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This briefing explores the motives, narratives, and membership realities of the three states that acceded to the European Communities (EC) in its first enlargement, in 1973: the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark. It argues that, despite the different conditions and context at the time, it is possible to draw lessons from this first enlargement experience on how applicant states can create favourable conditions for their stable long-term integration into the present-day European Union.Governments, political parties and societal groups need to define their expectations of the economic benefits of EU membership realistically. This was the case in Ireland and Denmark, which rightly expected to benefit from the common agricultural policy and – in the case of Ireland – significant fiscal transfers. It was not the case for the UK, however, leading to a negative collective experience of the economic realities of membership during the economic slump following the 1973 oil crisis. Politically, moreover, the UK was ill prepared for cooperative patterns of politics and policy- making in the EC/EU. Large sections of the British elites and citizens saw the world in a binary divide between those ruling and those being ruled. EC membership could easily be portrayed as mediating the UK's transition from a position of ruling to one of being ruled by an allegedly new imperial centre, 'Brussels'. By contrast, EC membership gave the Irish an institutionalised European voice. Sharing formal sovereignty for them enhanced their actual independence from the UK. Denmark, finally, over time developed a pragmatic approach to sharing sovereignty.This briefing also highlights the importance of defending the aim of EU membership with realistic and convincing narratives. The creation of a broad domestic consensus on the desirability of membership, and preparation for its economic and political implications, are crucial for shaping a trajectory towards stable long-term integration into the EU.This briefing follows up a roundtable event organised by EPRS on 26 April 2023, which included contributions by N. Piers Ludlow, London School of Economics, Brigid Laffan, European University Institute, and Morten Rasmussen, Copenhagen University.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13817-Delegated-Regulation-on-data-access-provided-for-in-the-Digital-Services-Act/F3423828_en

Products traded internationally account for a large share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — and thus, the trading system has been widely regarded as a problem with respect to the global response to climate change. Implementing border carbon adjustment mechanisms is widely regarded as a crucial tool to tackle carbon leakage. At present, a number of major emitters, including the European Union, has advanced proposals to introduce a charge at the border based on the levels of GHG emissions embedded in imported products. Such border carbon adjustment measures may be implemented by individual jurisdictions, be negotiated among a selected group of trade partners, or coordinated multilaterally within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper focuses on the latter, discussing the WTO’s role in fostering multilateral cooperation on border carbon adjustment, while examining challenges and opportunities that may arise from addressing border carbon adjustment at the multilateral level.

Social science research demonstrates that dispersal policies and restrictions on the freedom of residence have inhibited refugees’ socio-economic integration. The dominant explanation is that such policies prevent refugees from moving to places where they can employ their skills most fruitfully. However, previous studies of refugees’ actual residential choices in Europe provide little evidence that refugees move to places with good employment prospects. The combination of negative effects of residence restrictions and emerging evidence of disadvantaging secondary migration forms what we call the ‘refugee mobility puzzle’. In this study, we address this puzzle and ask: What attracts refugees to deprived areas, and can their seemingly unfortunate residential choices be understood as moves to labor market opportunity after all? Empirically, we draw on the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, track the location of more than 2,500 refugee respondents, and estimate discrete choice models across all German counties and postcodes. Our results confirm the existence of the refugee-mobility puzzle and complicate recent critiques of dispersal policies and restrictions by suggesting that refugees’ need for affordable housing and their desire to be close to (co-ethnic) friends and family may turn into an unintended lock-in factor in the mid- and long-run.

Mobile devices, especially smartphones represent a unique challenge for law enforcement. Criminal offenders use phones to communicate, coordinate, organise and execute criminal actions. This is especially true for organised crime and terrorist organisations. This development provides new challenges for criminal prosecution and it is vital to empower law enforcement to access the data stored on mobile devices to use it as court evidence in a trustworthy and reliable manner.The overarching objective of FORMOBILE is to establish a complete end to end forensic investigation chain, targeting for mobile devices. To achieve this goal three objectives will be pursued. Novel tools shall be developed that include the acquisition of previously unavailable mobile data, unlocking mobile devices, as well as the decoding and analysis of mobile data. Based on the definition ofrequirements of law enforcement and legal and ethical issues a new mobile forensics standard shall be developed. With the developments of the new standard and the new tools, training for police and criminal prosecution will be established, providing the end users with the latest knowledge in a novel and an innovative curriculum to ensure a quality standard of investigations.The European Union (EU) has developed as a Security Union, building on the European Agenda on Security. This aims to ensure that people live in an area of freedom, security, and justice, without internal frontiers. To strengthen digital forensics in the context of criminal investigations is crucial to achieve this vision. FORMOBILE contributes to the fight against virtually all forms of crime. This isbecause mobile devices are widely used in crimes, especially in the arrangement of conspiracies.Yet, there are crimes more closely related to mobile devices; this includes child abuse and emerging forms of cybercrime in particular. To fight crime effectively, law enforcement has to be empowered to access all evidence stored on mobile devices.

The rise and proliferation of the online economy, centred specifically on platforms, has opened new opportunities for private individuals to sell their labour in new and more flexible ways. Either full or part-time or when convenient or requested. However, this has also created conflicts as unions see the increased utilization of freelancers and the self-employed as undercutting adopted collective agreements and the terms agreed to in these particular arrangements. Or at least this is how the unions prefer to present the matter and as always the truth is more complex