From 1 January to 30 June 2023, Sweden will hold 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

The EU institutions&nbsp;&nbsp;considere the transparency and quality of the Hungarian legislative&nbsp;a source of concern.&nbsp;In its 2021 Rule of Law report, the European Commission highlighted the worsening situation in the country. It noted, among other issues, that the risk to media pluralism, and the pressure faced by civil society organisations critical of the government.

On 18 September 2022 the Commission proposed to freeze €7.5 billion in EU funds for Hungary, citing corruption and public procurement concerns, after triggering the EU’s rule of law conditionality mechanism against Hungary in April.

Hungary has presented 17 remedial measures, such as creating an anti-corruption task force and changes to its public procurement rules, to address the concerns. The Commission has called the measures a “step in the right direction” and given Hungary until 19 November to demonstrate considerable progress in implementing these measures. The Commission will then re-assess the situation, ahead of the expected Council decision to apply the rule of law conditionality mechanism in Hungary.

On 4 October, Members of the European Parliament&nbsp; warned the Commission not to fall short of protecting the EU’s financial interests in Hungary.

Rule of law in Hungary

The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) takes part four times a year in a monetary dialogue with Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) to report on monetary policy and answer question from MEPs.&nbsp;Although guaranteed independence under the Treaty, the ECB is accountable for its actions towards the European Parliament, and more precisely the ECON Committee.

The European Central Bank is the central institution of the Economic and Monetary Union and has been responsible for conducting monetary policy for the euro area since 1 January 1999 The ECB and the national central banks of all EU Member States constitute the European System of Central Banks.

Monetary dialogue

The last EuroLat meeting&nbsp;of the Standing Parliamentary Committees took place at the European Parliament's premises in Brussels (Belgium) from 30 November - 2 December 2022.

The 150 EuroLat members met in times of a rapidly changing geopolitical context and at a crucial time for the relaunch of EU-Latin America relations, right after the EU- CELAC ministerial meeting in Argentina and the adoption of the EU "Road Map 2023".

The Co-Presidents of the EuroLat Assembly, Javi López, President of the European Parliament's Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and Oscar Darío Pérez Pineda, President of the Latin American component,&nbsp; chaired the Inaugural Session on 30 November. 
 
The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) is a multilateral parliamentary assembly - a forum for several different parliaments to come together - composed of 150 members. EuroLat is the parliamentary institution of 'the European Union - Latin American and Caribbean Bi-regional Strategic Partnership. The Assembly is composed by 150 Members; Half of the members - 75 - are members of the European Parliament and the other half - 75 - comes from the Latin American regional parliaments.

The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly - EuroLat was created in 2006. Its Constituent Session took place on 8 and 9 October in Brussels.

Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly

Since the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe on 9 May, the focus has been&nbsp;on the follow-up process. Under the Joint Declaration, the three EU institutions undertook to examine swiftly how to follow up effectively to the final report of the Conference, each within their own sphere of competences and in accordance with the Treaties.

The CoFoE feedback event aims to update citizens on the outcome of the Conference, following the&nbsp;bottom-up exercise for Europeans to have their say on what they expect from the European Union.

Conference on the Future of Europe Feedback event

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

The EU and its international partners are united in condemning Putin's aggression on Ukraine and providing support to those seeking shelter and fleeing war.&nbsp;On 4 March 2022, the EU activated the&nbsp;temporary protection directive. The objective is to alleviate pressure on national asylum systems and to allow displaced persons to enjoy harmonised rights across the EU. These rights include: residence,access to the labour market and housing,medical assistance, social welfare assistance,access to education for children.&nbsp;The EU has allocated €348 million in humanitarian assistance to&nbsp;help civilians affected by the war&nbsp;in Ukraine. This includes €335 million for Ukraine and €13 million for Moldova.&nbsp;

At the European Council of 24-25 March 2022, EU leaders stressed that the EU is committed to providing support to the Ukrainian government for its immediate needs and for the reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine, once the Russian onslaught has ended. To that end, EU leaders agreed to set up a&nbsp;Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund&nbsp;and called for preparations to start without delay.

