European Parliamentary Research Service Blog
EPRS Strategic Foresight and Capabilities Unit
Foresight Club on Urban Farming
Can urban farming foster greater food security and autonomy in advanced economies? This was one of the key issues discussed at the EPRS Foresight Club on Friday 12 February 2021. Continue reading
2020 ESPAS Conference – Thinking about the Future: Europe’s Road to 2030
The first fully online ESPAS Annual Conference was held on 18 and 19 November 2020. Under the title ‘Thinking about the Future: Europe’s Road to 2030’, the conference focused on the impact of the pandemic on global trends, and on the practical application of foresight in policy-making. Continue reading
Global mega-trends: Scanning the post-coronavirus horizon
The European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) – the strategic foresight network of the European Union institutions – offers a valuable ‘free space’ in which to conduct a genuine continental, and potentially global, conversation about where the world is heading over the medium to long run. Continue reading
Foresight for resilience: The European Commission’s first annual Foresight Report
Strategic foresight can help near-term recovery become resilient over the long term. This is the key message of the European Commission’s first ever annual Foresight Report. Continue reading
Global Trendometer 2019
The new Global Trendometer examines topics ranging from deliberative democracy and the future of social policy in Europe, to scenarios for Northern Africa, China’s social credit system, the auditing of algorithms and space as a new frontier. Continue reading
ESPAS Conference 2019: Challenges and choices for Europe
The European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) held its latest annual conference On Monday, 14 and Tuesday, 15 October 2019 Continue reading
Launch of the new ESPAS foresight report
April 2019 marked the launch of the new European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) report: ‘Global Trends to 2030: Challenges and Choices for Europe’. The report is a result of a multi-year joint effort by key European institutions. The collaborative nature of the ESPAS process was also reflected in the launch event, which featured variety of stakeholders as speakers. Continue reading
What next for Europe? A new EU strategic foresight report
Europe can no longer take prosperity, stability, or even democracy for granted. Fundamental changes in technology, in relations between and within continents, and not least in climate, demand vigorous responses. Challenges and Choices for Europe, a new report by the EU’s European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS), looks closely at the tasks that lie ahead. Continue reading
Shaping the future: the Annual ESPAS Conference (afternoon sessions)
The afternoon opened with a session on Global Power in 2030. Shada Islam, Director of Friends of Europe, sees that it is increasingly difficult to generate international consensus on most important issues, and suggests that a model based on ‘constellations’ could help: multilateral agreements in policy areas such as climate change, security cooperation or development initiatives, each bringing together different sets of countries. Continue reading
Shaping the future: the Annual ESPAS Conference (morning sessions)
Parliament Vice-President Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso gave the opening address, following welcoming remarks from EPRS Director-General, Anthony Teasdale, and the Head of the European Policy Strategy Centre, Ann Mettler. The Vice-President reminded guests that the EU stands at a critical juncture. While it prepares for the 2019 elections – ‘one of the world’s largest democratic exercises’ – the EU faces a crisis of confidence from citizens who ‘have felt abandoned’ over the last ten years. ‘This is no time for humility’, therefore – it is fundamental the Parliament remind citizens how it has taken their side. Continue reading
Global Trends to 2035: Economy and society
Machiavelli wrote about the difficulty of spotting evils before they hatch; this is a good reason to build expertise about developments in the world around us. A new EPRS publication does this by analysing economic and social trends to 2035. Continue reading
Global Trendometer – Essays on medium- and long-term global trends – July 2018
The EU faces challenges from both outside and within its borders. Most of these are the symptoms of big underlying trends, and handling them requires foresight. The annual Global Trendometer aims to provide such foresight for decision-makers in the EU, by analysing the changes in these long-term trends. Continue reading
Global Trends to 2030: Hard and soft power in a changing world
On 22 and 23 November 2017, the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) held its third yearly conference since the publication of its pioneering report ‘Global Trends to 2030: can the EU meet the challenges ahead?’ at the beginning of this legislative cycle. Continue reading
Global Trendometer: Essays on medium- and long-term global trends – Summer 2017
Europe faces both challenges and opportunities: some readily apparent – others still hidden. Foresight is needed; a habit of lifting the view from everyday concerns, to take a look at what else is coming over the horizon. Continue reading
Global Trends to 2030: Society and Governance
Written by Eamonn Noonan, Global Trends to 2030: Society and Governance was the theme of the latest conference arranged under the auspices of ESPAS, an inter-institutional initiative to develop the EU’s capacity for strategic foresight. A day of lively debate on how the world around us is changing took place on 17 November in the … Continue reading
Society and governance: what does the future hold?
Written by Eamonn Noonan, Global Trends Unit No one can know for sure what 2030 will look like. There is plenty of debate on the matter, with at least two differing camps. Some stress the positives – the prospect of better lives, less hard work, new solutions to global pollution and chronic disease. Others stress … Continue reading
Global Trendometer: Essays on medium- and long-term global trends, autumn 2016
Written by Danièle Réchard, Global warming, demographic change, mounting inequality, changing balance of power, societal impact of the ongoing technological revolution: in the face of these and other global trends, the world in 2030 or 2040 may appear so unknown, so complex and so distant that it would seem vain to prepare for it, as … Continue reading
Migration and the EU: A long-term perspective
Written by Eamonn Noonan, Policy debate on migration understandably focuses on short-term challenges and costs, given the refugee wave that arrived in the EU in 2015. This briefing by contrast addresses challenges and opportunities for the EU of migration in the long term, and builds on foresight work within the European Strategy and Policy Analysis … Continue reading
ESPAS Global Trends 2030: Future Geopolitics Panel
Written by Eamonn Noonan, Adriana Galardini (both EPRS) and Michela Delle Coste (DG SGAD) The third panel on day two dealt with long-term trends in geopolitics. The session was chaired by Maciej Popowski of the European External Action Service. Mr Popowski began by referring to the global power shift currently underway, to which the EU is … Continue reading
ESPAS Global Trends 2030: Future Society Panel
Written by Eamonn Noonan and Julian Göpffarth What kind of society – national, European and global – do we want to live in by 2030? Which societal trends will shape the coming years? These questions were discussed by the second panel of the ESPAS-conference on Global Trends 2030 – The Economic and Technological Revolution on … Continue reading
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