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When it comes to road safety, the EU is the world leader by far. Over the past 20 years, the number of people killed on roads has decreased by 60 %, from around 51 400 in 2001 to around 20 600 in 2022. However, since 2014, this decrease has stagnated, with hardly any drop in the number of road fatalities in the years between then and 2020. Moreover, improvements in road safety have not been significant enough to meet the EU's 2010 and 2020 objectives for reducing road death numbers. Much more will ...

The ongoing energy crisis and its related challenges of energy security concerns and high energy prices have put the spotlight on the EU's domestic production and use of energy in general and renewables in particular. The 2018 Renewable Energy Directive (RED) requires the EU to achieve a 32 % share of renewable energy sources (RES) in gross final energy consumption by 2030. The Commission has since proposed a revision of the renewables target to 40 % as part of the 'fit for 55' package, in the context ...

This study provides a mapping of funds contributed by different actors for the R&D and the expansion of the production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines, with a focus on those authorised in the EU. Nine vaccines are examined. It is found that governments, mainly the US (with some not-for-profit entities) decisively supported corporate investments, either for R&D, manufacturing, or both, by nearly EUR 9 billion, i.e. on average EUR one billion of grants per vaccine, with, however, vast variance across ...

In July 2022, the European Commission published its third annual rule of law report, which contains an individual chapter for each of the 27 EU Member States. In contrast to the rule of law reports from 2020 and 2021, this latest one makes country-specific recommendations to all Member States, something the European Parliament had been repeatedly calling for. This brings the rule of law report into closer alignment with the European Semester – as acknowledged by the third report itself. From originally ...

The IA provides a good overview of the problems relating to packaging and packaging waste, and the possible impacts of the various measures proposed to address the problems. In its assessment, which is both qualitative and quantitative, the IA relies on a wealth of data sources and modelling. However, it does not clearly indicate the IA supporting studies and their full references; this would have improved transparency. The IA presents three policy options, which are partially incremental and cannot ...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global, multidimensional phenomenon occurring in humans, animals, and environmental ecosystems. It is the ability of microbes, e.g. bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa, to survive in the presence of medicines designed to kill or inactivate them (antimicrobials: antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiprotozoals). At patient level, AMR hampers the effective treatment of microbial infections, leading to prolonged, severe disease and, in some cases, death. ...

This briefing focuses on policy measures to contain aggressive tax planning (ATP) that six Member States – Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta and the Netherlands – have laid out in their individual national recovery and resilience plans, which were drawn up in order to benefit from the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery instrument. The countries were selected because their European Semester and 2019 and 2020 country-specific recommendations (CSRs) highlighted ATP concerns. ATP is a harmful ...

EU integration represents an inspiring example of conflict resolution. Some 30 years of violent sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland was brought to an end in 1998, with the signature of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. At the time, both the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland were Member States of the European Union, having both joined the European Communities on 1 January 1973. The EU's engagement in the Northern Ireland peace process materialised first through support for the International Fund ...

The magnitude of current global challenges, such as the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, stresses the relevance of joining forces worldwide and pooling human and financial resources to facilitate the creation and dissemination of knowledge and innovative solutions for EU research. In 2021, the European Commission adopted a communication on a global approach to research and innovation – the new European strategy for international cooperation. In 2022, the European Parliament and the EU Member ...

During the second part-session of March 2023, the European Parliament is expected to vote on the political agreement on the proposed regulation on general product safety reached in trilogue negotiations on 28 November 2022. This new regulation will replace the current General Product Safety Directive. It addresses the product safety challenges of emerging technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and connected devices, and establishes clear obligations for online marketplaces ...