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For the first time, the G20 leaders met on the African continent. Following Indonesia, India and Brazil, the South African G20 presidency was the fourth consecutive presidency held by a country from the Global South. G20 leaders present at the summit (22-23 November 2025) adopted a 122-paragraph-long declaration, sending a signal for multilateral cooperation. However, the US boycott of the summit and the absence of other leaders, such as those from Argentina, China, Indonesia and Mexico, raises questions ...

The Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted in 2022, aims to drive global biodiversity conservation through 23 targets and four overarching goals. As COP16 approaches in October 2024, the study looks at overall progress in implementation since COP15 and examines the major issues at stake, including a review of the state of implementation at national level, establishing a financial mechanism and adopting a multilateral agreement on digital sequence information. This document was ...

This study provides a comprehensive overview and understanding of the main current and future issues to be expected in the area of EU culture and creative sectors policy in the 2024-2029 term of the European Parliament.

On 18 December 2023, the EU and Kenya signed an economic partnership agreement (EPA). The European Parliament has to give its consent for it to enter fully into force. The EU Kenya EPA will immediately provide duty-free, quota-free EU market access to all exports from Kenya, combined with a partial and gradual opening of the Kenyan market to imports from the EU. The text of the agreement includes binding provisions on trade and sustainable development, and a transparent dispute resolution mechanism ...

Strategically located in the heart of the Indo-Pacific region, and almost completely surrounded by India, Bangladesh has the eighth biggest population in the world. In the 50 years following its breakaway from Pakistan, Bangladesh has made spectacular economic and social progress. Once one of the world's poorest countries, with the US administration calling it a 'basket case' when it became independent, Bangladesh is now due to graduate from least-developed country (LDC) status in 2026. The government ...

With a budget of almost €79.5 billion in 2021 prices, the Global Europe Instrument is the EU's main financing instrument for external action for 2021 to 2027. The European Commission adopted most of the programming documents under the instrument in December 2021, setting out the priorities and budget allocations for EU cooperation with its partner countries and regions. After two years of operations and before the instrument's mid-term evaluation, the Parliament is set to vote in December on a report ...

The EU–Japan partnership has undergone a substantial transformation over the past two decades. Historically limited to trade and economic cooperation, the decision to step up political-security cooperation, recorded since the mid-2010s, is a result of both partners’ shifting foreign policy outlooks against an increasingly volatile global strategic environment that is defined by a return of great power politics. The conclusion of the EU–Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) in 2018 marks a symbolic ...

The EU’s approach to preventive diplomacy is embedded in a wider ambition to ‘preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen international security’. Given deteriorating security and increasing geopolitical tensions worldwide, it is evident that preventive diplomacy requires sustained and enhanced attention by the EU. Regarded as a credible and reliable partner – as well as an international frontrunner in preventive diplomacy – continued violence and conflict in Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo ...

The EU is an important market for illicit drugs (hereinafter referred to as drugs), both in terms of consumption and production. An estimated 29 % of European adults aged 15-65 have used drugs at least once in their lifetime, the majority of them being men. Cannabis remains by far the most used drug, followed by cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy or molly) and amphetamines. Drugs have been claiming an increasing number of lives in the EU since 2012, but their impact goes far beyond the harm caused by their use ...

Midway of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the High-Level Political Forum 2023 marks a pivotal point in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The impact of the multiple crises of the past years, as well as the interlinkages and synergies of the SDGs present both challenges and opportunities for a systemic approach towards our common objectives. For the global community not to lose the progress in this global decade of action, there is a need for the EU to take the ...