MEPs elected Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT) on January 2022 as President of the European Parliament until 2024.

Roberta Metsola won the election in the first voting round, where she received an absolute majority of 458 votes out of 690 cast in the remote secret vote, among three candidates.&nbsp;

President Metsola is leading the Parliament in the second half of the current legislative term, until a new Parliament is constituted following the 2024 European Elections.

Born in Malta in 1979,&nbsp; Roberta Metsola who has been an MEP since 2013, is the youngest EP President ever elected. She became First Vice-President in November 2020, and was Parliament’s acting President after President Sassoli passed away on 11 January.

She is the third female President of the European Parliament, after Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999- 2002).

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament

Kyiv will host the 24th EU-Ukraine summit on February 3rd, 2023. European leaders will discuss financial and military support for the Ukrainian resistance against Russian aggression.

MEPs will also prepare expectations&nbsp;for the&nbsp;Special European Council meeting on 9-10 February, a week after the EU-Ukraine summit.

EU – Ukraine summit & Special Council meeting, February 2023

EU27 leaders meet to endorse the Brexit withdrawal agreement on Sunday 25 November 2018.

The summit was called by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, on 15 November 2018, after his meeting with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who presented to him the draft text as agreed with the UK at the level of the negotiators.

Leaders are also expected to approve a political declaration on future EU-UK relations that will accompany and be referred to in the withdrawal agreement. The Commission intends to agree with the UK a final draft for this declaration, building on the outline agreed by the negotiators on both sides.

Find out also our package on <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/brexit_1603_pk">Brexit</a> to download stockshots and news.

Special meeting of the European Council on article 50, 25/11/2018

The European Parliament and the European Commission organise a joint conference on engineering and research projects funded by the European Union who plays a key role in improving our daily lives.

On Tuesday 27 November, the Parliament hosts a conference on how research and innovation affect everyday life, in the hemicycle in Brussels. Antonio TAJANI, EP President opens the event.

High-level conference on EU research and innovation in our daily life - 8th

This European Council focus on the EU's long-term budget, single market, migration and external relations.

At the start of the meeting, Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Federal Chancellor and President in office of the Council, provides an overview of progress on the implementation of earlier European Council conclusions.

EU leaders also revert to the issue of disinformation, on the basis of the action plan to be presented by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, in cooperation with the member states and in line with its earlier conclusions.

European Council, 13 and 14 December 2018

Nicos ANASTASIADES, President of Cyprus, is the fourthteen EU leader to debate the future of Europe with MEPs, in plenary session in Strasbourg.

The Europeans want the EU to change. This is why the European Parliament is taking the leadership over a reform of the EU.

Parliament set out its vision for the future of Europe in three resolutions voted in plenary session on 16 February 2017. MEPs suggested, among other things:

<ul>
	<li>turning the Council of Ministers into a genuine second legislative chamber, and its configurations into preparatory bodies similar to Parliament’s committees,</li>
	<li>appointing an EU finance minister and giving the EU Commission the power to formulate and give effect to a common EU economic policy, backed up by a euro-area budget, and</li>
	<li>creating a fiscal capacity consisting of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and specific additional budgetary capacity for the euro area, funded by its members as a part of the EU budget.</li>
</ul>

Debate on the Future of Europe with Nicos ANASTASIADES, President of Cyprus

Parliament has reacted to recent allegations with immediate changes and demands for measures to close loopholes in existing transparency rules. On December 2022,&nbsp;Parliament&nbsp;adopted a resolution on the suspicions of corruption by Qatar and the broader need for more transparency in the EU institutions,

At the opening of January 2023 plenary session. President Metsola updated MEPs on measures being taken to increase Parliament’s integrity, independence and accountability.&nbsp;

MEPs have agreed to hold a debate on Tuesday to address the suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions, to be followed by the vote on a resolution.

Fight against corruption

Have a look at the 2021 and 2022&nbsp;stockshots with illustrative pre-edited broadcast quality video footage. These editable stockshots are clean (raw), with natural sound (no voice-over), produced to illustrate priority EU dossiers and parliamentary work. They are intended to help audiovisual media produce their own programs, for example, editing of news reports or documentaries.

Infoclips - Illustrative footage

On 24 February 2022,&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;began a&nbsp;military invasion&nbsp;of Ukraine, in a major escalation of the conflict that had begun in 2014. Shortly before, on 21 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.&nbsp;

On 1&nbsp;March&nbsp;the European Parliament held an extraordinary plenary session in Brussels to assess Russia’s military assault on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky&nbsp;and the Speaker of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Ruslan Stefanchuk spoke live from Kiev.&nbsp;The European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was in Kyiv on 1 April&nbsp;to express the European Union´s support of&nbsp;the Ukrainian people and to condemn the Russian attack. She travelled on the invitation of&nbsp;Ruslan Stefanchuk.&nbsp;On&nbsp;8 June&nbsp;Stefanchuk adressed Parliament in the Strasbourg hemicycle.

