Written by Martin Russell,
Sanctions have become an increasingly central element of the EU’s common and foreign security policy. At present, the EU has 42 sanctions programmes in place, making it the world’s second-most active user of restrictive measures, after the US.
Unlike the comprehensive trade embargoes used in the past, the EU has moved towards asset freezes and visa bans targeted at individual persons and companies, aiming to influence foreign governments while avoiding humanitarian costs for the general population. Other measures in the sanctions toolkit include arms embargoes, sectoral trade and investment restrictions, as well as suspensions of development aid and trade preferences.
Listen to podcast ‘EU sanctions, A key foreign and security policy instrument‘
The declared purpose of EU sanctions is to uphold the international security order as well as defending human rights and democracy standards, by encouraging targeted countries to change their behaviour. Measuring their effectiveness is difficult, as sanctions rarely achieve all their aims, and usually there are other causes to which changes can be attributed. However, even when this primary purpose is not achieved, sanctions may have useful secondary effects, for example by deterring other actors from similar behaviour.
The broader the international support for EU sanctions and the closer the relationship between the EU and the targeted country are, the stronger the prospects for success will be. On the other hand, effectiveness can be undermined by inconsistent application of sanctions standards and by the difficulty of coordinating implementation between multiple stakeholders.
Read this briefing on ‘EU sanctions, A key foreign and security policy instrument‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
Written by Marcin Szczepański,
Ten years have passed since the app economy was launched. Since then apps have evolved to play an increasingly important role in the life of citizens and became crucial to the success of many industries. Growing connectivity and availability of portable devices ensure that this trend will continue.
The European app economy is rather successful and accounts for just under a third of revenues in the global market. Clusters of app developers exist in a few western European and Nordic Member States creating well-paid jobs, value and innovation in the digital economy. However, some bottlenecks still exist and hamper the growth of the sector. These include limited availability of finance, shortage of digital skills, the need to constantly upgrade infrastructure, and improving access to data.
Listen to podcast ‘European app economy, State of play, challenges and EU policy‘
The EU strives to address these issues by creating an environment conducive to growth of the app economy. The main policy actions include strengthening the digital single market, funding research and innovation, creating fair taxation rules, developing standards and interoperability, fostering consumer protection and confidence, reforming training and education systems and supporting the development of a data economy and the internet of things.
Read this briefing on ‘European app economy, State of play, challenges and EU policy‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
EU Foreign Affairs ministers meet on 28 May 2018 in Brussels to focus on the situation in Iran, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the future agreement with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Foreign ministers also discuss the situation in Gaza, following the recent developments.
EU Ministers of European Affairs, Industry, Research and related areas meet on 28-29 May 2018 in Brussels to carry out a competitiveness check-up on the impact of the internal market on industry. They hold discussions on mutual recognition of goods and on online platforms-to-business relations. On Tuesday, they debate space policy, the extension of the EURATOM research programme as well as research and innovation in the context of the next EU's multiannual budget. They are due to adopt conclusions on knowledge circulation and the European Open Science Cloud. The Council also takes note of a report on high performance computing.