Think Tank

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which showed the need for more sophisticated and demanding capital requirements for banks, new regulations were agreed at international level – known as the Basel III Agreements. In the EU, they were implemented essentially by amending the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) and adopting the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). On 27 October 2021, the Commission tabled two interconnected proposals to amend the CRR and the CRD, respectively. The objective ...

This study is the first research paper in a series of three, prepared for a PECH Committee Workshop. It gives insight on the challenges and opportunities arisen from the application of the European Green Deal to European fisheries. It identifies solutions that are currently being applied regarding decarbonisation and circular economy practices in fisheries and observed strengths and weaknesses of the regulatory framework. It provides policy recommendations to move towards the decarbonisation of the ...

A massive increase in trade volumes – in particular thanks to the rise of e-commerce – combined with the fast growing number of EU standards that need to be checked at the border and continuously evolving trade strategies have put EU customs authorities under a lot of pressure in recent times. Concerns have been raised that the EU's customs union is burdened by fragmented digitalisation, suboptimal coordination between national authorities and overall complexity, leaving traders with high administrative ...

This briefing provides a summary of the recent economic developments in the EU Member States and gives an overview of relevant economic projections forecasted by major international and EU institutions.

The proposed revision of the EU's pharmaceutical framework covers the EU's general pharmaceutical legislation and the paediatric and orphan medicines regulations ('specific pharmaceutical legislation') in an integrated manner. The merger of the orphan and paediatric regulations with the legislation applicable to all medicinal products is explained with 'simplification and increased coherence' in the explanatory memorandum of the proposed directive. The proposed revision is supported by two impact ...