Search

Your results

Showing 10 of 1601 results
The number of results displayed is limited to 500, you can narrow down your search criteria

Victims of terrorism: EU response

At a Glance 08-03-2024

On 11 March, Europe honours all those who have lost their lives or loved ones to terror. The European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism was inaugurated after the 2004 Madrid bombings. Protecting victims of terrorism is an essential part of the EU's efforts to address all dimensions of the terrorist threat. In response to the attacks that have hit Europe over the past two decades, the EU has strengthened its rules and sanctions relating to terrorist activities. Ongoing EU action seeks to ...

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 ...

Cyber solidarity act

Briefing 13-02-2024

Russia's war against Ukraine has revealed the extent of our dependency on digital technology and the fragility of the digital space. It has triggered a surge in cyberattacks that have been particularly disruptive when targeting critical infrastructure – such as energy, health or finance – because of the increasing reliance on information technology, rendering this infrastructure all the more vulnerable. Against this backdrop, the Commission has proposed a regulation on a cyber solidarity act that ...

As part of broader efforts to combat all forms of violence against women and girls, the European Union (EU) is committed to working collectively to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) and to supporting its Member States' efforts in this field. The European Commission assesses EU measures to combat FGM every year, on or around 6 February – the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. This publication is a further update of an 'at a glance' note originally published ...

The European Ombudsman submitted her 2022 annual report to the European Parliament in April 2023. The main issues raised in the report relate to ethical concerns, transparency and accountability. The report also provides an overview of the handling of complaints and inquiries, and an assessment of the Ombudsman's other achievements in 2022. The Committee on Petitions has discussed the report and endorsed it; the committee's report is to be put to the vote during Parliament's plenary session in January ...

Plenary round-up – December 2023

At a Glance 15-12-2023

The highlight of the December plenary session was Parliament's award of the 2023 Sakharov Prize to Jina Mahsa Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran. Members held a debate with the Council and European Commission on the preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 and reviewed the Spanish Presidency of the Council. Further debates took place on Council and Commission statements on Parliament's call for the right to disconnect, the defence of democracy package, European ...

More than 90 % of people who cross the external borders of the European Union (EU) irregularly do so with the assistance of migrant smugglers. The facilitation of irregular migration is a highly profitable criminal activity, given the relatively low risks incurred by the perpetrators. Detections of irregular border crossings are at their highest levels since 2016, yet demand for migration facilitation services has also risen to a new high. This high demand is not only due to the fact that people ...

In December 2021, the European Commission proposed a revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The proposal seeks to clarify some of the terms contained in the directive and includes an updated list of environmental crime offences, harmonised sanction types and levels, measures to strengthen international investigation and prosecution, improvements to the collection of statistical data, and measures to improve national enforcement chains. Ultimately ...

As the mobility of people in the EU's ageing societies increases, so does the need to protect a particular group – vulnerable adults. Because of an impairment or insufficiency in their personal faculties, these adults are unable to protect their interests and have to rely on support from others. While all EU Member States have established legal provisions and practices addressing these people's needs, they are highly divergent, for example, as regards powers of representation. Besides these national ...

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 ...