European Union

Plans to get connected cars on Europe's roads could face a setback of "two or three years" should the Delegated Act on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) be rejected by MEPs this week, Commission officials have said.

"Refugees are bringing crime into our town," an election leaflet declares – an example of how Germany's far-right feeds its narrative of a country threatened by more than a million new arrivals.

Written by Christian Salm,

Between 23 and 26 May 2019, 350 million European Union (EU) citizens have the opportunity to vote for Members of the European Parliament. It will be the ninth time that EU citizens can vote directly for the policy- and decision-makers who will represent them in EU politics. Direct elections to the European Parliament are consequently one of the most important events in the EU political cycle. Moreover, with Brexit and other challenges to overcome before the new Parliament can be constituted, many EU observers attach a special significance to this ninth election in the history of direct European elections. Before the elections take place therfore is a good time to look back to the very first direct election to the European Parliament, held forty years ago, in 1979. A history roundtable, jointly organised by EPRS, the European University Institute (EUI) and the Association of Former Members of the European Parliament (FMA); took place on 3 April 2019 to recall this occasion, and to discuss the Parliament’s past as a new political institution in the making.

The roundtable brought together former Presidents and former Members of the European Parliament, as well asnd academics from the field of EU politics and history. EPRS Director-General, Anthony Teasdale, opened the roundtable, emphasising the importance of raising the awareness of the Parliament’s past, and its presence as a political institution that has gained substantial decision-making powers since the first direct election in 1979. In this context, he underlined the role of former Presidents and former Members as key players in maintaining Parliament’s public profile, and influencing debates on EU politics in the Member States. He also mentioned that increased historical research on the Parliament is needed to close the gaps in Parliament’s history. More studies should be carried out, along the lines of a recent EPRS research project on Parliament’s culture, role, and impact during the first two directly-elected Parliaments from 1979 to 1989. The results of this EPRS research project were presented in the first panel discussion of the history roundtable.

Researching the Parliament’s character, composition and culture in the 1980s, Birte Wassenberg (Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Strasbourg) stressed three key elements of the EP in that decade. She described, firstly, how Parliament’s inter-groups such as the Kangaroo Group, an association created in 1979 as an informal gathering of members of the European institutions from different countries and political affiliations, contributed to creating a European family. Secondly, she pointed to the effects of the Parliament’s working culture on Members, including those with an Eurosceptic view. Thirdly, she underlined the Parliament’s engagement in the fight for women’s rights, exemplified by the election of Simon Veil as President of the first directly-elected Parliament.

Exploring Parliament’s policies on the institutional reform of the European Communities in the 1980s, Wolfram Kaiser (Professor of European Studies at the University of Portsmouth) explained how the Parliament fulfilled key functions in building the present-day EU. He argued that these functions included defining a set of criteria for effective and democratic governance and developing legal concepts such as subsidiarity. Moreover, he argued that the Parliament pressured the Member States into accepting greater institutional deepening and more powers for the Parliament in the 1986 Single European Art and the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.

Inquiring into the Parliament’s role in the development and implementation of the single market programme (1979 to 1989), Laurent Warlouzet (Professor of Contemporary History at the Université de Boulogne) addressed various ways the Parliament affected the policy-making process behind the programme. He outlined, for example, that the Parliament exercised intellectual influence by developing and using the notion of the ‘cost of non-Europe’, a concept used to quantify the potential efficiency gains to be made for the European economy through pursuing further integration and harmonisation in various European policy fields. Furthermore, he demonstrated that the Parliament set and shaped the Community’s economic agenda, as for example in case of the ‘relaunch of Europe’ initiative, with the aim to overcome economically disadvantaged Member States’ situations in the 1980s. Finally, he pointed out how the Parliament pushed the Commission to act with regard to the implementation of the single market programme.

Moderated by the Director of the EU Archives at the EUI, Dieter Schlenker, the second panel gathered four former Parliament Presidents and one former Parliament Vice-President: Charlotte Cederschiöld (Vice-President and Chair of Conciliation 2001-2001), Enrique Barón Crespo (President 1989-1992), Klaus Hänsch (President 1994-1997), Pat Cox (President 2002-2004), and Hans-Gert Pöttering (President 2007-2009). The panel of influential actors in the EP’s history reflected on the forty years of direct elections and emphasised that, despite being complex, the EU’s decision-making systems are democratic, thanks in part to the direct elections to the European Parliament. Moreover, they underlined that, within the last four decades, the Parliament has changed and developed tremendously, becoming a legislative maker equal to the Council. They also addressed possible challenges for constituting the Parliament after the election in May 2019. Here, they particularly mentioned the possible increase of Eurosceptic representation. Asked to provide a slogan for the European elections to come, Pat Cox referred to a quote by one of the EU founding fathers, Jean Monnet: ‘Ce qui est important, ce n’est, ni d’être optimiste, ni pessimiste, mais d’être déterminé‘, adding that: ‘The Parliament is determined to succeed in the next election.’

