Illustrative pre-edited broadcast quality video footage of 2020. The stockshots are clean, with natural sound (without voice-over), produced in order to illustrate priority EU dossiers and the parliamentary work. They are intended to help audiovisual media produce their own programs, for example, editing of news reports or documentaries.

Infoclips (2020) - Illustrative footage

The European Investment Bank (EIB) furthers the objectives of the European Union by providing long-term project funding, guarantees and advice. It supports projects both within and outside the EU. Its shareholders are the Member States of the EU.

The EIB is the majority shareholder in the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the two organisations together make up the EIB Group.

Every year, a Parliament committee reviews the EIB’s activities and presents a report in plenary, to which the EIB President is invited. The EIB and the Commission have a number of reporting obligations towards Parliament, such as annual reports, ad hoc hearings and requests for information. Parliament was involved, as a co-legislator, in the adoption of the EFSI and InvestEU initiatives.

In the context of the COVID 19- pandemic the Bank has supported the health sector and vaccine research as well as financing BioNTech, one of the vaccine makers. It has joined the EU-backed Team Europe effort to tackle the pandemic in the European Union’s neighbouring countries and in fragile states around the world. Together with the European Investment Fund the EIB has given support to hard-hit SMEs. Now the Bank is investing in a green and inclusive recovery in Europe and in developing countries (source EIB).

Annual Report on the financial activities of the European Investment Bank

Parliament will debate and vote on the priorities for this year’s so-called “European Semester”, the EU’s mechanism for the surveillance and coordination of economic and employment policies across member states. MEPs are expected to urge EU countries to better coordinate their economic and fiscal policies and to use the opportunities offered by the EU’s recovery funds to modernise their economies.

The European Semester is the EU's annual cycle of economic policy guidance and surveillance. It provides a framework for the coordination of economic policies across the EU. It allows EU countries to discuss their economic and budget plans and monitor progress at specific times throughout the year. During its 2022 cycle, the European Semester resumes its broad economic and employment policy coordination, while further adapting in line with the implementation requirements of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Member States are expected to submit National reform programmes and stability/convergence programmes, setting out their economic and fiscal policy plans, as in previous European Semester cycles in April. The main novelty in the 2022 cycle will be that the national reform programme (NRP) will play a dual role. Besides its role for the European Semester, the NRP will also fulfil one of the two bi-annual reporting requirements of Member States under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Together with the country reports in May 2022, the Commission will propose to the Council to adopt country-specific recommendations (CSRs). The CSRs will address the key issues identified in the country reports. The country reports, the in-depth reviews and the proposals for CSRs will form part of the 2022 European Semester Spring package.

European Semester

The single European sky initiative aims to increase the efficiency of air traffic management (ATM) and air navigation services by reducing the fragmentation of European airspace. By its nature, this ongoing initiative is pan-European and open to neighbouring countries.

Parliament has always endeavoured to remove obstacles to the implementation of the single European sky by adopting a pragmatic approach. In this connection, it has insisted strongly and successfully on the need for close cooperation between the civil and military sectors, in the context of flexible use of airspace, even when the Member States were still reluctant to address the issue.

Single European Sky

What’s on the agenda of Parliament Parliament? Find here our weekly review of the European Parliament's work and events in pictures.

EP weekly review

Launched in 1992, the LIFE programme is the only EU fund entirely dedicated to environmental and climate objectives. It supports the implementation of relevant EU legislation and the development of key policy priorities, by co-financing projects with European added value.

LIFE programme for 2021-2027 will become the EU's most ambitious climate and environmental programme. It would support projects in the areas of nature and biodiversity, circular economy and quality of life, clean energy transition, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The total budget allocated for LIFE is EUR 5.4 billion, of which EUR 3.5 billion will go to environmental activities and EUR 1.9 billion to climate action. The programme is part of the Green deal package proposed by the European Commission.

LIFE

In June 2018, the European Commission presented the new Space Programme. It aims to ensure investment continuity in EU space activities, encourage scientific and technical progress, and support the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the European space industry.

