Think Tank

A revision of the Detergents Regulation is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2023. The revision of the regulation is aimed at ensuring consistency with other EU chemicals legislation, adapting the legislation to technical progress as well as reducing administrative burdens. In the context of the EU chemicals strategy for sustainability, provisions may be introduced or reinforced to take account of the combination effects of chemicals and to extend the generic approach to risk management ...

The EU has the world's largest carbon-pricing system, the emissions trading system (ETS). Emissions pricing can encourage industrial decarbonisation, but it also risks carbon leakage, whereby EU companies move their production abroad. To date, the EU has mitigated this risk through free allocations to certain industries, but with rising climate ambition and higher carbon prices, the Commission is now seeking to phase out free allocations. A new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would also ...

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission presented a package of proposals to equip the EU's climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % by 2030, compared with 1990 levels – the 'fit for 55' package. The package includes a proposal to revise the 2014 directive on alternative fuels infrastructure and turn it into a regulation. In the draft regulation, the Commission proposes binding targets for electric vehicle charging points and ...

This EPRS paper analyses progress made in carrying through the policy agenda set by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and her College of Commissioners when they took office in December 2019. It looks in particular at the state of play with respect to delivery of the agenda's six key priorities, as we enter the final year running up to the 2024 European elections. The von der Leyen Commission – either on taking office or more recently – has announced a total of 597 planned ...

Ever since the early history of European universities, academic freedom has been acknowledged to be a fundamental feature of any higher education research system or institution. The emergence of the research university model in Germany in the early 1800s, highlighting the basic concepts of Lehrfreiheit and Lernfreiheit, contributed strongly to the central position of academic freedom in present-day higher education systems. Following the widespread democratisation of Europe and other parts of the ...