Click to view slideshow.

Finland's leftist Social Democrat party (SDP) leader Antti Rinne has declared victory in Sunday's general election. But it was one of the closest wins he could possibly get.

Jussi Halla-aho, whose nationalist Finns Party only narrowly failed to clinch victory in Finland's parliamentary election, is a former medieval language lecturer turned hardline MEP and vehement critic of immigration and Islam.

As many as 42% of French people interviewed by the BVA institute expressed a lack of interest in the upcoming 2019 EU parliamentary elections, six percentage points more than in the previous poll in March. EURACTIV France’s media partner La Tribune reports.

The Energy Transition Fund called for by the European Parliament is more than just a pot of money to support coal-dependent regions, says Claude Turmes, Luxembourg’s minister for energy and spatial planning.

The European Commission’s review of Britain’s capacity market for electricity will reveal whether the EU executive really believes the recast regulation on the internal electricity market is ever likely to be fully enforced, write Philip Baker and Michael Hogan.

The president of the Party of European Socialists explains their manifesto, the New Social Contract for Europe, for the May European elections.

The German auto manufacturing industry is at a perilous moment in its long and illustrious history and it needs the help of the country’s policymakers to ensure its long-term success, writes Nigel Topping.

With European elections coming up in May 2019, you probably want to know how the European Union impacts your daily life, before you think about voting. In the latest in a series of posts on what Europe does for you, your family, your business and your wellbeing, we look at what Europe does for scouts.

Twitter Hashtag #EUandME

© James Steidl / Fotolia

Are you, or is someone you know, one of the 40 million recognised members of the scouting movement worldwide? Then you will already know that scouts in Europe and worldwide are committed to contributing to build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society.

Over 1.7 million scouts are active in Europe. The European Scout Region, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, numbers 41 national scout organisations, under the umbrella of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, also co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, reaches more than 1.2 million young girls throughout Europe. There are several other scout organisations operating at European level, including, for example the Confederation of European Scouts and the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d’Europe.

According to their Vision for Scouting 2023, scouting will be the world’s leading educational youth movement by 2023, enabling 100 million young people to be active citizens who create positive change in their communities and in the world, based on shared values.

The EU Youth Strategy for 2010-2018 promotes youth participation in society. Among the key points are the recognition of informal learning and of volunteer work, both of which figure large in scouting activities. Erasmus+ is the funding programme for youth in the EU budget, and brings together funding for scouting, education and exchange under the Erasmus, European Voluntary Service, Youth in Action, and Life-Long Learning programmes.

Further information

• EPRS publication ‘Youth empowerment [Ten issues to watch in 2018]’, 2018 https://epthinktank.eu/2018/01/10/youth-empowerment-ten-issues-to-watch-in-2018/
• EPRS publication ‘How the EU Budget is spent: Erasmus+’, 2016, https://epthinktank.eu/2016/11/23/how-the-eu-budget-is-spent-erasmus/
• EUROPEAN SCOUT REGION, Facts and Numbers https://www.scout.org/europe

Weekly schedule of President Donald Tusk 15-25 April 2019

The EU issued a declaration on cyberspace.

© Zerbor / Fotolia

The EU budget corresponds to around 2 % of total public spending in the European Union, and its impact on the economy is debated, with many analysts deeming it relatively small in size in comparison with the wide range of policy areas in which the EU has responsibilities. However, the EU budget has features that can amplify its impact, starting with the underpinning idea that pooling resources at EU level can be more efficient and effective in a number of policy areas than individual expenditure by Member States.

For those interested in knowing more about the EU budget, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has produced a series of publications on ‘How the EU budget is spent’. The aim is to give a concise overview of the key features of major EU spending programmes and funds for the 2014-2020 period, including: the role of the EU in the policy area, objectives, budgetary figures, eligible measures, funded projects and assessment of results.

