Russia’s war on Ukraine has been a wake-up call for many EU Member States’ defence budgets. Rising from €218 billion in 2021 to €326 billion in 2024, a further increase of at least €100 billion is ...

Written by Polona Car with Filippo Cassetti. Dark patterns are deceptive techniques used by online platforms to manipulate users’ behaviour, often without their knowledge or consent. The EU regulatory ...

This briefing analyses options for financing EU defence from a legal (in terms of what the EU Treaties permit), budgetary, fiscal and purpose-related perspective. Written by Sebastian Clapp, Martin ...

EU Member States’ defence expenditure rose significantly between 2021 and 2024. The EU has introduced several initiatives to complement national efforts in order to boost defence spending and ...

The common agricultural policy (CAP) already provides for measures to ensure a robust and fair food supply chain and strengthen the position of farmers. In response to the difficulties and challenges ...

In response to United States (US) tariffs, and citing national security interests as a reason, China introduced two waves of export controls for rare-earth elements (REEs) in April and October 2025 ...

As of May 2025, 29 countries were full members of the Schengen area, where checks at their internal borders with other Schengen states are abolished (see Figure 3): • Germany, Belgium, France, ...

Under current EU law, EU Member States are free to set their minimum national voting age for European elections. This age is set at 16 in Austria, Germany and Malta, 17 in Greece, and 18 in the ...

The ‘fit for 55’ package, presented in July and December 2021, is designed to realise the European Climate Law objectives: climate neutrality by 2050 and a 55 % reduction of net greenhouse gas (GHG) ...

The US Trump administration has set its sights on Ukraine’s vast mineral resources, and proposed a deal: to secure a portion of Ukraine’s rare earths in exchange for US support in the war against the ...

Although the space beyond Earth’s atmosphere is vast, satellite space services use three main orbits: • Geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) – These satellites travel at an altitude of around 36 000 km ...

Written by Laurence Amand Eeckhout. Rare diseases, often underdiagnosed and overlooked, affect over 36 million people in the EU and around 300 million worldwide. The EU supports numerous initiatives ...