European Union

Bulgaria's annual inflation rate, which reached the eurozone average of 2.4% in April and fell below 3% for the first time since summer 2021, significantly increases the country's chances of adopting the euro from 2025, the finance ministry told Euractiv Bulgaria.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his counterparts from other countries will propose the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) defence umbrella to the European Council and the Commission "in a few days", he announced on Monday.

As Europe gears up for the forthcoming European Parliament elections, the European Biosolutions Coalition calls upon the EP candidates to make biosolutions a priority –  they are nature’s own tools to enhance Europe’s sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness.

Western allies are taking too long to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on Monday (20 May).

Written by Ivana Katsarova.

Pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems and ultimately, of our planet. Nearly 90 % of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend on pollination, along with more than 75 % of the world’s food crops and 35 % of global agricultural land. Without pollination, many interconnected species and processes functioning within the ecosystem would collapse. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity.

There are different pollinator species – such as bees, butterflies, birds and bats. Most of the 25 000 to 30 000 species of bees – Hymenoptera: Apidae – are pollinators, and together with moths, flies, wasps, beetles, and butterflies, they make up the majority of pollinating species. However, close to 35 % of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, face extinction globally. If this trend continues, staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes will increasingly be substituted for nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and vegetables, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet.

Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, improper use of pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose threats to bee colonies, by reducing their access to food and nesting sites, exposing them to harmful chemicals, and weakening their immune systems. 

We all depend on pollinators and it is therefore crucial to try and reverse their decline. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the United Nations designated 20 May as World Bee Day.

Every year pollinators make a €15 billion contribution to the agriculture industry and ensure pollination of around 80 % of crops and wild plants in the EU. In 2022, the over 710 000 EU beekeepers took care of more than 20 million beehives. Greece had the highest number of hives per beekeeper (99), followed by Bulgaria and Cyprus (81) and Spain (80).

The EU is the second largest honey producer after China, but it is also a net importer of honey mainly from China (40 %), Ukraine (26 %) and Argentina (12 %). EU countries with the largest honey production – Germany (34 %), France (31 %), Romania (30 %), Spain (27 %), Hungary (25 %), Italy (25 %), Poland (24 %) and Greece (22 %) – are mainly located in southern Europe, where climatic conditions are more favourable to beekeeping.

In 2023, the European Commission registered 1 million valid signatures to the ‘Save Bees and Farmers’ citizens’ initiative. To protect bees and people’s health, the European citizens called on the Commission to propose legal acts to help phase out synthetic pesticides by 2035, restore biodiversity, and support farmers in the transition.

More recently, in 2024, the European Parliament and Council approved measures to protect consumers and beekeepers from adulterated honey, and to facilitate informed consumer choices through increased transparency. The new piece of legislation makes it compulsory to indicate clearly, close to the product name, the countries of origin of the honey, ‘in descending order of their share in weight, together with the percentage that each one represents’. However, EU countries would have the flexibility to enforce this obligation for the four largest shares only when they account for more than 50 % of the blend. Should this not be the case, the percentages would have to be indicated for all the countries of origin. To ensure flexibility, packs under 30 g could indicate the names of the countries of origin by international two-letter ISO codes (DE for Germany for instance), as suggested by Parliament.

However, Members of Parliament had to come to a compromise on traceability. Parliament would have preferred that every producer had a unique identification code, so that all batches could be traced to the harvesting producer or importer. Instead, the Commission will need to conduct feasibility studies before proposing harmonised methods of analysis to detect honey adulteration with sugar, a uniform methodology to trace the origin of honey, and criteria to ensure that honey is not overheated when sold to consumers. Parliament was successful in its demand for the establishment of an EU platform of experts to collect data, improve controls, detect adulteration in honey and make recommendations for the future EU traceability system. After a formal adoption by the Council and by Parliament in April 2024, the new legislation will be published in the EU Official Journal and will enter into force 20 days later. EU countries will have to apply the new rules two years after entry into force. 

We all benefit from a society based on common values – such as justice, equality, solidarity, or tolerance. In the European Union, these common values are enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The article lists six fundamental EU values that are common to the EU Member States: (i) human dignity, (ii) freedom, (iii) democracy, (iv) equality, (v) rule of law, and (vi) human rights (including the rights of people who belong to minorities). The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has underlined that these values ‘define the very identity of the European Union as a common legal order’. The European Parliament strongly exercises its powers to ensure all EU countries respect these values. Let’s take a look at how Parliament has continued to protect EU values and fundamental rights during the 2019-2024 legislative term.

The EU institutions can ensure all EU countries uphold these values through monitoring, preventive and sanctioning mechanisms. For example, when a breach of the rule of law affects the EU’s financial interests, the Conditionality Regulation allows the EU to suspend or cut funding. Even though the European Parliament cannot trigger the mechanism itself, it has repeatedly called on the European Commission to do so, and has even taken the Commission to the ECJ over its inactivity. Parliament decided to take the Commission to court again in March 2024, this time because the Commission unfroze funds for Hungary despite persistent concerns over respect for EU values in that Member State.