The titles in the series show the variety of activities currently funded from the EU budget, giving a taste of the role that these measures play for citizens, business and public authorities across the EU and beyond. The series was launched in 2015 with a publication on the LIFE programme, which supports projects addressing environment- and climate-related issues. In 2019, seven new titles have been published, and these include analysis of instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and the European Fund for Strategic Development (EFSD) that were agreed after the start of the 2014-2020 period, to address specific challenges.

Ahead of the European Parliament’s last plenary session of the 2014-2019 parliamentary term, all the publications in the series are now collected in this compendium to provide a handy overview of current EU funding instruments. While the series is not exhaustive, it covers instruments accounting for most of the expenditure side of the EU budget in the 2014-2020 period. The funds and programmes are presented according to the current structure of the EU’s multi-year financial planning – the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2014 to 2020 – and the order of the programmes in official budgetary documents produced by the European Commission.

In addition, an annex sets out and updates the budgetary figures, for all the programmes and funds covered in the compendium, for the entire 2014-2020 period. The allocations set in the original legal bases have evolved – slightly or significantly. Depending on the budgetary instruments, these changes have come for different reasons. For example, while technical adjustments and updates of Member States’ cohesion policy envelopes are built into the MFF, the unexpected migration and refugee crisis of 2015-2016 has led to the reinforcement of the resources allocated to the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) through the use of the flexibility provisions of the framework.

Against the background of the ongoing negotiations for the post-2020 MFF and the vibrant debate on the future of EU finances, this compendium offers a simple tool to understand better the starting point of those discussions.

Read the compendium on ‘How the EU budget is spent: Spending programmes under the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

A political deal reached behind closed doors included MEPs giving up the right to veto how the subsidies from the European Defence Fund will be spent.

Can the trend of dropping voter turnout for the EU parliament elections finally be reversed? At a new political festival, political campaigners try to find out.

MEPs will gather for the last time this week in Strasbourg before the European elections in May to finalise several bills. Lawmakers will have a Brexit debate and hear from Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

With European elections coming up in May 2019, you probably want to know how the European Union impacts your daily life, before you think about voting. In the latest in a series of posts on what Europe does for you, your family, your business and your wellbeing, we look at what Europe does for people interested in artificial intelligence.

Twitter Hashtag #EUandME

© Gorodenkoff / Fotolia

Unless you are a robot yourself, you are probably either fascinated or appalled by the prospects of artificial intelligence (AI). No longer limited to science-fiction, artificial intelligence is already a fact in our daily life, through speech recognition, driverless cars, medical diagnosis, etc. AI takes away some tasks from us. This might be for the better, when machines perform routine work and helps us concentrate on more interesting tasks, or appreciate extra leisure time. However, this might also be for the worse, as automation may lead to replacing humans at work. Changes to the way we manage our time, and perhaps earn less money, have to be considered carefully. Moreover, trusting ‘things’ with the power to decide on our behalf – on the road or at the hospital – implies a thorough revision of our ethical and legal frameworks.

A wide range of activities have to be ready for the shift to AI. We need a collective strategy to tackle changes in the education system, job market, health services, and road safety rules. The EU approach addresses all three dimensions of the artificial intelligence revolution. The EU and Member States are committed to: boost public and private investment to harness research and development; support the adaptation of education and training systems; and reflect on future ethics and legal guidelines. The 2018 General Data Protection Regulation has already cleared the way for a more transparent use of our data by automated systems and their developers. Let’s continue to be smarter than artificial intelligence!

Further information

• European Commission, website on artificial intelligence, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/artificial-intelligence
• European Commission, factsheet ‘Artificial intelligence for Europe’, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/factsheet-artificial-intelligence-europe
• EPRS blog, STOA workshop ‘Should we fear the future? Is it rational to be optimistic about artificial intelligence?’, 2017, https://epthinktank.eu/2017/10/30/is-it-rational-to-be-optimistic-about-artificial-intelligence/

Czech Republic v Parliament and Council
Industrial Policy
Advocate General Sharpston: the Court should dismiss the Czech Republic’s action against EU legislation introducing more stringent rules for the acquisition and possession of firearms

The European Commission is looking forward to advancing "the strong and broad EU-India partnership across all areas of our bilateral and multilateral agenda," an EU spokesperson told EURACTIV after the Indian elections began on Thursday (11 April).