Lourdement frappée par la crise financière, Chypre s’est résolue à demander de l’aide. Deux demandes ont été lancées en parallèle: l’une auprès de l’UE et l’autre auprès de la Russie. Cette demande de prêt russe pose question pour les partenaires européens de Chypre. Pourtant, elle n’a rien d’étonnant vu les liens étroits que maintiennent Chypre… Read More Chypre : un prêt russe pour sortir de la crise
A workshop on “Future policy options for the EU sugar regime” was organised on 17 September by the Parliament’s Policy Department B. The future of the sugar sector regime is part of the broader debate over the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). As part of its package of proposals on the CAP, the Commission has… Read More Workshop on future of sugar quotas
NATO’s decision to develop a ballistic missile defence (BMD) system prompted harsh reactions from Russian leaders. Diverging views on the purpose and capability of NATO’s BMD make cooperation with Russia difficult, but dialogue continues. Missile defence in Europe: background At the 2010 Lisbon Summit, NATO decided to develop a BMD capability – meant to intercept… Read More Russian reactions to NATO missile defence
This compilation of information sources was created in September 2012 and updated in January 2014. The so-called comitology system, based on five different comitology procedures, was reformed by the Lisbon Treaty. A new approach to delegated and implementing decision making was introduced in the form of two new and separate regimes: Delegated acts (art. 290… Read More Delegated and Implementing Acts
As is well known, the Library of the European Parliament organizes various information sessions. One of these is the “EU Information Sources info session”. Its aim is to provide our clients with basic knowledge on EU information sources which are relevant, useful and interesting for their daily work in the European Parliament. At the end,… Read More Looking for EU-documents
Criminal law is primarily a national competence, although international cooperation has developed since the Second World War, in particular at UN and Council of Europe levels. During earlier stages of European integration, the European Communities required Member States (MS) only to adopt effective, dissuasive and proportionate sanctions for infringements of Community law. The situation changed… Read More Towards an EU approach to criminal law
The EU’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia and Peru, on which the European Parliament is expected to vote in the coming months, is the subject of deep controversy. NGOs from both sides of the Atlantic question whether such an agreement should be concluded, because of the continued violation of human rights, especially in Colombia.… Read More Labour rights in Colombia in the perspective of a Free Trade Agreement with the EU
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice-President of the European Commission, (HR/VP) appears, at least on paper, to hold a very powerful post. The assignment has however been characterised as almost impossible, owing to the number of different roles merged into one. The Treaty/legal base The HR/VP in the… Read More The EU’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
The territory of each Member State (MS) is divided into regions under the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) classification. It is a geographical nomenclature for collection and harmonisation of statistics and for socio-economic analysis. There are three NUTS levels; the first one, major socio-economic regions, the second one basic regions for the application… Read More Economy of the EU regions
EU law theoretically does not preclude the diversion of a river, but the member state must precisely identify the adverse impact of the project on sites concerned and take all compensatory measures needed to protect the environment. This was the answer given by the EU Court of Justice, on 11 September (Case C-43/10), to several… Read More Drinking water and irrigation override ecological arguments