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The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on the growing importance of digital health technologies, both to enable remote medical care and to facilitate the health response from international, national and local authorities. The European Commission's May 2022 proposal for a regulation on a European health data space aims to improve individuals' access to and control over their electronic personal data (primary use), while facilitating data re-use for the good of society across the EU (secondary use). The ...

On 1 March 2023, as part of the road safety package, the European Commission published a legislative proposal to help ensure EU-wide application of driving disqualifications. The proposal calls for increased cooperation, harmonisation of legislation, simplification of information exchange, capacity building, and improved public awareness efforts. In order to prevent impunity due to a lack of legislation, the proposal sets out rules to allow better EU-wide enforcement of driver disqualification decisions ...

Road safety has improved significantly in the EU, with the number of road fatalities falling by more than 60 % in the last 20 years. However, improvements in road safety fell short of the EU goals of decreasing the number of road deaths by 50 % between 2001 and 2010, and by an additional 50 % between 2011 and 2020. Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety-related traffic offences – the Cross-border Enforcement (CBE) Directive – is one of the pillars ...

In September 2020, the Commission put forward a new pact on migration and asylum, setting out a comprehensive approach to European Union (EU) migration policies that links external borders, asylum, return systems, the Schengen area of free movement and the external dimension of migration. The pact includes a proposal for a new regulation on the screening of third-country nationals at external borders aiming to clarify and streamline the rules on dealing with third-country nationals who are not authorised ...

In 2020, the Commission launched a review of the Solvency II Directive, the EU's legal prudential regulatory framework for (re-)insurance companies, which entered into force in 2016. As one output of the review, the Commission made a proposal in September 2021 for a new directive establishing a framework for recovery and resolution of insurance companies – the 'IRRD proposal'. The IRRD proposal would establish harmonised recovery and resolution tools and procedures, with enhanced cross-border cooperation ...

On 11 March, Europe honours all those who have lost their lives or loved ones to terror. The European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism was inaugurated after the 2004 Madrid bombings. Protecting victims of terrorism is an essential part of the EU's efforts to address all dimensions of the terrorist threat. In response to the attacks that have hit Europe over the past two decades, the EU has strengthened its rules and sanctions relating to terrorist activities. Ongoing EU action seeks to ...

The Ukraine Facility will support Ukraine, its recovery and its path to EU accession, with up to €50 billion in grants and loans provided in the years 2024 to 2027. On 6 February 2024, the European Parliament and the Council came to a political agreement on the establishment of the Ukraine Facility, following up on the agreement in the European Council on the revision of the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF). The MFF should finance the grants and guarantee the loans of the Facility. Additional ...

The initiative results from growing concern that openness of European societies is being exploited for covert interference from foreign governments to manipulate decision-making processes and public opinion in the EU. The impact assessment (IA) clearly defines two problems relating to interest representation activities carried out on behalf of third countries: obstacles to the internal market due to fragmented regulation, and the unknown magnitude, trends and actors of these activities. It considers ...

Almost two years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU military assistance under the European Peace Facility (EPF) is lagging. The special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 invited the Council to agree by early March 2024 to amend the regulation establishing the EPF, in order to increase its financial ceiling.