On the 1st of July, Germany will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Normally, holding the chair of the council is not something that is considered to be a power position, especially since the Prime Minister of the given country is not chairing the European...

The Afro-European partnership has changed considerably in recent years, yet tangible improvements in terms of economic and political development, prosperity, health, and education are limited to only a few countries in Africa. The Covid-19 crisis poses now an additional threat to the...

Following its proclamation in 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights was used by the Commission for the first time in the 2017/18 European Semester. However, much of the potential of its Social Scoreboard to spotlight social shortcomings in the EU remains untapped. Member States are showing...

The clock is ticking and time is running short for us to have a realistic chance to get climate change under control and prevent it becoming irreversible and selfsustaining. Phasing out coal is widely seen as a 'low hanging fruit' of climate policy commitments in the move towards a net zero...

This Working Paper surveys the extent to which Member States comply with CSRs relating to social policy. This provides a yardstick by which to measure their compliance with both the European semester and adherence to the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Looking more closely at...

The report analyses the EU's maritime security operations so far undertaken under the CSDP, the counter-piracy operation ATALANTA in the Indian Ocean and the counter-smuggling operation SOPHIA in the Mediterranean Sea.