Since the beginning of the invasion, the EU has adopted several&nbsp;packages of restrictive measures to Russia’s military attack against Ukraine.&nbsp;Sanctions include targeted restrictive measures (individual sanctions), economic sanctions and diplomatic measures.

Following the atrocities carried out by Vladimir Putin’s regime against Ukrainian civilians, the European Parliament has&nbsp;recognised Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Russian aggression against Ukraine

The Taliban recently announced that they would not allow girls above the 6th grade to attend school until further notice, thereby backtracking on earlier promises to grant women above a certain age access to education. They have also imposed other bans, such as forbidding women from flying without a male guardian. MEPs assessed the latest developments in the country in a debate with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday 5 April. A resolution was also voted&nbsp;during the plenary session. The take over of the country by the Taliban has resulted in women exclusion&nbsp;from government and education and their rights and freedoms are threatened. The international community, including the European Parliament, has called for&nbsp;guarantees for Afghan women and girls.&nbsp;

EU - Afghanistan

Tax policy, including the fight against tax fraud, has become a hot topic over the past decade due to journalistic investigations such as LuxLeaks, the Panama Papers, Football Leaks, Bahamas Leaks and the Paradise Papers, which revealed tax leaks and tax havens. The latest finacial data-leak revealed by the media is Pandora papers.

During October II plenary MEPs voted for a resolution on Pandora papers, where they identified what they see as the most urgent measures the EU needs to take to close loopholes that currently allow for tax avoidance, money laundering and tax evasion on a massive scale. They also called for legal action to be taken by the Commission against EU countries that do not properly execute existing laws. MEPs reserved particular criticism for present and former prime ministers and ministers of EU member states whose activities were revealed by the Pandora Papers.

Tax policy has remained EU countries' own responsibility since the EU’s beginning, but the fight against tax fraud is shared by EU countries and the EU.

In November MEPs gave their final green light to new rules obliging big multinationals to publicly declare the taxes they pay in each EU country, in order to undermine tax avoidance. Multinationals and their subsidiaries with annual revenues over €750 million - and which are active in more than one EU country - will now have to publish the amount of tax they pay in each member state. This information will also need to be made publically available on the internet, using a common template and in a machine-readable format.

Since September 2020, the Parliament has had a permanent sub-committee on tax matters. The committee was established to assist the economic and monetary affairs committee with taxation issues and deals with the fight against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance, as well as financial transparency in taxation.

Fight against tax avoidance

On 24 February 2022,&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;began a&nbsp;military invasion&nbsp;of Ukraine, in a major escalation of the conflict that had begun in 2014. Shortly before, on 21 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.&nbsp;

The Russian aggression has brought destruction to Ukraine and its people, but also a wide range of economic and social consequences across Europe and the European Union. MEPs regularly debate on how to respond to the current cost of living crisis,&nbsp;bolstered by&nbsp;inflation and&nbsp;hikes in energy prices.

In the annual&nbsp;&nbsp;2022 report on the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy, MEPs called the EU and its member states need to increase their military, political and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and strengthen their defence in countering Russian threats to European security.

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Consequences of the war in Ukraine on the EU

From 1 January to 30 June 2023, Sweden is holding&nbsp;the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Swedish presidency, led by Prime Minister Ulf KRISTERSSON and Minister for EU Affairs Jessika ROSWALL, has announced its political direction will be geared towards achieving the following objectives: speeding up the green transition, safeguarding the EU's fundamental values, boosting and future-proofing the competitiveness of the EU's job market, providing security for EU citizens and strengthening the EU’s role in the world, and fighting organized crime.

Swedish Presidency

Since the beginning of the pandemic COVID-19, the EU has developed a wide range of health policy responses, exemplified by the common approach to vaccines through the EU Vaccines Strategy and initiatives across a range of other policies.

A common approach to assessing infection rates in different regions made testing and quarantining much more consistent. EU Digital COVID Certificates were agreed on and implemented in record time, paving the way for the safe resumption of tourism and travel during summer, and beyond.

At the same time, the EU took decisive action to tackle the economic fallout of the pandemic with funds and special economic aid for&nbsp;Member states, entreprises and citizens.

The EU Health Union is underway with&nbsp;reinforcing the mandates of the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, addressing cross-border threats to health and creating a future-proof EU pharmaceutical policy. MEPs obtained better support for the EU4Health programme in the 2022 EU budget, with an additional €51 million to build up a strong Health Union and to make national health systems more resilient.

