Keres

The 'farm to fork' strategy is about building sustainable EU food systems, in line with the EU's Green Deal. Launched in May 2020, its elements are moving at different speeds, with much debate on its objectives and priorities. The EU institutions are helping to shape the various elements of the strategy. This is an update of an 'at a glance' note first published in October 2021.

In March 2023, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and United States (US) President Joe Biden announced their intention to conclude a critical minerals agreement, seeking to foster supply chains in raw materials needed in the production of electric vehicle batteries. The paradigm shift towards clean transport is driving a massive expansion in the market for electric vehicle markets, highlighting the importance of securing the mineral inputs used in their batteries. To that end, the US Congress ...

This in-depth analysis offers a quantitative analysis of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, six years after its provisional enforcement. Our analysis confirms substantial economic gains: goods exports from the EU to Canada increased by 27 % and imports rose by 32 % due to the agreement. The services sector also showed robust growth, with 19 % and 15 % increases in exports and imports, respectively. However, the paper identifies challenges, such as the ...

The proposed reform of the electricity market design maintains crucial elements of the existing system to ensure continued efficient operation. The impact that changing the rules on longer-term contracts will have on consumer prices and investment will depend on the concrete language of proposed legislation as well as its ultimate implementation. Overall, neither the expected mode of impact of individual reform elements, let alone their interaction, is clearly spelled out by the legislators. This ...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, EU Member States have made serious efforts to reduce their dependence on Russian energy imports. To broaden the range of energy suppliers, the European Commission and the Member States' national governments have signed new agreements with non-EU countries and strengthened their pledges with existing partners. Norway is the world's fifth largest oil and third largest natural gas exporter, accounting for 2 % of global crude oil production and 3 % of global natural gas ...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, EU Member States have made serious efforts to reduce their dependence on Russian energy imports. To broaden the range of energy suppliers, the European Commission and EU national governments have signed new agreements with non-EU countries and strengthened their pledges with existing partners. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The economy of Saudi Arabia is the largest ...

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the 2019 European Green Deal initiated a wave of EU policies and legislation to combat climate change and protect the environment. Achieving a green transition became a key driver of EU policies. While many pieces of legislation were being discussed or adopted, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine moved the political focus to supply chain security and energy dependencies. Since then, achieving open European strategic autonomy for the EU economy ...

This study addresses the expected impact of the EU’s Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It takes the German supply chain act (Lieferkettengesetz) as an example that may hold lessons for EU due diligence legislation. Against the background of a review of the existing literature on the impact of sustainability regulations, we conducted expert interviews with German business associations, German foreign chambers of commerce in emerging ...

In September 2022, the Commission presented a single market emergency instrument (SMEI) package. During its September 2023 plenary session, the Parliament is expected to vote on the report adopted in July by its Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). The report as voted would then form Parliament's position for negotiations with the Council, which has recently adopted its position.

Collectively, the 33 countries forming the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) are the EU's fifth largest trading partner. Offering an overview of trade relations between the EU and Latin American and Caribbean countries (Chile, Cuba and Mexico) and groupings (the Andean Community, Cariforum, the Central American group (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), and the founding members of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), this study ...