European Parliamentary Research Service Blog
future of Europe
European Parliament Plenary Session – March I 2021
Continuing to mark International Women’s Day 2021, the agenda for the first plenary session of March 2021 kicks off with a ceremony celebrating women’s day, not least their role in fighting on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. 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
Surveillance capitalism and Europe’s moral duty to shape a human-centric digital future
‘The European Union represents humanity’s best hope to prevent lawless, unprecedented computational concentrations of knowledge and power from becoming as irreversible and poisonous to our societies as the toxic concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere have become to our earth.’ Continue reading
European Parliament Plenary Session – June 2020
It is (almost) back to ‘business as usual’ as Parliament meets again in plenary from Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 June 2020. Members will deal with a full agenda, including up to three voting sessions each day, using the alternative electronic voting procedure introduced since the coronavirus outbreak, which has now proven to run smoothly. Continue reading
European Parliament position on the Conference on the Future of Europe
Members of the European Parliament from the Constitutional Affairs Committee have warned that the Covid‑19 crisis has made the need for reform more crucial than ever. Continue reading
European Parliament Plenary Session January I 2020
Parliament returns to work for this first plenary session of 2020 with considerable plans for the year ahead (although two major issues remain to be settled: the future multiannual financial framework and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom). Continue reading
State of the Union: The view from regions and cities
o provide an opportunity for deeper reflection on the role of regions and cities in the EU in the years to come, the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliamentary Research Service organised a joint discussion on 16 October 2019, moderated by Etienne Bassot, Director of the Members’ Research Service, EPRS. Continue reading
European Parliament Plenary Session, March I 2019
The agenda for the first plenary session in March features, for this month’s debate on the Future of Europe, the attendance on Tuesday morning of Peter Pellegrini, Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic. Continue reading
European Parliament Plenary Session, January II 2019
The first item on the agenda for this week’s part-session is a formal sitting on Wednesday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In remembering the fate of the millions of Europeans who suffered between 1933 and 1945, Parliament has made its position clear that racism and xenophobia are not opinions but crimes. Continue reading
European Parliament Plenary Session, November I 2018
The European Parliament agenda this month is dominated by some of the big set-pieces of the EU calendar: the latest in the continued debates on the Future of Europe; the EU budget; the award of the LUX prize to this year’s winning film; not forgetting the campaign now well under way to select nominees, known as ‘Spitzenkandidaten’, for the election of the next Commission President. Continue reading
Plenary round-up – Strasbourg, October II 2018
The highlights of the October II plenary session were the debate on the conclusions of the European Council meeting on 17 and 18 October 2018 and the presentation of the European Commission’s 2019 work programme, the last of the current legislature. Parliament also held debates on the use of Facebook users’ data by Cambridge Analytica and its impact on data protection, and the Cum-Ex trading scandal. Continue reading
Roadmap for the Future of Europe: shaping EU Security and Defence Policy
Speakers including David McAllister (EPP, Germany), Chair of the AFET Committee, Julia de Clerck-Sachsse (Adviser, Strategic Planning Division, EEAS), Tomáš Valášek (Director, Carnegie Europe) and Elena Lazarou (Policy Analyst, EPRS), as well as moderator Alexandre Stutzmann, Director of Committees, DG EXPO, joined the EPRS on 15 May 2018 for a roundtable event entitled ‘Roadmap for the Future of Europe: shaping EU Security and Defence Policy’. Continue reading
The Future of Europe [What Think Tanks are thinking]
This note offers links to commentaries, studies and reports from major international think tanks on the state of the EU and possible reforms. Brexit-related publications can be found in a previous edition of ‘What Think Tanks are thinking.’ Earlier papers on the general state of the EU are available in another edition in this series, published in September 2017. More reports on euro zone reforms are also gathered in another item of the series from December 2017. Continue reading
The European Union: A year of hope [What Think Tanks are thinking]
The self-confidence of the European Union improved markedly during this last year after the ‘annus horibilis’ of 2016 when the EU faced a ‘poly-crisis’ of a shaky euro-zone economy, the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, migration pressures, growing Russian assertiveness and apparent foreign-policy drift. Continue reading
Outcome of the European Council meeting on 19-20 October 2017 and the European Council (Article 50) meeting on 20 October 2017
The principal result of the European Council meeting of 19-20 October 2017 was the endorsement of the ’Leaders’ Agenda’ setting out the main issues and work-plan for the European Council up to June 2019. Continue reading
Outlook for the European Council meeting on 19-20 October 2017 and the European Council (Article 50) meeting on 20 October 2017
At their meeting on 19-20 October 2017, EU leaders will focus on migration, in particular assessing the progress made in stemming illegal flows on all migration routes, and digital Europe, following up on the Digital Summit held in Tallinn on 29 September. Continue reading
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