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Sustainable finance refers to the process of taking environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into account when making investment decisions in the financial sector. This could lead to investors channelling more investment into the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient, resource-efficient and fair economy with a high level of quality governance requirements. Sustainable finance therefore has a key role to play in delivering on the policy objectives under the European Green ...

Progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has been insufficient, not least because of shocks such as the COVID 19 pandemic and recent wars. The cost of this lack of progress is borne by 'least developed countries' – low-income countries with low indicators of socio-economic development, as defined by the UN. This study reviews the European Union's role in policies that affect poverty in these contexts. It identifies 12 challenges that could be addressed to some extent by further ...

Global challenges – including climate change, geopolitical conflict, erosion of democratic principles and social inequalities – affect people's daily lives and future prospects. A collective European response over the next 10 years could help to address these challenges – and offer benefits worth up to €3 trillion a year. This represents around 18 % of EU gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to €6 700 per citizen every year. Referring to the European Parliament's work during the 2019-2024 term ...

This European added value assessment (EAVA) seeks to inform the European Parliament's legislative initiative 2023/2184(INL) entitled 'Promotion of the freedom of scientific research in the EU'. Freedom of scientific research forms an integral part of academic freedom, and this study confirms the de facto erosion of academic freedom, including its underlying conditions, across the EU. It also identifies new forms of threat, such as the role of new technologies, use of strategic lawsuits, increasing ...

This study has been drawn up by the European Added Value Unit within the European Parliament's Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services. It is part of a research project to better define the concepts of the cost of non-Europe and of European added value. The study recounts the development of these concepts and specifically how they have been used to support the European Parliament's work in setting the legislative agenda. It also presents their theoretical underpinnings and the main ...

Stress-testing is a promising foresight policy tool that can support the design of EU policies able to withstand the shocks and challenges of both the present day and the years to come. This study explores how the European Parliament could use stress-tests to identify weak points in EU legislation and avenues for further EU action. The study draws on the findings of a stress-test of EU rail transport policy and recommendations from an expert practitioner of foresight and regulatory policy. It finds ...

Although European integration is a key driver of growth, peace, environmental protection and social prosperity, persistent challenges remain and potential crises can be anticipated. Looking forward, a number of possible pathways are open to Europe. The European Parliament favours the path of ambitious, collective EU action, where significant potential gains can be realised, not only for today, but also for various possible future scenarios. This study seeks to support the European Parliament in defining ...

This 'cost of non-Europe' report looks at the potential benefits of efficient, ambitious and united EU-level action in the space sector. The report finds that to enable the European space sector to benefit from open strategic autonomy, and to ensure EU access to and use of space, including for its security, the EU must act decisively. Moving away from fragmentation could bring large benefits, amounting to at least €140 billion per year by 2050.

According to a recent European Parliamentary Research Service Cost of Non-Europe (CONE) report, ambitious and united European Union (EU) action in climate and energy policy could be very beneficial, bringing gains of up to 5.6 % of gross domestic product (GDP), equal to €1 trillion additional GDP per year in 2050, compared to a continuation of the status quo (see Figure 1). However, failure to arrive at a common approach, in particular by collectively addressing volatile energy prices and systemic ...

Linking national spending on the environment with the effects it has on the environmental performance of EU Member States allows for a better assessment of the effective quality of budgetary interventions. In this analysis, based on the detailed research paper in the Annex, we discuss under what circumstances some public environmental expenditure could be spent more efficiently at EU rather than at national level. We estimate that this transfer towards a more efficient level of governance would allow ...