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In 1947, drawing on the lessons learnt from the global economic damage caused by trade protectionism and tariff wars prior to World War II, 23 countries, including the United States, initiated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as a platform for multilateral negotiations aimed at liberalising and boosting global trade. To this end, GATT members - and since 1995 the members of the then newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) - gradually reduced their import tariffs and tariff quotas ...

Over the past decade, the EU's asylum and migration systems have been severely tested by several major events, including the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent tensions at the EU's eastern border. To address these challenges, in 2020 the European Commission proposed a pact on migration and asylum, a comprehensive legislative framework designed to streamline and harmonise the reception of asylum seekers in the EU. The pact was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council ...

On 18 July, over 40 European leaders gathered for the fourth meeting of the European Political Community (EPC). It followed a series of international summits in the preceding weeks, including a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and a G7 summit, plus two European Council meetings. Conflicts on the European continent and in its neighbourhood, as well as the upcoming United States presidential elections and their potential ramifications were most likely at the forefront of leaders' minds ...

In 2016, with unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in the EU, the European Commission proposed a package of reforms to the common European asylum system (CEAS). In June 2018, a broad provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the presidency of the Council of the EU on several of the reform proposals. However, the agreement did not get the necessary support from the Member States. The reform stalled owing to persistent disagreements among ...

The North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) is an intergovernmental fisheries management organisation responsible for fishery resources in the North-East Atlantic, particularly in international waters. As a member, the EU incorporates NEAFC decisions into Union law. In January 2024, the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries is due to vote on a proposal to integrate the NEAFC rules into a new regulation.

The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights falls on 10 December 2023, against a background of war, conflict and geopolitical tensions that would have been familiar to its drafters, and new challenges, such as climate change and technological advances, which they would not have imagined. Then and now, the Declaration, which has served as a foundation for the codification of human rights at global, regional and national level, remains a central reference to be invoked for the ...

During the November I part-session, the European Parliament is due to vote on giving its consent to the conclusion of a new fisheries agreement and implementing protocol with Madagascar. This new framework re establishes EU–Madagascar fisheries relations, providing access rights for the EU fleet to fish in Malagasy waters. In return, the EU contributes to the local fisheries' sustainable development and to marine protection.

Tax authorities and businesses in the EU are preparing for the implementation of the minimum corporate tax ('Pillar Two'), following the milestone global agreement reached in the OECD Inclusive Framework in 2021. Questions have however been raised as to the extent to which countries should reform their tax incentives, in a world where the global minimum corporate tax can undermine such incentives.

This is the fifth edition of the EPRS rolling check-list on review and monitoring clauses in EU international agreements. Conceived as an implementation monitoring tool for the European Parliament, it gives an analytical overview of the various review and monitoring clauses, management and implementation clauses, reporting clauses, consultation clauses, and sunset clauses contained in bilateral and multilateral agreements the EU has concluded with third countries. Complementing the October 2019 edition ...

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the JURI Committee, analyses the implications of Brexit in relation to the profile of judicial cooperation in civil matters. It examines the existing legal framework in order to identify the areas of law in respect of which there is a gap in the relationship between the EU and the UK. It assesses the consequences of the UK's failure to accede to the 2007 Lugano ...