proposal for a Directive on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products, submitted on 19 December 2012. The Commission wishes to update existing Directive 2001/37/EC on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products (Tobacco Products Directive, TPD), by adjusting it to current developments and including so far uncovered areas. The revision of the TPD focuses on five policy issues: (1) smokeless tobacco products (STP) and extension of the product scope (nicotine containing products and herbal products for smoking), (2) packaging and labelling, (3) ingredients and additives, (4) cross-border distance sales, and (5) traceability and security features.

Authors : Alina-Alexandra Georgescu

Committees : Impact Assessment, Environment, public health and food safety

Summary : The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Project is an international scientific undertaking between seven cofinancing Parties intended to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a power source. Fusion for Energy (F4E) is the Domestic Agency charged with providing the EU contribution to the ITER International Organisation. ITER, and subsequently, F4E costs have increased substantially from original estimates, because of a number of internal and external drivers. While the EU has continued to affirm its support for the project, cost overruns have attracted a large amount of political questions, culminating in the capping of ITER expenditure through 2020 at 6,6 billion Euros, and have accentuated early difficulties of the F4E organisation. Beginning in 2010, a number of reforms were undertaken within F4E, including a reshuffling and reorientation of the governance and management structures, as well as significant efforts to implement cost-savings. The reforms have been widely lauded as effective and positive by stakeholders, although the inherent cost-effectiveness of F4E remains inextricably linked with the ITER project as a whole. Despite F4E’s commendable efforts, the margin to achieve the cost-savings needed to rebuild the contingency is highly limited by inherent characteristics of F4E’s operating environment. However, the study puts forward some tracks for improvements.

Authors : Ernst & Young - Government & Public Sector (GPS) (Paris-la-Défense, France)

Committees : Budget Control, Budget affairs

Summary : This is the update of the June 2011 comprehensive digest of the EU legislation on aviation security. It reminds notably of the current obligations on the parties involved, the monitoring process or the international aspects. The note also sheds light on the regime which applies to liquids on board, to the cargo from third countries or to the financing of security measures which all give rise to recurrent significant debate.

Authors : Marc Thomas (Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies, European Parliament)

Committees : Transport and tourism

Summary : In recent years, the United States’ natural gas industry has undergone a significant transformation, dubbed a 'revolution': extraction rates have soared thanks to new technologies. The shale gas boom is having an unprecedented affect on the US energy market, and this, in turn, has important implications for the rest of the world, notably the Middle East and Russia. While the shale gas 'revolution' has spurred a debate on environmental consequences and sustainability within the US, other countries — including countries as diverse as Canada and China — have, in different ways, aimed to replicate the US boom. In the EU, a shale gas 'revolution' appears relatively unlikely, at least for the moment, given Europe’s less favourable geological conditions and its wary public. Nevertheless, some EU Member States rich in shale gas, such as Poland and the United Kingdom, are actively promoting shale gas exploration activities to diversify their energy mix, reduce energy dependency and enhance energy security. Other countries, such as France and Bulgaria, have for the moment chosen to privilege environmental constraints and have implemented bans. The remaining Member States seem to have adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude. For all these states, however, the EU has an important role to play in ensuring a balanced common approach and encouraging the sustainable development of this industry while ensuring an adequate environmental protection. A recent Commission green paper on shale gas is a good initial step, although this should be followed with concrete action.

Authors : Jacopo BELLELLI supervised by Wanda TROSZCZYNSKA-VAN GENDEREN (Policy Department, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, European Parliament)

Committees : Foreign affairs

Summary : The study analyses the role of economically dependent self-employed workers in the labour market by taking institutional factors into account, such as labour law and social protection rights. In addition to setting out the reasons for the increase of dependent self-employed workers, the authors provide case studies across various sectors of selected EU Member States. While the phenomenon of dependent self-employment is highly diverse across EU Member States, it has become increasingly important and can be regarded as part of a general trend towards increasing labour market flexibilisation.

Authors : Eichhorst, Werner (IZA, coordinator), Braga, Michela (Fondazione DeBenedetti), Famira-Mühlberger, Ulrike (WIFO), Gerard, Maarten (IDEA Consult), Horvath, Thomas (WIFO), Kahanec, Martin (CELSI), Kahancová, Marta (CELSI), Kendzia, Michael (IZA), Martišková, Monika (CELSI), Monti, Paola (Fondazione DeBenedetti), Pedersen, Jakob Louis (NIRAS), Stanley, Julian (University of Warwick), Vandeweghe, Barbara (IDEA Consult), Wehner, Caroline (IZA) and White, Caroline (University of Warwick)

Committees : Employment and social affairs

Summary : This note seeks to provide an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's Impact Assessment (IA) accompanying the proposals for a Regulation on consumer product safety and for a Regulation on market surveillance for products, the ‘Product safety and market surveillance package’, submitted by the Commission on 13 February 2013. The problem in need of EU intervention is described generally as ‘the existence of unsafe and non-compliant products circulating in the internal market, indicating a failure in the functioning of the legislative framework within which the internal market operates’. This note, prepared by the Impact Assessment Unit for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), analyses whether the principal criteria laid down in the Commission’s own Impact Assessment Guidelines, as well as additional factors identified by the Parliament in its Impact Assessment Handbook, appear to be met by the IA. It does not attempt to deal with the substance of the proposal. It is drafted for informational and background purposes to assist the relevant parliamentary committee(s) and Members more widely in their work.

Authors : Elke Ballon

Committees : Impact Assessment, Internal market and consumer protection