Ahead of the autumn 2024 Commissioners-designate hearings, Parliament has adapted the rules for the process, which will apply for the members of the second von der Leyen College. Since the 2004 investiture, Parliament has used its role in appointing the Commission to replace certain controversial candidates and force adjustments to certain portfolios, although according to the Treaties Parliament can only reject or accept the College as a whole. Confirmation hearings have become critical for Parliament to hold the Commission accountable, and have gained prominence as a tool for Parliament to take a greater role in EU agenda-setting.

EPRS policy podcast - European Parliament's scrutiny of the European Council: The use of Parliament resolutions

EPRS policy podcast - Confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate

Although the European defence industry is generally competitive, more than a decade of underinvestment has kept it from reaching its full potential. The significant under-investment in European defence is demonstrated by the severe difficulties the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB) has in obtaining finance. Member States' defence budgets will continue to be the EDTIB's main source of funding; however, more collaborative actions and spending would enhance output and efficiency.

EPRS policy podcast - Financing the European defence industry

How does the EU regulate the post term activities of members of the EU institutions, as for example, Commissioners and Members of the European Parliament, as opposed to staff members? The European Ombudsman has looked the phenomenon, also called ‘revolving doors’ in the context of several individual cases; on a few occasions this has ended in an unsatisfactory outcome for the institution or body under investigation and prompted the European Ombudsman to make specific recommendations to avoid a repeat of maladministration in future cases.

EPRS policy podcast - Rules on 'revolving doors' in the EU

On Its first and constituent plenary sitting of the new parliamentary term (16-19 July 2024), the European Parliament will elect its 32nd President, to hold office for the first half of the 10th parliamentary term, until January 2026. The President has an important and increasingly visible function in the EU institutional and international setting, mirroring Parliament's influential role as shaper of EU policies and as co-legislator.

EPRS policy podcast - How is the European Parliament's President elected?

The world is not on track to keep the global temperature rise below 2°C. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, the temperature rise is expected to overshoot 1.5°C for a while, before falling back below 1.5°C thanks to large-scale carbon removals. While action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and scale up carbon dioxide removal remains crucial, there is an urgent need to reinforce efforts to adapt to climate change, in order to avoid losses and build resilience.

EPRS Policy Podcast - Climate overshoot and adaptation: Issues to watch in 2024

European elections represent a crucial moment: they give EU citizens a say in the political direction of the European Union. After declining ever since the first European direct elections in 1979, electoral turn out increased in the 2019 elections to reach 50.6 % largely due to youth participation (according to a post-election Eurobarometer survey). Echoing the 2019 motto 'This time I'm voting', the 2024 one might be: 'I did it again!' The 2024 European elections could be a turning point for youth engagement for several reasons

EPRS Policy Podcast - Young Europeans go to the polls: Issues to watch in 2024

Robot applications, including 'collaborative robots' – cobots – designed to collaborate with humans, are in high demand, with sales and installation figures constantly on the rise. However, it is necessary to analyse the risks and opportunities of this technology and its possible social, economic, and ethical impacts. The following study presents the current state of collaborative robotics, its benefits, and its disadvantages, with a special emphasis on key aspects such as safety. It presents possible policy options to enable the EU to remain at the forefront of this technology by taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding the potential risks.

EPRS Science and Technology Podcast: Analysis exploring risks and opportunities linked to the use of collaborative industrial robots in Europe

In November 2023, the European Commission presented its annual enlargement reports. Its strategic orientations and recommendations include accelerating the accession process with the Western Balkan countries, opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and granting candidate status to Georgia. According to the European Parliament's 2022 recommendation on the new EU strategy, enlargement policy is 'the most effective EU foreign policy instrument and one of the Union's most successful policies'.

EPRS Policy Podcast: Enlargement policy - Reforms and challenges ahead

Corruption is a major challenge for the European Union (EU), with all its Member States affected by the problem to some extent. The EU has gradually adopted laws addressing a range of corruption-related issues. However, the current legal framework remains patchy, the lack of minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and sanctions in the area of corruption being one important missing element. Recently, corruption-related issues have been addressed almost exclusively within the EU rule of law framework, a development criticised by various stakeholders, including the European Parliament.

EPRS Policy Podcast: Combating corruption in the European Union

In July 2023, the European Commission adopted a proposal to revise the EU toy safety legislation. This proposal pursues two main objectives: a) achieving a higher level of child protection, including from the most harmful substances; and b) reducing the number of non-compliant and unsafe toys on the EU market.

EPRS Policy Podcast - Toy safety regulation

Since 2012 – when Xi was first made General-Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – the China-Russia relationship has evolved into an informal alliance in the face of what both countries consider a rising threat from the West to their regimes. China's response to Russia's war on has so far been much closer to Russia than it was in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. At the same time, developments since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have increased Russia's dependency on China, which some now qualify as a rising 'vassalisation' of Russia.

