European Union

Parliament called on Thursday for EU measures to tackle prostitution and policies that eliminate poverty.
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Parliament called on Thursday for EU measures to tackle prostitution and policies that eliminate poverty.
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Parliament today gave the green light to start negotiations with Council to reform the EU’s electricity market.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Parliament today gave the green light to start negotiations with Council to reform the EU’s electricity market.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

The nominees for this year’s Prize will be presented by the political groups in a joint meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and on Development (DEVE) and the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) in Brussels on 20 September, 14:30-15:30. Each year, the Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to honour exceptional individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms. In 2022, the Prize was awarded to the Brave People of Ukraine.
The AFET and DEVE Committees will vote on a shortlist of three finalists on 12 October and the Conference of Presidents will take a decision on the final laureate on 19 October.
Sakharov Prize - Presentation of the nominees - Webstreaming link
Sakharov Prize website
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 93 - Draft report Implementation report on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade
Andreas Schieder, Seán Kelly

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 185 - Draft report The situation of children deprived of liberty in the world
Committee on Foreign Affairs
María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

NADA and Others
Principles of Community law
Anti-doping and data protection: Advocate General Ćapeta considers that a national anti-doping authority which publishes personal data of a doped professional athlete on the internet is not in breach of the GDPR

AMENDMENTS 250 - 535 - Draft report Establishing the Ukraine Facility
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Budgets
Michael Gahler, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Thursday, 14 September

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Parliament has revised its internal rules in response to allegations of corruption, based on the President’s 14-point reform plan.
Committee on Constitutional Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

In their annual report, MEPs urge the EU and Türkiye to break the current deadlock and find “a parallel and realistic framework” for EU-Türkiye relations.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

DRAFT REPORT on a European Parliament recommendation to the Council and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning EU-China relations
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Hilde Vautmans

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

DRAFT OPINION on the transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Deirdre Clune

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

A delegation of AFET Members will travel to the UK from 18 to 19 September 2023. This will be the first time that the committee travels to the UK since 31 January 2020 when the United Kingdom officially left the EU. The AFET delegation will discuss possibilities for strengthened partnership and deepening dialogue on issues of importance in relevant areas of bilateral cooperation, including in foreign and security affairs.
This visit will also be an opportunity to exchange views on issues of significance to Northern Ireland, particularly in the context of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol and the Windsor Framework.
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

MEPs backed the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) on Tuesday.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

This blog post is a follow-up to the presentation “The Aspiration Towards Centrality in the European Research Area: The European Interest in Bringing the Southern Neighbourhood Into the Picture,” given on 11 September 2023, during the virtual panel 104 “The EU as an External Actor I” of the UACES 2023 Conference.

The presentation highlighted some of the main content lines of the forthcoming publication, which examines how research cooperation serves the goals of the European Southern Neighbourhood Policy and the European Research Area. This topic is addressed through the lens of the motivations and pursuits of Europe-based project managers. Following insight obtained from interviews with Europe-based managers funded by EU Framework Programmes, the presentation outlined that many Europe-based project coordinators welcomed Moroccan and Tunisian institutions to the consortium because this would enhance their position of centrality and point of expertise intersections in the European Research Area. Narrative analysis guides multifaceted conclusions. Agency strategies pursued through a scientific focus on the projects serve the overall goals of the European Research Area and the Southern Neighbourhood Policy. European project coordinators function as enablers of the EU’s structural diplomacy. The science diplomacy considerations are secondary and not unified across the examined projects.

Looking beyond this specific presentation, the multiple forms of EU actorness, actorship, and actorhood deserve more attention to acquire a more complete picture of the multiple ways in which the EU engages with the rest of the world. There are many blind spots waiting to be discovered and properly addressed in future research. The EU’s external action toolbox remains to be fully evaluated and its full resonance properly explained. A more in-depth study of several thus far neglected areas is instrumental to making EU engagement more purposeful and targeted and constructing complementarities with higher-value deliverables. This is not meant as a criticism of the existing policy planning, programming, and implementation practices. It is guided by an aspiration to never stop seeking room for improvement and to set even higher sights on research excellence.

Additionally, these follow-up remarks prove the topicality of the panel title “The EU as an External Actor”. This title will remain pertinent for the foreseeable future. The EU open access data repositories offer plenty of options to discover new patterns and less studied constellations of EU-supported encounters across the world that deserve to be more thoroughly examined and discussed during the forthcoming UACES conferences. The lively debate throughout the online session was an opportunity to introduce attendants to other recent scholarly publications addressing contemporary engagement of the EU with various domain-specific diplomacies, such as knowledge diplomacy and connectivity matters.