Effective coordination of national measures as well as solidarity among member states together with the importance of&nbsp;making national health systems more sustainable and resilient are the main challenges of the EU, learned from&nbsp;the&nbsp;COVID-19 pandemic.

EU's response to COVID-19

Pedro SANCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister, is the fifteenth EU leader to debate the future of Europe with MEPs, in plenary session in Strasbourg.

The Europeans want the EU to change. This is why the European Parliament is taking the leadership over a reform of the EU.

Parliament set out its vision for the future of Europe in three resolutions voted in plenary session on 16 February 2017. MEPs suggested, among other things: turning the Council of Ministers into a genuine second legislative chamber, and its configurations into preparatory bodies similar to Parliament’s committees, appointing an EU finance minister and giving the EU Commission the power to formulate and give effect to a common EU economic policy, backed up by a euro-area budget, and creating a fiscal capacity consisting of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and specific additional budgetary capacity for the euro area, funded by its members as a part of the EU budget.

Debate on the Future of Europe with Pedro SANCHEZ, Spanish Prime Minister

Under Article 2 TEU, the EU is founded on the shared values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights.

Article 7 TEU establishes two mechanisms (preventive and sanctioning mechanisms) to enforce European Union values in cases of systemic violations and to sanction Member States departing from them. The sanctions mechanism empowers the Council to suspend certain membership rights of a Member State, including voting rights in the Council in cases of a 'serious and persistent breach' of EU values (Article 7(2) TFEU)’. However, these mechanisms require a high decision-making threshold in the Council and in the European Parliament (when Parliament is called to participate) and rely heavily on Member States’ willingness to take action.

Rule of law - 8th parliamentary term

ESPAS, the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System, is a unique inter-institutional project aimed at strengthening the EU's efforts in the crucial area of forward planning.

ESPAS brings together the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Secretariat General of the Council of the European Union and the European External Action Service to strengthen the Union's collective administrative capacity to identify and analyse the key trends and challenges, and the resulting policy choices, which are likely to confront Europe and the wider world in the decades ahead.

ESPAS

The problem of disinformation is globally recognised as disruptive to the normal functioning of democratic societies, economies and political systems. In recent years, ‘fake news’ and coordinated disinformation campaigns have an instrument of geopolitical influence.

They have afflicted elections in both established and new democracies, and undermined social and political solidarity in response to global challenges. It is with these and other instances in mind that the European Union (EU) identified ‘the exposure of citizens to large scale disinformation’ as ‘a major challenge for Europe’ in 2018, undertaking an increasingly ambitious programme of action to counter this evolving threat since. The outbreak of the coronavirus has led to disinformation that hampers efforts to contain the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said false claims “are spreading faster than the virus” and has already termed it an “infodemic of planetary proportions”. The Russian aggression against Ukraine is also a source of many disinformation.&nbsp;

Special Committee for foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU, including disinformation (INGE) was created in the European Parliament to tackle these challenges

Fight against disinformation

Since its creation in 1993, the single market has helped to make everyday life easier for people and businesses, fuelling jobs and growth across the EU. In 2023, the EU commemorates the 30th anniversary since its creation.&nbsp;

Three decades since its creation,&nbsp; MEPs called for renewed commitment and political will from member states and EU institutions, as well as a specific action plan for 2030 and beyond, in order to further strengthen and develop the single market, especially in areas such as services, energy, telecommunications and the digital single market.

The single market is generally considered to be the cornerstone of the EU economy and one of the greatest achievements of the European Union. Comprising nearly 450 million people and 20 million enterprises, it constitutes the largest integrated market in the world, worth €14 trillion in 2018.

The free movement of persons, goods, services and capital is the pillar on which the single market is built. The cross-border movement of the first three has been severely affected by the pandemic of Covid-19. Soon after its outbreak, the majority of Member States reintroduced internal border controls on grounds of an immediate threat to public health. These have been accompanied by restrictions or bans on international passenger transport and bans on entry and exit. Naturally,

Single market

Threats to bee health and market competition make the economic viability of apiculture a critical matter.

Profitability is crucial for the sustainability of the apiculture sector. Like other agricultural producers, beekeepers must cope with production and market challenges. When it comes to production, various factors can affect productivity in a eekeeping enterprise. Outbreaks of animal diseases, exposure to chemicals, losses in plant diversity, adverse climatic conditions or the deterioration of bees' natural habitats owing to natural or human factors can all threaten the productive capacity of beehives. These factors can also be among the causes of the bee health problems and high bee mortality rates registered in recent decades.

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