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This paper presents findings from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) midterm evaluation, with a particular focus on assessments from various stakeholders regarding its setup and initial implementation. It also builds on the latest activities and assessments by previously published papers summarizing the stakeholders views at the EU, national, regional, and local levels in connection with the national Recovery and Resilience Plans. Additionally, it offers a collection of the most recent opinions ...

The Single European Sky (SES) initiative seeks to make EU airspace less fragmented and to improve air traffic management in terms of safety, capacity, cost-efficiency and the environment. Its current regulatory framework is based on two legislative packages: SES I (adopted in 2004), which set up the principal legal framework, and SES II (adopted in 2009), which aimed to tackle substantial air traffic growth, increase safety, and reduce costs and delays and the impact of air traffic on the environment ...

The European Parliament has, for a long time, demanded a more integrated and purposeful European foreign, security, and defence policy. It has also argued for an enhanced role for itself in this policy field. With the European Union facing multiple external challenges, it is timely to explore Parliament's long-standing demands for a more robust collective approach to issues such as defence and arms procurement. In June 1991, the European Parliament adopted the Political Affairs Committee report on ...

The Kingdom of Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with the monarch as Head of State and a prime minister as Head of Government. The current monarch, King Philippe/Filip has been on the throne since 21 July 2013, his heir apparent is Princess Elisabeth, the daughter of the monarch. The King has wide legislative powers constitutionally but is relieved of all responsibility, with his ministers signing the bills and royal decrees. It is the King's task to appoint ...

Common foreign and security policy (CFSP) has a particular status in the EU legal framework, part of which is the unanimity rule within the Council. This report analyses decision-making rules in CFSP from a 'cost of non-Europe' perspective. It identifies CFSP challenges and the extent to which they could be attributed to unanimity. This allows us to identify the current 'cost of unanimity'. The report also analyses possible alternatives to unanimity decision-making in CFSP, such as a switch to qualified ...

In 2022, the EU Strategic Compass included space as a strategic domain, and called for a dedicated European strategy. In the meantime, Russia's invasion of Ukraine confirmed the key role of space for defence and resilience, but also highlighted vulnerabilities related to space systems. Another 'wake-up call' came from a different direction; SpaceX's advances in reusable rocket technology leading to Starship's first orbital flight test turned the spotlight onto launch providers and access to space ...

On 19 June 2023, the EU and Kenya concluded negotiations on an economic partnership agreement (EPA). This agreement builds on negotiations for an EPA with the partner states of the East African Community (EAC) – at the time: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda – which were finalised in October 2014. However, the signing of the EU-EAC EPA had been stalled because of discussions within the EAC on the consequences of the EPA for their economies. Except for Kenya, all EAC partner states are ...

'Rainbow families' – same-sex couples with or without children – still face many obstacles while exercising their free movement rights today. In a debate in the European Parliament in September 2010, then European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, stated, 'Let me stress this. If you live in a legally recognised same-sex partnership, or marriage, in country A, you have the right – and this is a fundamental right – to take this status and that of your partner ...

This document compares the draft 2023 Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) proposed by the Commission on 24 May 2023 with the 2023 CSRs approved by the Council on 16 June 2023. The Council will finally adopt the recommendations in July.

'This is Europe' – an initiative proposed by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola – consists of a series of debates with EU leaders to discuss their visions for the future of the European Union. In his address to the European Parliament on 13 June 2023, the reunification of the island was a central theme for the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides. He stressed that the EU has every interest, but also an 'obligation to actively contribute to its final settlement' by taking ...