The European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was in Kyiv on April 1 to express the European Union´s support to the Ukrainian people and to condemn the unjustified Russian attack. She travelled on the invitation of the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), Ruslan Stefanchuk. Stefanchuk spoke to the MEPs during the June plenary in Strasbourg.&nbsp;On 5 september, Ukraine´s Prime Minister,&nbsp;Denys Shmyhal, met&nbsp;EP President Roberta Metsola and political groups at the EP&nbsp;to discuss the latest developments in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as the EU´s&nbsp;support for Ukraine

Solidarity with Ukraine

Serbia, along with 5 other Western Balkans countries, was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership during the Thessaloniki European Council summit in 2003. In 2008, a European partnership for Serbia was adopted, setting out priorities for the country's membership application, and in 2009 Serbia formally applied. In March 2012 Serbia was granted EU candidate status. In September 2013 a Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and Serbia entered into force.

EU - Serbia

On 16 December 2021, EU leaders met in Brussels to discuss COVID-19, crisis management and resilience, energy prices, security and defence and external relations.

The European Council discussed the current epidemiological situation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of a new variant. In this regard, EU leaders discussed continued coordinated efforts to respond to the developments, keeping in mind that any restrictions should not undermine the functioning of the single market or hamper travel between EU member states and to Europe.

The European Council also touched upon the importance of vaccination in the fight against the pandemic, including the importance of rolling out vaccines to all and to deploy booster doses.

Participants exchanged views on how best to tackle vaccine hesitancy and disinformation, and on the effectiveness of various measures and strategies in this respect.

Leaders also discussed the situation at the EU’s border with Belarus and Russia's military build-up at the border with Ukraine.

European Council, 16 December 2021

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the EU, after cardiovascular diseases. Each year there are 3.5 million new diagnoses; and every year 1.3 million people die from cancer, accounting for 25% of all deaths. If the current trend continues, the projection is that by 2035 cancer cases will have doubled in number, and cancer will have become the leading cause of death in the EU.

Though public health is the primary responsibility of the Member States, the EU has a strong role in supporting, coordinating and complementing Member States’ efforts. On 4 February 2020 – World Cancer Day – the European Commission started its outreach on Europe’s Cancer Plan at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Plan aims to reduce the cancer burden for patients and families, and health care systems. The Plan is ambitious in addressing cancer-related inequalities between and in the Member States. The European Parliament, as law-maker and policy-maker, plays an active role in shaping the new Cancer Plan and related legislative proposals and policy initiatives.

Fight against cancer

Formal hearings of commissioners-designate were introduced as a result of the Maastricht Treaty. The first Commission to be subject to this new procedure was the Santer Commission in 1995. The Santer Commission was appointed by the Council on 23 January for the period 1995–2000. It took office on 1 February.

First Commission hearings

David Sassoli was born in Florence on May 30, 1956. He started working as a journalist at small newspapers and news agencies, before moving to the editorial office of Il Giorno in Rome, where he worked for seven years. In 1992, he began working as a television news reporter and correspondent for TG3.

Subsequently he worked on news programmes on Rai Uno and Rai Due, before joining the editorial staff of TG1 in 1999 as a special correspondent. Over the next 10 years, he was responsible for managing prime time news broadcasts, and covering major national and international events. In 2007, he became Deputy Director of TG1 and responsible for in-depth programmes TV7 and TG1 Special.

When the Partito Democratico (PD) was formed in 2007, he considered it the right place for his political commitment. On 7 June 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for central Italy. In the 2009-2014 legislature, he was head of delegation of the Partito Democratico in the European Parliament.

In 2014, he was re-elected as an MEP and was elected Vice-President of the European Parliament, with responsibility for Mediterranean Policy, the budget, and buildings. He was a member of the Committee for Transport and Tourism, and led on European railway reform (4th Railway Package), and the Single European Sky.

In May 2019, he began his third term as an MEP for central Italy and on 3 July, he was elected President of the European Parliament. He passed away on 11 January. The Parliament honoured his memory in a ceremony in Strasbourg on Monday 17 January.

President Sassoli

The policies of the EU on climate and energy are described, as well as the challenges that must be faced in order to achieve the Paris Agreement target of keeping the increase in global temperature well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to achieve 1.5°C.

The EU faces major challenges from the increased threats of climate change, with serious consequences in the energy sector, where urgent issues are arising concerning the national production mix of each Member State. The renewable energy share needs to be increased, and energy efficiency needs to be improved.

