European Parliamentary Research Service Blog

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 →

Written by Nera Kuljanic with Sarah McCormack, STOA, the European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel, works to provide independent assessments of new developments in science and technology to policy-makers by conducting research projects and organising discussion forums involving policy-makers, experts and the public. It is governed by the STOA Panel, whose membership was … Continue reading →

Written by Richard Freedman, Since July 2015, the European Parliamentary Research Service has been producing informative, timely and varied podcasts. The podcasts fall into three categories: Plenary Podcasts Policy Podcasts and Science and Technology Podcasts. Each month, on the Thursday before the European Parliament’s plenary session, five podcasts are published on various platforms (see below). … Continue reading →

Written by Clare Ferguson with Alina Dobreva and Eva-Maria Poptcheva, Public opinion is key in any representative democracy, and none more so than the only directly elected European Union institution, the European Parliament. Commissioned for the European Parliament, and published shortly after the United Kingdom referendum vote to leave the European Union, a special Eurobarometer … Continue reading →