The current Spanish EU Presidency has faced a number of tough challenges. These include reaching an agreement on an EU strategy for employment and growth (EU 2020), managing the acute financial crisis in Greece and the EU response to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, argues the author of this mid-term review of the achievements of the Spanish Presidency.
Swedish public opinion on EU Affairs has undergone considerable changes since 1995 and Swedes are gradually becoming more positive to membership. According to the latest survey there is, for the first time since 1995, a majority of Swedes are in favour of membership in the European Union.
Is it permissible, according to EU law, to take social considerations into account in the field of public procurement? Could one, for instance, promote gender equality, integration of disabled persons and good working conditions? The authors of the report Public Procurement and Labour in the EU believes that this is the case, but argues that Sweden could use this scope better than today. The report is in Swedish, but contains a summary in English.
Improved quality of regulation and legislation is now a pronounced objective at European as well as national level. The European Commission have for some years now tried to convince EU member states to reduce the administrative burdens – especially for companies – and make regulatory impact assessment an integrated part of their regulatory process.
The Swedish courts are now in a legal system covering the whole of Europe and their practices. In the case of a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice, this is central to the EU's impact in Sweden.
The debate on reform of the EU budget has hitherto primarily centred on how EU money should be spent. But a true reform calls for serious handling of the financing of the budget as well, argues the author of this new analysis.
Often presented as the "most successful EU policy", enlargement has undoubtedly been one of the most significant undertakings of the European Union over the last two decades. The recent admission of numerous states to the Union has however exposed various shortcomings in the way that policy is carried out.
The European Commission recently launched a discussion on the architecture of direct payments, with a view to rethinking the philosophy of agricultural regulation within the EU. The debate has been pursued under the Swedish EU Presidency.
In order to better understand the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, SIEPS invited a number of experts on the European Union from different member states. They were asked to write short analytical texts on how the Presidency has succeeded in relation to expectations and ambitions.
Circular migration has become a central concept for the future EU migration policy, implying that migrants should be encouraged to move repeatedly between the country of origin and the host country. The basic purpose is to utilise international labour mobility to make both countries’ economies more efficient.