Cuardaigh

Natural hazards, armed conflicts, human-induced or amplified disasters, and often, complex crises – a combination of these may result in humanitarian emergencies. Meeting complex humanitarian needs, especially in resource-scarce environments, requires intervention beyond national capacities. Therefore, broader humanitarian action is essential to save lives, preserve the health and dignity of victims, assist recovery, and improve prevention, preparedness and resilience. This action encompasses humanitarian ...

The UK's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 was followed by a period of tense relations, mainly around the issues concerning implementation of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. The economic consequences of Brexit started to materialise. In 2023, the new UK government of Rishi Sunak agreed with the EU on the Windsor Framework, designed to find solutions to issues related to the implementation of the Protocol. A period of gradually improving relations ensued. Russia's war of aggression ...

Economic security has become crucial for the EU. Both the Letta Report on the future of the single market and the Draghi Report on the future of European competitiveness emphasise the need to intensify efforts to secure the EU's supply of critical raw materials (CRM). Europe is vulnerable to both coercion and geo-economic fragmentation because of its high dependency on strategic raw materials from countries with which the EU is not strategically aligned. Diversifying imports of strategic raw materials ...

In May 2024, former European Parliament President Pat Cox described enlargement as perhaps the 'EU's most powerful, transformative and successful policy tool over the past five decades'. The European Council (EU heads of state or government) has, from the outset, played a central role in the EU's enlargement process, shaping both formal and informal aspects. The Lisbon Treaty formally tasked the institution with defining the eligibility conditions to be applied to the accession process. Each enlargement ...

In recent decades, the digital information sphere has become the public space for debate: the place where people access information, and form and express opinions. Over the past 10 years, global information ecosystems have also increasingly become geostrategic battlegrounds. Authoritarian state actors are testing and fine-tuning techniques to manipulate public opinion and foment divisions and tension, to undermine democratic societies and open democracy as a system. At the same time, the geostrategic ...

Respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights is a core value of the European Union (EU), and one that is promoted through its policies. The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize honours the work of people who stand up for these freedoms and rights. This year's Sakharov Prize is to be awarded to María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela's democratic forces, and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia. They represent all Venezuelans both inside and outside the country who are fighting to restore ...

Building a European defence union is at the top of the EU's policy agenda. It is essential to preserving the security and wellbeing of EU society from current and future geopolitical threats. A reflection on the efficiency and quality of defence spending is a crucial first step in this process. Based on research carried out for the European Parliamentary Research Service, this report investigates the potential gains from deeper European cooperation on defence spending that leverages the continent's ...

The EU and Switzerland are important trading partners and close-minded partners in foreign affairs. They also have very strong ties through a range of bilateral agreements and Switzerland has been associated with several EU policies relating to the internal market, the Schengen agreement, the Dublin system for dealing with asylum claims and the EU's research and mobility programmes. Between 2014 and 2021, the EU and Switzerland negotiated an institutional framework agreement, which would have further ...

There are a number of micro-states in western Europe that do not belong to the EU: the Holy See, the Principality of Andorra, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Principality of Monaco and the Republic of San Marino. While they exhibit differences in terms of geography, population, language, and institutional and political structure, they have close relations with EU Member States based on shared history, and political and cultural affinities. Moreover, they are like-minded partners in foreign ...

Since the downfall of the authoritarian General Suharto in 1998, a series of reforms have transformed Indonesia into the world's fourth largest democracy (and largest Muslim democracy). The country has a presidential system in which a directly elected president serves as head of both state and government. A two-term limit on the presidency helps to ensure a peaceful alternation of power. Also directly elected, Indonesia's House of Representatives (the lower house of the two chambers of parliament ...