Climate change (2019-2020)

The EU is under growing pressure from disinformation by countries, non-state actors and terrorist groups which promote violence and use pseudo-news agencies and internet trolls to challenge democratic values and divide Europe.

The EU has been increasingly hit by destabilising messagesamounting – in different forms and to different degrees – to coherent hostile ‘strategic communications’ campaigns, or the processes of infusing communications activities with an agenda or plan to impact the behaviour of a target audience.

Anti-EU propaganda

In 2017, the Parliament adopted a Resolution on options for improving access to medicines. The Treaty of Lisbon has enhanced the importance of health policy, stipulating that ‘a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities’.

Primary responsibility for health protection and, in particular, the healthcare systems continues to lie with the Member States. However, the EU has an important role to play in improving public health, preventing and managing diseases, mitigating sources of danger to human health, and harmonising health strategies between Member States. The EU has successfully implemented a comprehensive policy, through the Health Strategy ‘Health for Growth’ and its action programme (2014-2020) and a body of secondary legislation.

Healthcare safety (2019-2020)

As a general rule, MEPs vote by show of hands and the President of the sitting determines the majorities in each case.

In 1979, a new high tech system was put in place. If the President decides that the result of a vote by show of hands is doubtful, a fresh vote shall be taken using the electronic voting system.

The individual vote cast by each MEP is recorded and published in an annex to the minutes.

Electronic votes

The President is appointed by the European Council, while the European Parliament and the Bank’s Governing Council are consulted.

Prior to the vote, the candidate will receive a series of questions for written answer, and be invited to a hearing before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON). The ECB President is a key figure within the Eurosystem when setting monetary policy for the euro area.

The Presidents were Alexandre Lamfalussy (1994-1997), founding president of the EMI, forerunner of the ECB, Wim Duisenberg (1998-2004), Jean-Claude Trichet (2004-2011) and Mario Draghi (2011-)

Appointment of the President of the ECB

David McAllister (EPP, DE) will continue as the Chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee for the coming two and a half years. He was re-elected by acclamation on Wednesday, 10 July. During its constituent meeting, the Committee also elected Witold Waszczykowski (ECR, PL) as the Committee’s First Vice-Chair. The remaining three Vice-Chairs will be elected at a future meeting. Together, the Chair and Vice-Chairs will form the Bureau of the Committee.

AFET - Committee on Foreign Affairs

Marie Arena will serve as Chair of Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) for the coming two and a half years. She was elected by acclamation by Subcommittee members on Wednesday. “I would like to express my thanks to all of you for your trust in electing me as Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights”, Ms Arena said after the vote.

MEPs also elected the four Vice-Chairs that will form, together with Marie Arena, the Subcommittee's bureau:

Ms <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197625/IRINA_VON+WIESE/home" target="_blank">Irina Von Wiese</a> (Renew Europe, UK) will be first Vice-Chair,

Ms <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197464/HANNAH_NEUMANN/home" target="_blank">Hannah Neumann</a> (Greens/EFA, DE) will be second Vice-Chair,

Ms <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197643/KAROLINE_EDTSTADLER/home" target="_blank">Karoline Edtstadler</a> (EPP, AT) will be third Vice-Chair, and

Mr <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197694/RAPHAEL_GLUCKSMANN/home" target="_blank">Raphaël Glucksmann</a> (S&amp;D, FR) will be fourth Vice-Chair.

DROI Subcommittee on Human Rights

The constitutive meetings of the European Parliament's standing committees and subcommittees take place in Brussels on 10 July 2019, following the appointment of their members in the plenary sitting of 3-4 July. During the meetings, each committee and subcommittee will elect its respective bureau, made up of a Chair and Vice-Chairs, for a two-and-a-half year mandate. The newly set up committees will then start holding their regular meetings during the week of 22 July.

Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Chair: Ms Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew Europe, FR)

1st Vice-Chair: Mr Nikos ANDROULAKIS (S&amp;D, EL)

2nd Vice-Chair: Ms Kinga GÁL (EPP, HU)

3rd Vice-Chair: Ms Özlem DEMIREL (GUE/NGL, DE)

4th Vice-Chair: Mr Lukas MANDL (EPP, AT)

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