The European Transparency Register was set up in June 2011 and is operated jointly by the European Parliament and the European Commission. The Council of the European Union supports this initiative, although it does not participate in the register for the time being. The aim of the register is to offer citizens a fully transparent… Read More EP-Commission Joint Transparency Register
Written by Eva-Maria Poptcheva Updated in June 2015 Members of the European Parliament may form political groups; these are not organised by nationality, but by political affiliation. At the start of the current parliamentary term there were seven political groups in the Parliament, as there were throughout the 2009-14 period. The formation of a new,… Read More Rules on political groups in the EP
Our table shows the number of MEPs in each group, broken down by Member State, as well as the non-attached (NI) Members not in any group.… Read More Size of Political Groups in the EP (2014-2019)
Background In December 2012, the European Commission’s Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) committed the institution to attempt to establish a simple, clear, stable and predictable regulatory framework for business, workers and citizens, as well as to ensure EU legislation brings benefits at the lowest cost and with the least bureaucracy (COM(2012)746). The Commission undertook… Read More Update on the European Commission’s REFIT Programme
The European Parliament’s Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Unit routinely screens the road-maps accompanying the European Commission’s Work Programme, to check which of its legislative proposals will be subject to impact assessment by the Commission. It then undertakes an initial appraisal of these Commission impact assessments when they arrive in the Parliament, to check that certain criteria… Read More Initial Appraisals produced by the Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Unit in the period from July 2013 to June 2014
In 2003, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was launched as a voluntary multi-stakeholder initiative for the extractive industries, bringing together governments, industry and civil society. Its main objective has been to create a global transparency standard which allows light to be shed on all payments made by extractive-industry companies to governments of resource-rich developing… Read More The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative: state of play
The ‘shale revolution’ Over the past decade, the United States and Canada have experienced spectacular growth in the production of unconventional fossil fuels, notably shale gas and tight oil, thanks to technological innovations such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Economic impacts This new supply of energy has led to falling gas prices and… Read More Unconventional gas and oil in North America
Following the deregulation of the EU commercial air market in the 1990s, the low-cost carriers (LCCs) segment started to develop in the EU. Nowadays, the European aviation sector remains the most active one for LCCs business , with 250 million passenger trips per year, followed by the North America (173 m) and Asia (117m). The… Read More Low-cost air carriers in Europe
In February 2014, with an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Commission to submit legislative proposals aimed at improving the functioning of the European Arrest Warrant. In Parliament’s opinion, revision of the current legislation is needed to prevent miscarriages of justice, long waits in pre-trial detention and other breaches of suspects ‘ human… Read More European Arrest Warrant (EAW)
The past 15 years have brought some major developments in the area of freedom, security and justice with the adoption of a large number of legal instruments covering a wide range of subject matters and procedures. The European Commission has brought forward more than 50 initiatives in this area in the last four years. The… Read More Justice and home affairs after the Stockholm Programme