The 14.8 billion euro programme should improve flagship initiatives such as Galileo, Copernicus and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). The 2021-2027 EU space programme will fund projects that provide high-quality space-related data as well as services with key socio-economic benefits and potential to create jobs. It also aims to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy, its security and its role in the space sector. With more than 30 satellites currently in orbit and over 25 planned for the next 10 to 15 years, the EU is the largest institutional customer for launch services in Europe. According to the European Commission, the strategic importance of the space sector for the Union has increased, as has the need for the European space sector to adapt to the changing global environment. Space technology, data and services have become indispensable to the daily lives of the public and to the EU's strategic interests. Space can play a crucial role in tackling new challenges such as climate change, sustainable development, border control, maritime surveillance and security.

EU space programme

The European Arrest Warrant (EAW), currently operational in 28 Member States, is generally recognised as a successful criminal justice instrument, based on mutual recognition.

EU Member States have been extraditing suspects and sentenced persons to each other for many decades, on the basis of bilateral and multilateral conventions. Those arrangements were, however, slow and thwarted by exceptions based on national sovereignty. As EU integration has progressed, the Member States have agreed to base their cooperation on the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions, moving away from a system in which decisions on extradition were ultimately taken at government level. This principle was implemented by the Council framework decision on the European Arrest Warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States (FD EAW) adopted in 2002, on the basis of rapid negotiations following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

European Arrest Warrant

This package contains the events between 1st July 2019 and 31 December 2020. For latest events, see related links.

The ‘European Green Deal’ proposed by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EC, sets several goals for climate and nature in Europe and beyond: 

<ul>
	<li>a European climate law to enact the 2050 target;</li>
	<li>an extension of the emissions trading system; </li>
	<li>a European carbon border tax; more ambitious targets and reduce emissions by at least 50% by 2030; </li>
	<li>a sustainable Europe investment plan to boost private investments; </li>
	<li>a just transition fund so no one is left behind; a biodiversity strategy for 2030</li>
	<li>and a new circular economy action plan.</li>
</ul>

 

See also our media packages on <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/climate-change_13104_pk">climate change,</a> <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/green-house-emissions-trading-systems_2703_pk">green house emissions trading systems</a>, or <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/circular-economy_4603_pk">cicular economy</a>.

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European Green Deal (2019-2020)

A ‘posted worker’ is an employee sent by his or her employer to carry out a service in another EU Member State on a temporary basis. EU law on posted workers is generally regarded as a targeted effort to regulate and balance the following two principles: creating a level playing field for cross-border service provision in a way that is as unrestricted as possible; protecting the rights of posted workers by guaranteeing a common set of social rights in order to prevent unfair treatment and the creation of a low-cost workforce.

On May 2018, MEPs voted on revised rules: workers posted temporarily to another EU country must get equal pay for equal work in the same place.

See more on this topic by visiting our <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/posted-workers-8th-parliamentary-term_6601_pk">package</a> for the 8th parliamentary term.

Posted workers (2019-2020)

"Dual quality" of products can be defined as the marketing of goods with significantly different composition or characteristics, such as ingredients, as identical in different Member States.

Parliament has long voiced its concerns about the dual quality of food. The EP stressed that discrimination between consumers is unacceptable in any form. In recent years, the concern that some branded products might be inferior in the Member States that have joined the European Union since 2004 has become ever more apparent. This concern has come to be known as the 'dual quality of products'. To address the issue, between 2018 and 2019, the European Commission's Joint Research Service (JRC) compared a set of branded food products sold under the same name and in the same or similar packaging across Member States. The analysis sought to determine whether, despite the identical or similar packaging, there were differences in product composition and, if so, whether those differences corresponded to any geographical pattern.

See more on this topic by visiting our <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/dual-quality-of-products-8th-parliamentary-term_7601_pk">package</a> for the 8th parliamentary term.

Dual quality of products

Euroscola

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to Portugal - Tram Talk with Portuguese youth and Carlos MOEDAS, Mayor of Lisbon

Official visit by Roberta METSOLA, EP President to Portugal - Meeting with José Pedro AGUIAR-BRANCO, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal and Visit at the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal

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