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Construction of a new solar park (symbolic image)

Construction of a new solar park (symbolic image)

Political topics

The European Parliament plays an important role in EU law-making and key political decisions. The European heads of state and governments, led by the President of the European Council, adopt a Strategic Agenda every five years. This is an expression of the medium to long-term priorities of the EU and its member states and a response to current crises and political upheavals. These topics are therefore expected to play an important role, especially in the upcoming European elections, and the campaigns will largely be focused on them. Four topics are currently taking centre stage:

The first is the Union's highly controversial climate and energy policy. While the 2019 European elections were still perceived as "climate elections" and flagship projects such as the European Green Deal were central cornerstones of the political discourse, attention shifted first to the Covid-19 pandemic and how to combat it effectively, and then to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. This issue is closely linked to the future of European energy security, given the energy dependency on hostile actors such as Russia. The effects of this dependency have become painfully apparent, and there are continuing challenges in the expansion of renewable energies across Europe. Secondly, not only the Russian war of aggression and the Covid-19 pandemic, but also the increasing loss of competitiveness to China and the US have highlighted the need to protect the European economy and competitiveness more effectively and more strongly than before. A key point of discussion during the elections and for the Strategic Agenda will therefore be which instruments and how much joint funding should be used to strengthen the EU economy.

A third focal point is European asylum and migration policy. Shortly before the elections, after years of negotiations, the Council and the Parliament adopted the reform of the "Common European Asylum System". The question now is how to implement the reforms and whether they are on the right track. At the same time, the treatment and control of illegal migration remains highly controversial in many member states.

Finally, the question of how to organise European security and assert common interests in the world has come to the fore in the wake of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The war in Gaza, on which the EU states have very different positions, is also challenging the Union. In addition, the uncertain future of US support and the military threat perceived by many Central and Eastern European states from Russia have intensified the debate about whether and how European states should work more closely together militarily - in the EU, NATO and/or within groups.

Beyond the elections, recent SWP publications on these four topics can be found here:

Climate and energy

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Migration and asylum

Economy, resilience and competitiveness

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Foreign, security and defence policy

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