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Sweden's national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) is financed by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The NRRP's total volume increased from an initial €3 289 million to €3 502 million in the revised version. The total amount of funds under the RRF was revised in June 2022, which reduced the final amount allocated to Sweden to €3 181 million. Adding to this its REPowerEU grant allocation of €198 million and the requested transfer of €66 million of its share of the Brexit Adjustment ...

The Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority. Out of an estimated total of 10-12 million Roma in Europe as a whole, some 6 million live in the European Union (EU) and most of them are citizens of an EU Member State. A significant number of Roma people live in very poor socio-economic conditions. The social exclusion, discrimination and segregation they face are mutually reinforcing. Their restricted access to education and difficulties entering the labour market result in low income and poor health ...

Germany was originally entitled to a maximum financial contribution of €25.6 billion in grants from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the unprecedented EU response to the crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) for Germany does not include requests for loans. Following the latest amendment of the German NRRP in July 2024, which added a REPowerEU chapter, the EU resources devoted to the plan reached €30.3 billion. This amount corresponds ...

The European Council consists of the 27 Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States, who are voting members, together with the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission, who have no vote (Article 15(2) Treaty on European Union). The chart shows the current members, the national office they hold, their most recent European political affiliation, and the year their membership began.

According to Directive 2008/115/EC (the Return Directive, RD), third-country nationals (TCNs) staying illegally on the territory of a Member State should, as a general rule, be issued a return decision obliging them to leave the EU. However, available data suggest that among those who receive such a decision, only about a quarter actually leave the EU (see Figure 1). Data on irregular migration, as well as returns statistics, should be used carefully, as they are often incomplete, inconsistent and ...

Children are intensive users of digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI – AI that can create new content such as text, images, videos and music – is becoming increasingly sophisticated, making it difficult to distinguish user-generated content from AI-generated (synthetic) content. If not supervised properly, these tools might carry risks for children, whose cognitive capacities are still developing. The need to strengthen generative AI literacy for children, educators and ...

The number of people in the world who have been forcibly displaced inside or outside their home country has risen significantly in recent years, as reflected in the unprecedented numbers of refugees and irregular migrants arriving in the EU since 2015. This highlights an urgent need to ensure organised, legal and safe pathways to protect migrants who embark on dangerous journeys and attempt to enter countries of destination irregularly, or find themselves in protracted refugee situations. A potential ...

The invasion of Ukraine enters its 4th year in 2025, resulting in further displacement. On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights. The pair are accused of the 'war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation'. ...

In June 2024, the Belgian Council Presidency put forward a compromise proposal for a new Council directive on equal treatment and it won the support of a broad majority of Member States. The proposed law calls for the EU acquis on non-discrimination and equality to be extended to four new grounds beyond the area of employment (religion or belief, age, sexual orientation and disability). This briefing looks into what might be the European added value of such a directive. While most Member States already ...

Thirty years ago, the international community adopted the Beijing Declaration and its accompanying Platform for Action – a broad and ambitious global agenda for action with women's rights at its core. Since then, women's rights have enjoyed increased recognition, but also faced strong contestation. The EU remains a strong defender of women's rights. To guide its action, the Commission is soon to propose a roadmap on women's rights in the EU, while the European Parliament has called for an EU charter ...