Library blog

Legislative codecision in the European Union: experience over twenty years and implications landed on our shelves just recently, although we won't suggest it is a 'beach reading' book.

On 25 July the Council adopted reinforced EU sanctions in view of the situation in Ukraine. The Council's Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) also discussed the preparatory work on further targeted measures.

The July Think Tank Review is out, with papers published in June 2014. Our special focus this month references a number of papers on migration, borders and asylum, one of them questioning the very notion of 'welfare tourism'.

Our colleagues at the European Parliamentary Research Service have put out a reflective blogpost about their first six months of blogging under its new identity as EP Think Tank.

The role and influence of think tanks on policy making is attracting increasing political and academic attention. Thus, in the run-up to the July edition of the Think Tank Review, we would like to draw your attention to few studies further exploring this subject.

In a speech rich in classical references and winks to social media culture, PM Renzi mentioned the myth of Telemachus, Ulysses' son in the Odyssey. He referred to Italy's "new generation, a Telemachus generation" and to the need to "rediscover the Telemachus in ourselves, and deserve our inheritance".

EU Official Publications, open access resources, data protection, linked data and big data: our colleague Carol Bream from the Central Library of the European Commission shares her favourite list of online resources on FreePint.

The Library was able to attend the launch of the report from the  New Pact for Europe initiative at the European Policy Centre. 

This week, Italy has taken over the EU Council Presidency, for the first time since 2003. It also marks the start of a new presidency trio; from 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2015 the presidency trio will be made up of Italy, Latvia and Luxembourg.

Martin Schulz was re-elected as President of the European Parliament, by a sizable majority. He will preside over a parliament that has been presented as a reflection of a crisis of confidence, hit by a political earthquake.