EU 2024: a busy start to a busy year

EU 2024: a busy start to a busy year

News
The new year 2024 is a year of elections: citizens in the U.S., India, and of course Europe, will go voting. In the EU, the race for the European Parliament has already started, with elections due to take place in June. In January, the new Presidency of the Council took over with a clear goal in mind (to finalise as many legislative files as possible), current President of the European Council Charles Michel announced his candidacy in the European Parliament elections, and several lead candidates for national lists were announced. January was definitely a busy start for the European Union, with the pace expected to only accelerate further. Busy start As usual, with the new year, a new presidency kicked in. The Belgians, who took over after the Spanish, announced…
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EU2024: Time is ticking

EU2024: Time is ticking

News
In less than six months, between 6 and 9 June 2024, Europeans in all 27 EU member states will choose 720 MEPs – the new European Parliament composition for the next legislative mandate (2024-2029). While time is ticking ahead, the months ahead still provide interesting advocacy opportunities that can help you to achieve key policy objectives in the next mandate. Right on the rise November 2023 brought a record high in opinion polls for Identity and Democracy (ID), the most right-wing party in the European Parliament, with projected 87 seats in total. This puts them four seats ahead of the other right-wing group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), and only two seats below the liberal group Renew Europe. If this trend continues, the race for third place in the…
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The Spitzenkandidaten process – is there room for civil society?

The Spitzenkandidaten process – is there room for civil society?

News
In a bit more than a year from now, in early November 2024, the mandate of current von der Leyen Commission (2019-2024) will officially come to an end. A new Commission mandate will kick in and will last until 2029. While most senior Commission staffers will keep their positions, the political leadership of the European Union executive, the 27 Commissioners and their personal cabinets, is likely to go through significant changes, based on the results of the 2024 EU elections and shifts in national governments since the last EU elections in 2019. The Spitzenkandidaten process explained Ahead of European elections, European political parties appoint their lead candidates for the role of Commission President, with the expectation that the Presidency will go to the candidate capable of securing sufficient parliamentary support.…
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Riding the right wave – what will the upcoming shift in the European political landscape mean for civil society?

Riding the right wave – what will the upcoming shift in the European political landscape mean for civil society?

News, Opinion
While the European Parliament elections are still almost a year ahead, recent polls and national developments in Europe demonstrate that we may be dealing with a more conservative Parliament during the next EU mandate (2024-2029). Hard-right Hungary and Poland have recently welcomed Italy into their ranks, while Finland and Sweden have formed right-leaning governments after recent elections. The Greek conservatives were re-elected in government last June, and upcoming elections in Spain are expected to oust socialist Pedro Sánchez from office as well. What does this shift to the right mean for advocacy at EU level? Setting the scene While, according to the recent polls, EPP and S&D will remain the two biggest parties in Parliament (with respectively 161 and 142 MEPs), a close race for the third place has already…
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Brace yourself – elections are coming: Advocacy opportunities in 2023

Brace yourself – elections are coming: Advocacy opportunities in 2023

News, Opinion
While the European Parliament elections might still seem far away, recent developments reveal that the election season has already begun. Since the Qatargate scandal rocked the Parliament, political parties are publicly accusing one another in an effort to polish their image – a clear indication that the gates of the electoral arena have been opened. With the start of the election season, the time is right to look at the anticipated changes and plan your next advocacy steps. What is going to change? According to the latest polls of December 2022, five out of seven political groups are expected to lose seats in the next legislative period. Only the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) are foreseen to substantially win seats, although not as many as their national equivalents in some…
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MEPs: Green finance good, sustainable finance better

MEPs: Green finance good, sustainable finance better

News
As the European Commission is finalizing the last set of legislative proposals that can still be completed before the European Parliament elections, MEPs today adopted a non-legislative report in ECON calling for a more ambitious strategy on sustainable finance. MEPs support the criticism that the Commission's Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth is too narrowly focused on climate change and should support a wider European agenda on long-term sustainable financing of the European economy. (more…)
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HLEG Sustainable Finance – waiting for the Commission’s Action Plan

HLEG Sustainable Finance – waiting for the Commission’s Action Plan

News, Opinion
Today, the EU High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance published its final report. It's a key step but not the final one - the Commission's Action Plan on sustainable finance, due early March 2018, is where we will see which recommendations will be transformed into EU policy initiatives. The final HLEG report (PDF) published on 31 January 2018 widens the scope of sustainable finance beyond environment and climate change to social issues (although governance issues seem to be left out). (more…)
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Cold shower for European Financial Supervision changes

News
Looking at the Presidency briefing, today's ECOFIN discussion on European financial supervision promised to be difficult. It suggested that "Whereas some member states support the proposed reforms, a number of others are critical. In their view, the proposals don't reflect the results of the Commission's public consultation, and are insufficiently justified by its impact assessment. Concerns have also been expressed about the complexity of the proposals, and the additional burden this will place on market players." (more…)
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