To conclude, the panel “The EU as an External Actor I” attests that several highly engaged scholars are working towards starting to fill this gap with promising theoretical, conceptual, and empirical choices. The study of perceptions of the EU is on the rise. The way the EU is perceived is of interest to early-career and senior researchers who study diverse regional and geopolitical heavyweight constellations.

 

Blog post author: Zane Šime

The post Aspiration Towards Centrality in the EU External Action Context appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Ministers are holding a series of meetings in parliamentary committees to present the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the Council.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on Culture and Education
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
Committee on International Trade
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Committee on Fisheries
Committee on Regional Development
Committee on Transport and Tourism
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

EUHealthGov is delighted to have been involved in this week’s annual conference of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). We have hosted three panels at the event at Queen’s University Belfast on 4, 5 and 6 September. 

On Monday morning, we gathered for a panel on EU governance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mina Hosseini (University College Dublin, Ireland), introduced an evaluation of the EU’s use of advance purchase agreements (APAs) to procure COVID-19 vaccines. Utilising the lens of competition law, Mina’s work explores challenges to transparency and accountability in the APA process, and how the EU might use its wider Vaccine Strategy to address such challenges in future. Our second presenter, Francis Jacobs (also UCD), presented a paper on how the European Parliament responded, in its day-to-day functioning, to the challenges presented by the pandemic. This work explores how the Parliament adapted its rules of procedure and working methods to enable it to keep its legislative agenda moving, and how it is contributing to debates on how to increase the resilience of institutions. 

On Tuesday morning, we turned our attention to the European Health Union (EHU). Louise Bengtsson (Swedish Defence University, Sweden) opened the panel with her work on the securitisation of EU global health policy. Comparing the new global health initiatives published by the Commission as part of the EHU with the older, existing elements of EU global health policy, Louise’s work explores a shift in narrative framing and underlying logic. Next, Georgiana Ciceo (Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania) presented a paper that uses the experimentalist governance framework to assess changes in the EU’s cross border health threats legislation within the EHU. Georgiana argues that the EU has been able to expand its authority in public health by amending the high level goals and iterative feedback stages of the governance process in cross border threats. Finally, Mary Guy (Liverpool John Moores University, UK) introduced a new project mapping solidarity in European healthcare. In this panel Mary focused on the role and place of solidarity within the EU’s response to COVID-19, arguing that there remains potential for solidarity logics to inform the development of EU vaccine policy, fiscal governance and the EHU. 

On Wednesday morning, for our final panel, we gathered to discuss law-making and legislation in EU health governance. Hannah van Kolfschooten (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) presented a paper on the EU’s artificial intelligence (AI) legislation and its less-known implications for third countries. Drawing on a concept of ‘data colonialism’ and a comparison to clinical trials legislation, Hannah outlined some of the wider impacts of EU law and offered some early thoughts on how the EU might act to take account of these impacts. Second, Eleanor Brooks (University of Edinburgh, UK) presented a paper on the role of stakeholder consultation in the EU policy process. Using a case study from EU pharmaceutical law, Eleanor’s work examines the existence of participation bias in the consultation process, and explores the challenges in identifying, measuring and analysing such bias. Finally, Katrina Perehudoff (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) introduced a new project exploring the EU’s responsibilities towards low and middle income countries in the area of pharmaceuticals. Drawing inspiration from across international, EU and national legal frameworks, Katrina’s work seeks to develop a framework for EU action on global access to medicines, exploring the potential for positive duties towards health beyond the EU’s territorial borders. 

Between and across panels, we’ve had fruitful discussions about the scope and future of the EHU, the EU’s role in global health governance, and the potential of its legal frameworks to contribute to health equity. With thanks to all of our presenters, chairs, discussants and audience participants, as well to UACES for the invitation and financial support. Here’s looking forward to #UACES2024!

The post EUHealthGov at UACES 2023 appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation carried out a further military invasion of Ukraine, violating the UN Charter. The ongoing international armed conflict in Ukraine raises concerns about harm and impact caused to the civilian population, and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure which are affected by both kinetic and cyberattacks. This report analyses the magnitude of the cyber dimension of the war in Ukraine, its impact, and the lessons learned with the aim to increase understanding about the threat environment, and strengthen cyber resilience and defence capabilities across the EU and in neighbouring countries.
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP