The European Parliament has long sought to ensure that, by voting in European elections, European citizens not only elect the Parliament itself, but also have a say over who would head the EU executive – the European Commission. What became known as the 'Spitzenkandidaten process' is a procedure whereby European political parties, ahead of European elections, appoint lead candidates for the role o...

Political groups are central to the work of the European Parliament. After European citizens elected a new Parliament, political groups are expected to notify their composition by end of June. To form a political group, a minimum of 25 MEPs elected in at least one quarter of the EU's Member States (currently seven) is required. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EP...

The European Union is engaged in helping Member States address young people's needs and aspirations through a youth strategy. The strategy is backed by a number of funding programmes, most notably the Youth Employment Initiative, Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps and it is best known for the mobility opportunities it has created. Future challenges include reaching a wider spectrum of youn...

The new EU foreign policy is designed to help society in the EU and partner countries to withstand natural and manmade shocks more effectively. To this aim, coordination between all stakeholders is challenging but vital. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2019)635534 Source: © European Union - EP

According to recent polls, 77% of EU citizens are in favour of stronger EU involvement in the fight against terrorism. Over the past years, the EU has played an ever more ambitious role in this area. EU spending on counter-terrorism has increased and is set to grow in the future. New rules and instruments adopted since 2014 range from harmonising definitions of terrorist offences and sanctions, an...

Repeated Eurobarometer surveys have provided evidence on how important agriculture and rural areas are to EU citizens. They have recorded high levels of awareness of the common agricultural policy and a recognition of the role it plays in the provision of high quality healthy food. Significant legislative achievements have been made during the European Parliament's eighth term in respect of animal...

Security and defence policy in the European Union is predominantly a competence of the Member States. At the same time, a common security and defence policy, which could progressively lead to a European defence union, is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty and significant progress has been made in that direction. This briefing discusses the EU's deliveries in the area of security and defence policy and...

The unprecedented arrival of refugees and irregular migrants in the EU, which peaked in 2015, exposed a series of deficiencies and gaps in EU policies on asylum, external borders and migration. In response to these challenges, the EU has embarked on a broader process of reform aimed at rebuilding its asylum and migration policies. In order to deliver what the Commission calls an effective, fair an...

EU public finance, including the EU budget and other financial mechanisms, supports policies that are designed to yield European public goods, with benefits that go beyond the national borders of individual EU countries. During the 2014-2019 parliamentary term, EU lawmakers have updated the financial rules governing the use of EU funds, created a European Public Prosecutor's Office to help address...

What has the EU delivered in the area of international trade and globalisation during the Juncker Commission? This briefing takes stock of EU's achievements in this term: free trade agreement negotiations launched and concluded, developments in investment protection and screening, and key legislative files adopted. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2019)6...

The 2014-2019 parliamentary term has seen a number of initiatives in the areas of digitalisation of industry and public services, investment in digital infrastructure and services, research programmes, cybersecurity, e-commerce, copyright and data protection legislation. The European Union will increase its support for digital transformation in the coming years, as illustrated by the recent propos...

Fight against tax fraud is under the glare of the spotlight. It appears regularly in the headlines showing the shadowy practices of certain taxpayers. Yet this is not the whole picture because work has been done to tackle the issue. Fight against fraud is large and ongoing task, that public expects the EU to continue addressing. The European Union has done substantial work over the last five year,...

This briefing provides an overview of the key elements of the EU fisheries policy and outlines its main deliveries during the 2014-2019 parliamentary term. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2019)633150 Source: © European Union - EP

While the main responsibility for health and social security lies primarily with the governments of the individual European Union (EU) Member States, the EU complements national policies, especially those having a cross-border dimension. In a recent poll conducted for the European Parliament, more than two thirds of EU citizens expressed support for increased EU action on health and social securit...

In response to the unprecedented migration flows, as well as the surge in terrorist and serious cross-border crime activities, the EU has embarked on a broader process of reform aimed at strengthening its external borders. On the one hand, measures for protecting the EU's external borders have focused on reinforcing EU border management rules and upgrading the mandates of relevant EU agencies, whi...

In the EU, although economic policy is the remit of each individual Member State, there is, nevertheless, multilateral coordination of economic policies between Member States. This framework was put severely to the test during the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. Partly as a result, recovery in the EU was slower than recovery in the United States, and was not achieve...

One in five consumers in the EU say that they had a reason to complain in the last 12 months, a number which has remained largely unchanged since 2008. Since 2014, efforts have been made in a number of areas, including stronger cross-border cooperation between national authorities in charge of consumer protection and market surveillance. Notably, in April 2018, the Commission proposed a ‘new deal...

In the 70 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the first international document to set common standards of achievement for all states – the pivotal role and moral, legal and political significance of human rights in the international arena have become indisputable. However, despite considerable progress in many areas on recognition, codification and implementatio...

The European Union (EU) is committed to eliminating inequalities and promoting gender equality 'in all its activities' and has made considerable advances over the years. Nevertheless, the situation remains uneven across the EU, and in recent times progress has slowed, stalled or even regressed in some areas. Yet, the evidence points clearly to the benefits of gender equality for individuals, the e...

Through its industrial policy, the European Union (EU) has been striving to create conditions conducive to increasing industry growth and competitiveness since 1992. European industry remains a cornerstone of the economy, providing one job out of five and is responsible for the bulk of EU exports and investment in research and innovation. Today, the aim of EU policy is to enable a successful trans...

The concept of cultural diversity lies at the heart of the European project. Recent years have seen renewed interest in the sector's potential for promoting social cohesion, unity and tolerance, on the one hand, with continued recognition of its valuable economic role, on the other. There is a strong commitment at the EU level to ensure that culture is mainstreamed in all policy areas, with a spec...

Energy policy is a competence shared between the EU and its Member States. Whereas the EU has a responsibility under the Treaties to ensure security of supply, Member States are responsible for determining the structure of their energy supply and their choice of energy sources. EU legislation on security of supply focuses on natural gas and electricity markets, and is closely related to other EU o...

By promoting a high level of employment, the European Union (EU) has been fighting against unemployment since as long ago as the early 1950s. The fight against unemployment was brought to the top of the European agenda with the onset of the 2008 economic and financial crisis, and the consequent rise in unemployment rates in all European Union (EU) Member States. In its Europe 2020 strategy, the Eu...

Through its environmental policy, the EU has been improving Europeans' well-being since 1972. To make sure that by 2050 we are living well, within the limits of the planet, the EU is striving to move towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy, to safeguard biodiversity and to protect human health through legislation on air quality, chemicals, climate, nature, waste and water. In a recent pol...

Strengthening peace and democracy globally has never been an easy task, however, and today's geopolitical context poses new challenges. The proliferation and increasing gravity and duration of conflicts – some in the EU's immediate neighbourhood, the emergence of new threats, such as terrorism or nuclear proliferation, and the crisis of liberal systems have driven the EU to widen and intensify its...