European Union

Europe's most popular holiday destinations are increasingly plagued by hypertourism: between January and April 2024 the number of international flights to Greece increased by 12.3 percent, while the Balearic Islands saw a 9.1 percent increase in tourists in 2023 compared to the previous year. Mass protests have been staged in Tenerife and Mallorca this year over high rents, and Venice is now charging an entry fee. What can be done?

Five members of the Just Stop Oil group have received four- and five-year prison sentences from a London court for their involvement in organising protests which blocked the M25 motorway in 2022. The judge justified this unusually harsh punishment saying that although their cause was just the activists had "crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic". The UN and Greenpeace have criticised the sentences.

A faulty update for the security software CrowdStrike Falcon led to an immense and ongoing international IT outage last Friday. According to initial estimates from Microsoft, around 8.5 million computers crashed worldwide. Thousands of flights were cancelled, banking operations were blocked and hospitals had to postpone surgical interventions. The exact cause is still under investigation but commentators call for consequences.

Greens MEP Anna Cavazzini (Germany) will be chairing the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) for another term, according to a press release by the Parliament on Tuesday (23 July).

The three influential European Parliament committees responsible for energy and industry, environment, and transport elected their leaders for the next five years on Tuesday (23 July).

All of Parliament’s 20 standing committees and four subcommittees held their constitutive meetings on Tuesday to elect their Chair and Vice-Chairs.
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on Budgets
Committee on Budgetary Control
Committee on Culture and Education
Committee on Development
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
Committee on International Trade
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Legal Affairs
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Committee on Fisheries
Committee on Petitions
Committee on Regional Development
Committee on Transport and Tourism
Subcommittee on Human Rights
Subcommittee on Tax Matters
Subcommittee on Public Health
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

All of Parliament’s 20 standing committees and four subcommittees held their constitutive meetings on Tuesday to elect their Chair and Vice-Chairs.
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on Budgets
Committee on Budgetary Control
Committee on Culture and Education
Committee on Development
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
Committee on International Trade
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Committee on Legal Affairs
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Committee on Fisheries
Committee on Petitions
Committee on Regional Development
Committee on Transport and Tourism
Subcommittee on Human Rights
Subcommittee on Tax Matters
Subcommittee on Public Health
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Written by Györgyi Mácsai.

In June 2024, European citizens voted for their representatives in the European Parliament for the next five years, to defend their interests in the EU. This year’s election saw turnout of 51.1%, slightly higher than the previous election in 2019 (50.7%). The number of political groups has increased from seven to eight at the start of the new term. Half of the elected Members (MEPs) elected are new to the European Parliament. Women now make up 38.5% of all MEPs; this share is 2.1 percentage points lower than in the previous term (40.6%), the first significant drop since direct elections started in 1979.

Read this infographic on ‘Members of the European Parliament, 2024-2029‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Ukraine said on Monday (22 July) it had reached an agreement in principle with a group of creditors to restructure $20 billion of international bonds, bringing the war-torn country closer to an unprecedented debt rework.