EPRS policy podcast -China-Russia relations: A quantum leap?

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing crises, progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 3 ('ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages') is off track globally, and many of its targets may not be achieved by 2030. Within the EU, measures pertaining to SDG 3 focus on achieving more resilient, accessible and inclusive health systems; improving reproductive, maternal and child health; ending major communicable disease epidemics; and reducing non-communicable and mental disorders. They also focus on lowering behavioural and environmental health risk factors.

EPRS policy podcast - The EU's role in promoting health and well-being for all - SDG 3

In March 2023, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a 'net-zero industry act' that aims to expand the manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies in the EU and enhance the resilience of its energy system. The proposed regulation would set up enabling conditions for the manufacturing of 10 net-zero technologies. The proposed regulation would aim to ensure that, by 2030, the manufacturing capacity in the EU for these strategic net-zero technologies reaches an overall benchmark of at least 40 % of the EU's annual deployment needs.

EPRS policy podcast - Net-zero industry act

Road transport is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for over a quarter of road transport CO2 emissions. The European Commission proposes to revise the legislation setting CO2 emission standards for new heavy-duty vehicles in the EU. The proposed revision would expand the scope of the existing regulation to include urban buses, coaches, trailers and other types of lorries. It will also require that the average CO2 emissions of heavy-duty vehicles, would have to fall by 45 % from 2030, by 65 % from 2035, and by 90 % from 2040 onwards, compared with 2019 levels.

EPRS policy podcast - CO₂ emission performance standards and reporting obligations for new heavy-duty vehicles

To reach the Paris Agreement objective of keeping the global temperature increase well below 2°C, the EU must consider every possible technology to decarbonise its energy production. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun and we can recreate it on Earth. However, even if we overcome the considerable engineering challenges of designing a fusion power plant, there are hard constraints to upscaling fusion power.

EPRS Science and Technology podcast - What if we could make nuclear fusion work?

EPRS Policy roundtable - Towards a European democracy shield in our digital world: The role of information integrity

EPRS event - How speeches can bring trust in democracy

EPRS Policy roundtable - EU finances: Is Next Generation EU delivering?

EPRS - Conference on Foresight and Better Law-Making

EPRS Policy Talks - What the EU is doing on critical raw materials?

EPRS History and politics roundtable : President Jose Maria Gil-Robles: A Historical Appraisal

EPRS event ' The European Elections and beyond: What to expect after June 2024? '

EPRS policy roundtable ' Who speaks for Europe? Dynamics and interactions in the EU’s  external representation '

70 years of Transnational Groups in the European Parliament

Book presentation ' Die Alpen im Fieber '

ECPRD Seminar: Parliamentary Research in a new age: Foresight, strategy and innovation

Art. 17 Book Presentation on ' The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe '

DG EPRS group photo

Book presentation - Corruption and Money Laundering as Crimes Against democraty

EPRS - The Dilemma of Disinformation: How should democracies respond?

EPRS Expert seminar - ' EU Budget 2021-27: Challenges and opportunities '

EPRS Book talk - ' This is not propaganda, adventures in the war against reality '

One of the European Parliament's most important roles, beside legislating and deciding on the EU budget, is to hold the European Commission to account. How does that work? It starts with the election of the European Commission President, followed by the investiture of the entire College of Commissioners. In addition to its role in the appointment of the Commission, one of Parliament's strongest scrutiny tools is a motion of censure.

EPRS - The European Parliament’s role in the appointment of the Commission

Each year, the European Union decides how to allocate billions of euros to key areas like the digital and green transitions, agriculture or regional development. How does this budget get approved? Who checks whether the money is well spent? That’s where the European Parliament steps in! In this video, we explain how this process works in a nutshell. We also take a closer look at the discharge of the European Commission.

EPRS - The European Parliament’s role in the annual EU budget and its discharge

With the COVID-19 pandemic, war returning to Europe and the accompanying energy crisis, and a worsening economic outlook, all on top of a climate crisis, today's young Europeans are growing up in a volatile and difficult world. Concerns about economic prosperity, increasing competition for jobs, rising inflation and property prices make it difficult for young people to get ahead in life, to afford housing, to attain economic stability and to achieve a sense of satisfaction in society. Furthermore, underpinning many of these changes is digitalisation, which is also changing the way we socialise, work and live, with emerging consequences for mental health. Dive deeper:

Mental health among young European

Health is essential for a fulfilling life—and a strong health sector is vital for both our well-being and our economy. In the EU, the health sector contributes 11% of GDP and provides one in ten jobs. But did you know that Europe is falling behind in health innovation compared to global competitors? Investing in EU-wide health innovation could unlock ground-breaking treatments, boost our competitiveness, and create new economic opportunities. By pooling resources and sharing risks, we can achieve more together—transforming lives while fostering growth. Discover more in our EPRS study on the Cost of Non-Europe in Health Policy

