Cuardaigh

In January 2020, Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, opened the constitutional debate by outlining a series of amendments that, according to him, aimed to improve the balance of power and adapt the Constitution to the changes that had taken place since 1993, when the original text was adopted. With Putin's fourth and – as it seemed till recently – final presidency due to end in four years, observers speculated that the proposed amendments were intended to give Putin options for continuing to rule ...

The paper distinguishes two contrasting models of accountability, one based on principal-agent relations, which is backward-looking, the other a dynamic and forward-looking model. The paper argues that this second model of accountability is more appropriate for independent bodies like the ECB/SSM and the SRB, operating in technically complex, rapidly evolving environments under conditions of high uncertainty, where parliaments and other political authorities have very limited sanctioning powers. ...

Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome, Member States’ agricultural policies were replaced by intervention mechanisms at Community level. The foundations of the common agricultural policy (CAP) have remained unchanged since the Treaty of Rome, with the exception of rules relating to the decision-making procedure. The Lisbon Treaty recognised codecision as the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ for the CAP, in place of the consultation procedure.

This analysis provides input to the own-initiative report on "Cohesion policy and the review of the Europe 2020 strategy". The analysis focuses on three key themes: the (reciprocal) relationship between cohesion policy and the Europe 2020 strategy in the present and the previous programming period, the governance aspects (ownership and responsibility) and the territorial dimension of the strategy.

Although Parliament set out its views on the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) proposal in the previous legislative term, agreement in the Council is as yet far from seeing the light of day. A new interim report is scheduled to be voted in plenary at the end of April. For more recent information, please see the updated version of this publication.

Fish do not recognise frontiers, so sustainable exploitation of the resources of the sea requires joint management. The EU is also a major market for fisheries and aquaculture products. A set of proposals to reform the essentials of the EU Common Fisheries Policy are now being negotiated by the EU institutions.

The study is a resource text for Members of the EP Delegation to the European Convention and other participants and observers of the Convention and its Working Groups. It provides a succinct comparative description and evaluation of the attribution of powers and the resolution of disputes in four selected federal systems (USA, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium), with some short comments on the European Union's own system of multi-level governance.