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On 8 December 2025, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the 2023 Commission proposal for a regulation on the production and marketing of forest reproductive material (FRM). The new regulation would replace the current FRM Council Directive and widen its scope to include not only FRM for forestry purposes but also the FRM for conservation of forest genetic resources. The proposal would introduce a requirement for the basic material harvested for FRM production ...

In February 2026, two and a half years after the European Commission's proposal, trilogues started on a new regulation on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material (PRM). The proposal, put forward on 5 July 2023, would replace 10 of the 12 PRM directives that currently lay down the rules for seeds, tubers, cuttings, seedlings and young plants. It would introduce sustainability requirements for registering new varieties of agricultural plants, vegetables and fruits intended for professional ...

Online child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and grooming practices (manipulation aimed at exploiting and abusing people), now increasingly targeting younger children, have been proliferating at an alarming rate. In 2024, more than 20.5 million reports of suspected online child sexual abuse materials were detected. Reports related to AI-generated CSAM saw a 1 325 % increase, rising from 4 700 in 2023 to 67 000 in 2024. Most activities detected were hosted in Europe. In response to this situation, on ...

On 1 March 2023, as part of the road safety package, the European Commission published a legislative proposal to help ensure EU-wide application of driving disqualifications. The proposal calls for increased cooperation, harmonisation of legislation, simplification of information exchange, capacity-building, and improved public awareness efforts. In order to prevent impunity due to a lack of legislation, the proposal sets out rules to allow better EU-wide enforcement of driver disqualification decisions ...

Every year, we generate 60 million tonnes of food waste and 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste in the EU. On 5 July 2023, the European Commission tabled a proposal for a targeted revision of EU waste rules, aiming to reduce textile and food waste. The updated legislation entered into force on 16 October 2025. It will introduce binding food waste reduction targets, to be met at national level by 31 December 2030: 10 % from food processing and manufacturing and 30 % per capita from retail, restaurants ...

Recent assessments have highlighted shortcomings in the enforcement of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These include lengthy procedures, divergent practices, and functional flaws. In response, EU lawmakers negotiated additional procedural rules to ensure the swift and consistent resolution of cross-border cases and to harmonise parties' rights during the procedure. Parliament is set to vote on the provisional agreement reached with the Council on the proposed changes ...

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted both the need for a resilient healthcare system and for quick access to inventions and technologies in challenging situations. Following this experience, EU lawmakers negotiated a compulsory licensing scheme intended to facilitate rapid use of patents while preserving strong patent protection as an incentive to innovate. Views on the original European Commission proposal diverged. Civil society organisations supported broad application of the compulsory licensing ...

Under the European Green Deal, the European Commission presented a new EU soil strategy for 2030, with the aim of having all EU soil ecosystems in a healthy condition by 2050. To achieve this objective, on 5 July 2023 it tabled a proposal for a soil monitoring and resilience directive, laying down measures for monitoring and assessing soil health, based on a common definition of what constitutes healthy soil, for managing soils sustainably, and for tackling contaminated sites. On 10 April 2024, the ...

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a process allowing complaints to be settled out of court with the assistance of an impartial dispute resolution body. Through ADR, consumers can settle a complaint against a trader for breach of contract, outside court procedures, assisted by impartial, neutral dispute mediation, arbitration or conciliation. Since 2013, the share of e commerce in the EU economy has increased significantly, up from 2 % to 4 % of EU gross domestic product (GDP), increasing the ...

The EU's automotive sector is resource intensive. There are 286 million motor vehicles on the road in the EU, and every year around 6.5 million vehicles become waste. If improperly managed, these vehicles may cause environmental damage and the economy may lose millions of tonnes of materials. In July 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation addressing the whole life cycle of vehicles, from design to end-of-life, aimed at improving design and end-of-life management of vehicles ...