Unlocking health innovation

In the EU, 1.8 million people under 75 died in 2021. 72 % of these deaths could have been avoided: 3 in 10 with timely, effective medical treatment; 7 in 10 with better preventive measures. In that same year, the leading causes of avoidable deaths were COVID-19, ischaemic heart diseases and lung cancer. These three diseases mostly affected men. The death rate from avoidable diseases also varies widely across the EU. Learn more about how the EU can turn the tide on preventable losses and create a healthier EU for everyone

Turning the tide on avoidable deaths in the EU

Misleading information can throw any of us off course. Both misinformation – mistakes without ill intent – and disinformation – created and spread with the aim of fooling people – can make it hard to take informed decisions. Fast evolving technologies – including deepfake video and audio – make it too easy to produce and spread deceptive content very rapidly. Many of us worry about the effect: some 85 % of people worldwide are concerned about the impact of disinformation on their fellow citizens; 87 % think disinformation has already affected political life in their country (Unesco/Ipsos 2023); and 38 % of EU citizens list false and/or misleading information as a threat to democracy (Eurobarometer 2023). These tips will help you steer around falsehoods.

EPRS - Fact-checking compass: how to spot information manipulation

Following the recent conclusion of the Conference on the Future of Europe, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) organised an event that will explore 70 years of European Parliament activism to reform the EU.

EPRS history and politics event: Seventy years of the European Parliament and EU democratic reform

EPRS identifies and frames some of the top key issues that might feature prominently in public debate and on the political agenda of the European Union this year. In times of crises and war, what are the challenges we must face and choices we have to make? Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - Budgeting in times of crises and war

EPRS - The Janus-faced fiscal-monetary policy mix

EPRS - How will increasing fuel prices impact transport?

EPRS - Russia, quo vadis?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected President of Ukraine in May 2019. The former actor, scriptwriter and producer became a war leader when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, President Zelenskyy addressed the European Parliament. He then went on to address national parliaments worldwideThe latest in a line of historical leaders employing rhetoric in times of war, he has used his words to rally world leaders and call for more support. CONTENT: 00:00:00 Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech before the French Assemblée nationale 00:01:48 Attack on Mariupol maternity 00:03:57 Comparison with Verdun 00:05:43 Hope with the Normandy format 00:07:04 24 February Russian attack on Ukraine 00:09:27 Call to France and Europe Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - Speeches that have made Europe: Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2022)

EPRS - Heading towards 2024 European elections

Food prices in the EU have risen dramatically over the past two years. The chain of disruptions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, extreme weather events and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have led to severe shortages in the agri-food chain, resulting in higher consumer prices. The latest European Parliament Eurobarometer survey shows that the cost of living continues to be the main concern for European citizens. Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - Rising food prices

Many rare diseases manifest themselves in childhood, resulting in a shortened lifespan and leading to a dependency on care throughout the patients’ lives, causing significant suffering to the patients and their families. Patients affected by rare diseases often spend years enduring a “diagnostic odyssey” before receiving the correct diagnosis, if ever. Most rare diseases lack effective treatments representing an enormous unmet medical need. EU research and innovation is crucial to accelerate the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - 5 facts about rare diseases

Most unpaid care work within households is carried out by women. The 'unpaid care penalty' for women in the EU is estimated to reach €242 billion per year. EU action in the care sector has the potential for high returns for society. Fostering the 'equal earner – equal carer model' could generate benefits of between €24billion and €48 billion a year. EU action to promote affordable, high-quality care could produce an additional €90 billion to €160 billion in benefits each year. In this third and final episode of the chronicles on care work in the EU, Dr Meena Fernandes, and Dr Cecilia Navarra, policy analysts at the European parliamentary research service, will delve into how we can use policy to reverse the vicious cycle of care work and its negative consequences. Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - Care work in the EU: Reversing the vicious cycle

Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament in January 2022. One month later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the European Parliament has stood by Ukraine ever since. At the beginning of April, President Metsola went to the Ukrainian Parliament to deliver a message of hope, recognising the courage of the Ukrainian people and supporting Ukraine’s ambition to join the European Union. Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

EPRS - Speeches that have made Europe: Roberta Metsola (2022)

The European Union and NATO have a joint history of security and defence cooperation. Their strategic partnership is based on shared interests and values, like democracy, human rights and attachment to a rules-based international order. In 2016 and 2018, the EU and NATO signed two joint declarations. A third joint declaration is currently in preparation. Their aim is to strengthen cooperation in key areas of mutual interest to both organisations like hybrid threats, cyber-security, operational cooperation, defence capabilities, capacity-building, research and industry and training. Restrictions: ©The material may not be edited and must be shown entirely.

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