European Parliamentary Research Service Blog

Negative rates were introduced by Europe’s central banks for the first time in 2014. Two years later, they still regularly fill newspaper columns and fuel debates. Presented by the central banks as a solution to the current growth problems, they are vilified by the financial sector as being unsustainable and by some Member States as ‘expropriating’ savers and pensioners and stirring social tension. This overview introduces interest rates, discusses the possible causes behind their trends and presents the main arguments in the current debate. Continue reading →

Europe’s Jewish population has been diminishing in recent decades, and a growing number of anti-Semitic acts and anti-Jewish violence have been occurring in recent years in the EU. In defence of its values, including respect for minorities, the EU undertakes and funds actions to counter anti-Semitism. Continue reading →

On 14 February 1984, the European Parliament debated and adopted the draft ‘Treaty establishing the European Union’.Now, 30 years on, Spinelli and the draft treaty he championed are considered to be key elements in the European Union’s integration process. Continue reading →

The leading Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP), in power since late 2002, faced its first difficulties in the June 2015 general election, in the wake of a struggle to impose control on a highly politicised civil service. After the failed military coup of July 2016, in which the opposition parties mobilised with the AKP to preserve democracy, the government launched a major purge on civil servants affiliated with the Gülen movement, which it blames for the coup. Continue reading →

Scientific knowledge has become a key element in the policy-making process, alongside societal values and political considerations. As a consequence, stronger science advice systems have been developed to provide timely and useful scientific advice to policy-makers in both legislative and executive bodies. Continue reading →

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) will organize a roundtable discussion on ‘The European Council and CSDP: success or failure?’ on 27 September 2016, 13h30-15h00, in the European Parliament’s Library main reading room in Brussels. Participants at this roundtable debate are: Elmar Brok MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, General Jean-Paul Perruche, Former Director-General of the European Union Military Staff, Professor Alexander Mattelaer, Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and Elena Lazarou, Policy Analyst, EPRS. Continue reading →

Parliament has its own ex-post impact assessment tool at its disposal, in the form of so-called implementation reports. This specific type of own-initiative report, provided for in Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (Annex XVII, Article 1, indent 1(e)), allows parliamentary committees to scrutinise how EU legislation, soft law instruments and international agreements have been transposed into national law, implemented and enforced. Continue reading →