European Union

The Spanish media are speculating on whether Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's People's Party (PP) will be able to stay in government. In the country's biggest corruption scandal in four decades, the so-called Gürtel case, Spain's High Court has ordered the party to pay a fine and given a number of party functionaries long prison sentences. The fact that Rajoy always played down the importance of the affair makes this judgement particularly explosive.

In a bid to secure more state support a group of parents of disabled children has been staging a sit-in at the Polish parliament for the past five weeks. A parents who cares for a disabled child receives 350 euros per month until the child reaches 18, after which the government support ends. The government is refusing to give in to demands for more funds, citing limited financial resources. Poland's press is divided over the issue.

One year ahead of the European elections, a recent Eurobarometer opinion poll seems to have emboldened mainstream politicians. European Parliament boss Antonio Tajani said that these results indicate a positive trend of EU support, despite Brexit, “or perhaps precisely because of this”. 

Written by Martin Russell,

© cone88 / Fotolia

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,

© spql / Fotolia

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.

Estimated global app economy and number of Apple apps

After the latest round of Brexit talks, a senior EU official sounded the alarm bell: progress on the key Irish border issue remains elusive, while the London government is chasing pipe dreams.

Lawyers acting for a group including a French lavender farmer and members of the indigenous Sami community in Sweden have launched legal action against the EU’s institutions for failing to adequately protect them against climate change. EURACTIV’s partner The Guardian reports.

In December 2013, the European Union imposed trade defence measures on solar panels and cells from China, which are set to expire in September 2018.

MEPs and civil society representatives urged the European Commission on 24 May to act soon on defining a new strategy following the rejection by the European Parliament last autumn of its endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDC) definition.

Romanian Commissioner Corina Creţu wants her country to take full advantage of the EU funding that is on offer and for Moldova to meet the bloc’s accession criteria in order to unlock even more financing.

Russian firm Gazprom is a reformed character, the European Commission has said, improving the climate for more pipelines to Europe.

The European Data Protection Board is a new EU body tasked with enforcing the EU's privacy laws with powers to impose massive fines. Its head Andrea Jelinek told reporters complaints against companies are expected to be immediate.

While the Greek government has committed to fulfill the last creditors' requirements in the coming month, Europeans and the International Monetary Fund are still far from an agreement on measures to reduce the country's debt in the future.