Parliament had already activated the preventive mechanism enshrined in Article 7(1) of the TEU in 2018, to call formally on the Council to establish that Hungary might seriously breach EU values. Parliament’s concerns covered a broad array of issues, including the functioning of the constitutional and electoral system, minority rights and the freedom of expression. However the Council has blocked these proceedings since 2018. Parliament has continued to urge the Member States to take a decision.

To make its voice better heard in matters of fundamental rights and EU values, Parliament has called repeatedly for a mechanism on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights to facilitate cooperation between the Parliament, Council and Commission. Moreover, Parliament has regularly adopted topical resolutions on issues relating to the rule of law, fundamental rights and EU values more generally, in particular in reaction to the Commission’s annual rule of law reports. In response to Parliament’s calls, the Commission included country-specific recommendations for each of the 27 EU Member States from 2022 – and takes stock of progress in addressing those recommendations since 2023.

Parliament’s focus on protecting human rights is therefore evidenced in its exercise of influence on constitutional issues to ensure EU values are respected. Parliament’s powers fall broadly into six, often overlapping, domains: law-making, the budget, scrutiny of the executive, external relations, and, to a lesser extent, constitutional affairs and agenda-setting. This graphic shows more examples of areas where Parliament used one or more of its different powers to influence legislation:

Mapping the European Parliament’s powers in different areas

For a fuller picture of the European Parliament’s activity over the past five years, take a look at our publication Examples of Parliament’s impact: 2019 to 2024: Illustrating the powers of the European Parliament, from which this case is drawn.

The EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) welcomes publication of the updated World Health Organisation Bacterial Priority Pathogens List (WHO BPPL).

The European Commission has moved to "compel" Microsoft to provide information about generative artificial intelligence (AI) risks on its Bing search engine, threatening it with a fine, according to a statement on Friday (17 May).

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) suspended the use of the hydroxyprogesterone caproate medicines, which mimic progestin hormone, amid doubts about their medical benefits and concerns that they might be related to increased cancer risk.

Less migration, more manure: For EU purposes, that could have been the motto chosen by the four Dutch right-wing parties that agreed this week on a programme for a new government in the Netherlands. Instead, they went for ‘hope, courage and pride’, preferring to address the Dutch voters.

Domestically, the attempt on Fico's life is painted as a consequence of intense political struggle, whereas English-language media are connecting to Russia and Ukraine, as well as the WHO.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has defended the country’s billion-euro investments into green steel plants, saying it was needed to avoid a breakdown of whole regions’ industries and secure supply of steel at times of geopolitical uncertainty.

On 16 May, the European Commission, in partnership with Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and the US, inaugurated a renewed Ukrainian-Moldovan border crossing point in Reni, Ukraine.   

The Dutch farmers’ party BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) put agriculture among the top priorities in the coalition agreement signed on Thursday (16 May) with far-right PVV, liberal VVD, and anti-corruption NSC.  

The White House recently announced steep tariffs on a range of Chinese imports, including electric vehicles and solar panels, to protect the US economy from Beijing’s “unfair trade practices”. But are the US's criticisms of China really justified?

The short documentary, highlighting the importance of voting and safeguarding democracy, has been viewed more than 190 million times since its release on 29 April.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The short documentary, highlighting the importance of voting and safeguarding democracy, has been viewed more than 190 million times since its release on 29 April.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The European Parliament concluded the last plenary session of its 9th term on 25 April. The European elections are taking place 6 - 9 June.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Written by Katrien Luyten.

With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine, the EU has started preparing for the post‑March 2025 period, when temporary protection for displaced people from Ukraine ends. The Temporary Protection Directive – triggered for the first time ever in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine – has enabled EU Member States to offer assistance and rights to people in need of immediate protection.

In principle, once the temporary protection period ends, the general laws on protection and on non-EU nationals in Member States will apply, including on return. Yet, there is a general fear that when large numbers of beneficiaries of temporary protection suddenly start seeking international protection, asylum systems risk being overwhelmed. Moreover, uncertainty about temporary protection beneficiaries’ legal status might place them in a legal limbo, with potential periods of irregular residence owing to slow processing of applications for international protection. Moreover, even if eligible for refugee or subsidiary protection status, beneficiaries will not enjoy the same rights as under the Temporary Protection Directive.

Academics and organisations dealing with migration management therefore agree on the urgency of finding a solution that would ensure a smooth transition out of the temporary protection regime and encourage eventual return to Ukraine. However, with the European elections taking place in June, the timing may not be ideal to amend existing EU legislation or craft new EU laws, as the legislative work in the European institutions will temporarily be put on hold. Moreover, a newly composed European Parliament and European Commission, as well as a new rotating presidency of the Council of the EU as from July, might also complicate decision-making.

This briefing provides an overview of the potential exit strategies discussed by experts in the field, including the pros and cons of the most widely discussed options.

Read the complete briefing on ‘When EU temporary protection for displaced people from Ukraine ends: Possible scenarios‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Les Entreprises du médicament en France (Leem), an association of French pharmaceutical companies, unveiled its manifesto on Friday (May 17) ahead of June's EU elections, with the focus on investing in research and development (R&D) to avoid falling behind the United States.