Library blog

How much do you know about how COVID-19 has affected women and gender equality? To help understand this issue, and to mark International Women’s Day 2022, the Council Library has compiled a library guide of resources about how COVID-19 has affected women’s roles in society.

European democracy, the challenges to energy security in the EU, the fight against climate change, including transition to clean energy, the effectiveness of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, reforms to the EU’s migration policy and the European security and defence context are amongst the many topics covered in the February edition of the Think Tank Review. Readers should note that the articles included are those published in January 2022 and therefore do not take into account current political developments.

Discover our selection of books recently added to the Council Library collection.

The sixth European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) summit of heads of state and government takes place in Brussels on 17 and 18 February 2022. On account of this the Council Library has compiled a guide of resources on EU-AU relations.

The primacy of European law, an EU semiconductor strategy, the reform of the EU’s fiscal rules, the emergence of a ‘Europe of health’, Frontex’s independent operational assistance, the AUKUS pact, and the 2021 global summit for democracy are some of the issues discussed in this Think Tank Review.

Among the books recently added to the Council Library collection are works about Europe’s eastern neighbourhood, the process of convergence of the EU’s eastern member states, and Europe’s defence policy.

With the decision now taken on the name of the new European single currency, questions on some technical aspects started to arise. The design of the coins was one of the issues. This final post in the Council Archives series on the origins of the euro explores how the decisions on the design of euro coins, particularly the common side, were taken.

Ever heard of the eurolira? How about the florin? Or the ecu? This third post in the Council Archives series about the origins of the euro examines some of the key discussions that took place when deciding on the single currency’s name.

This second post in the Council Archives series about the origins of the euro examines the ECU, the currency unit that would later become the euro. The purpose of this post is not to go over the economic side of the ECU, but to throw some light on the linguistic complications that came with it.

Whilst much has been written about the EU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, few commentaries, if any, can equal Luuk van Middelaar’s comprehensive and critical analysis of decision-making by the EU and national governments during the crisis. From the moment that pandemonium was unleashed on an inattentive Europe by an insidious virus, van Middelaar chronicles how the EU moved from initial inaction to orchestrating a coordinated response, including an unprecedented level of financial assistance.