Zoeken

Outraged by Russia's illegal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union swiftly adopted unprecedentedly tough sanctions, in close cooperation with partners including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan. The rapid succession of 11 packages of EU sanctions adopted since then, in what has already been labelled a 'sanctions revolution', have resulted in an unparalleled set of measures targeting key sectors of the Russian economy and ...

This study has been prepared for the Committee on Budgetary Control. It assesses recent developments in the transparency and accountability of EU NGO funding. The Commission has transitioned all programmes to a single, centralised grant management system that can potentially enhance the public transparency of grant funding significantly. Nevertheless, overall public transparency remains limited. The study recommends a more comprehensive, systematic approach to public transparency involving the Parliament ...

Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Gentiloni are invited to the 12th Recovery and Resilience Dialogue (RRD) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) Regulation. The previous RRD took place on 10 July. This briefing first focusses on the Commission’s Annual Report on the implementation of the RRF published on 19 September (i.e. 18 months after the previous report), summarising the information presented therein and commenting it when considered necessary. The second part ...

In April 2023, the European Commission adopted regulatory proposals introducing a Unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) and a centralised assessment procedure for SPCs for medicinal products. This study analyses the potential impacts of these proposals on access to medicines, the administrative burden to applicants and the cost to national health systems. This document was prepared by Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the JURI Committee ...

This study evaluates the implementation and enforcement of the Package Travel Directive (PTD) in the EU with a focus on ten EU Member States. It identifies areas for improvement, such as adapting the definition of package travel to accommodate evolving industry trends, addressing pre-contractual information gaps, improving payment practices, tackling challenges in the digital environment, enhancing enforcement mechanisms, promoting alternative dispute resolution, and increasing consumer awareness ...

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 ...

Treating urban wastewater to remove harmful components is essential to protect human health as well as rivers, lakes and seas. During the October I plenary session, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position on a European Commission proposal that seeks to reinforce existing rules, adopted more than 30 years ago, and to bring them into line with the EU's climate neutrality, circularity and zero pollution ambitions.

In an increasingly assertive geopolitical environment, the use of economic tools to advance foreign policy goals is on the rise. This can take the form of coercion, when a third country deploys restrictions on trade or investment to influence the sovereign choices of the EU or its Member States. On 8 December 2021, the Commission published a proposal for an anti-coercion instrument that would allow the EU to respond more effectively to such challenges on a global scale. In October, the European Parliament ...

To support climate and environmental projects, the European Commission proposed a regulation on a European green bond standard in July 2021. This would establish an official EU standard for green bonds aligned with the EU taxonomy, based on a registration system and supervisory framework for external reviewers. A provisional political agreement reached between the Parliament and Council is scheduled for a vote during the October I plenary session.

During its October I plenary session, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position on a European Commission proposal to revise a core piece of EU chemicals legislation, which requires proper classification, labelling and packaging of hazardous substances and mixtures to protect human health and the environment.