Search
Trade on the European Council agenda
The repeated crises of recent years, including the COVID pandemic and the Russian war on Ukraine, have disrupted trade relations in many ways. Competition on global markets has become fiercer and the rules-based multilateral order established after World War II is increasingly challenged. The tariffs imposed by the new United States (US) administration are adding to the uncertainty. Trade in goods and services accounts for 22.4 % of EU GDP – the EU is the world's biggest trading bloc and top trading ...
This study first analyses the existing European security architecture, as it has emerged since World War II. It does so from an organisational perspective, looking at NATO, the OCSE and EU defence policy, as well as from a series of national country perspectives, trying to find underlying motives for national defence policies. After looking at recent policy responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the pivotal years since 2022, five scenarios for a possible future European security architecture ...
COP 16 desertification conference: Outcomes
During its January session, Ϸվ is due to debate a Commission statement on the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This conference concluded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 13 December 2024, following two weeks of negotiations. A significant outcome of the conference was the commitment to support financially land restoration and drought resilience initiatives. However, it failed to establish a legally binding global framework ...
What if we ran out of copper?
Copper is a relatively common element with a variety of suppliers, and that should typically mean a stable market. However, the copper market has recently been showing unusual instability. New EU legislation, though not always directly related, seems to be having a significant impact on copper prices. This is the case for the Chips Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act – designed to make EU industry more resilient by improving strategic autonomy – but also for laws concerning energy, artificial ...
Future-proofing the EU's global health strategy
The new EU global health strategy, adopted by the European Commission on 30 November 2022, has been positioned as a crucial element of EU external policy, geopolitical influence and strategic autonomy. However, maintaining the long term commitment necessary for achieving global health ambitions in turbulent times remains challenging. Against this backdrop, in 2023 the Policy Foresight Unit of the European Ϸվary Research Service conducted a foresight exercise involving external experts to ...
Strategic autonomy and the future of nuclear energy in the EU
Nuclear energy and the promise of cost-effective small modular reactors (SMRs) is high on the EU's policy agenda, against the backdrop of a difficult global geopolitical context and the Union's energy security and climate ambitions. The EU is building a comprehensive strategy for the development and deployment of SMRs, acknowledging their potential benefits and challenges. Innovative nuclear technologies are of significant strategic value, with major steps being taken to increase the supply of advanced ...
Plenary round-up – October I 2023
During the October I plenary session Members held a number of debates, including on the need for speedy adoption of the EU asylum and migration package. Other debates focused on: precarity in Europe and the need to aid the deprived; large-scale corrupt sales of Schengen visas; medicine shortages and EU strategic healthcare autonomy; the European Central Bank's 10th consecutive increase in reference interest rates; proposals to extend glyphosate use; and on the Energy Charter Treaty. In the external ...
Commissioner hearings: Maroš Šefčovič - European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight
In the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič has served as a Commissioner since 2009. He was the Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth from 2009 to 2010, and from 2010 to 2014 Commissioner and Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Administration. From 2014 to 2019 he was Vice President for the Energy Union, and since 2019 he has been the Vice-President responsible for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight. He also serves as co-chair and representative of the European ...
EU green strategic autonomy: The challenge of combining two objectives
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the 2019 European Green Deal initiated a wave of EU policies and legislation to combat climate change and protect the environment. Achieving a green transition became a key driver of EU policies. While many pieces of legislation were being discussed or adopted, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine moved the political focus to supply chain security and energy dependencies. Since then, achieving open European strategic autonomy for the EU economy ...
Budgetary aspects of EU defence policy
This briefing provides an overview of recent developments in EU defence spending and serves as background information for the BUDG Committee’s exchange of views with Commissioner Breton of 19 July 2023.