Think Tank

As products have become more complex in the digital age, the European Commission published a proposal for a new directive on liability of defective products in September 2022. This would revise the existing Product Liability Directive, adopted nearly 40 years ago in 1985. The proposal aims to bring the European Union's product liability regime up to speed with the digital age, circular economy business models and global value chains by ensuring that consumers receive compensation for defective products ...

Road transport is responsible for almost a fifth of the EU's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The revision of the regulation on CO2 emission limits for new cars and vans under the 'fit for 55' package ensures an increasingly higher share of clean vehicles on European roads. All new cars registered after 2035 must be zero-emission vehicles. The new Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) meanwhile provides for roll out of the necessary recharging points.

Between 6 and 9 June 2024, the 10th European elections will take place in the 27 EU Member States, and around 366 million EU citizens will be called to the polling stations. The elections to the European Parliament represent a crucial moment in EU democracy: they give citizens a say in the EU's political direction. After declining ever since the first European elections in 1979, electoral turnout in the 2019 elections reached an unprecedented 50.6 % (up 8 percentage points compared with 2014). This ...

Manufacturing and trade in firearms for civilian purposes employs around 150 000 people in the EU. In 2020, the Commission adopted a 2020-2025 action plan on firearms trafficking to help curb the illegal flows of firearms, and ammunition, while also strengthening the legal market. The adoption of Directive (EU) 2021/555 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons in 2021was the first legislative outcome of the plan. In October 2022, the Commission presented a proposal for a regulation ...

When businesses start operating cross-border, they are faced with a new and unfamiliar corporate tax system in each EU Member State. As a result, businesses with cross-border activities have to spend time and resources on understanding and complying with complex local corporate tax rules. This represents a significant administrative burden for those companies, increases the risk of double taxation and discourages companies from taking full advantage of the single market. On 12 September 2023, the ...