Written by Enrico D’Ambrogio with Yana Diane Meulemeester. From 19 April to 1 June 2024, 968 million Indian voters are eligible to elect the members of the Lok Sabha (lower house). Voting is to take more than six weeks in seven phases across states and territories, concluding with a final round on 1 June; the votes are set to be counted on 4 June. Since 1999, elections to the Lok Sabha have coincided with those for the European Parliament. In 2023, India overtook China as the world’s most populous country. The government has been able to lower India’s poverty rate substantially ..read more

Written by Gisela Gieger. A key function of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is to serve for its members as a forum for the negotiation of global trade rules. However, since the WTO’s foundation in 1995, WTO members have largely failed to meet their self-defined negotiating objectives as set out in the comprehensive 2001 Doha Development Agenda (DDA). By the time of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference, WTO members had settled on merely two multilateral agreements in almost 30 years: a 2013 agreement on trade facilitation and a partial agreement on fisheries subsidies, concluded in ..read more

Written by Ralf Drachenberg and Annastiina Papunen. The special European Council meeting on 17-18 April will be an important step towards agreeing on the EU’s political priorities for the 2024-2029 period. The three main priorities are likely to centre on ‘a strong and secure Europe’, ‘a prosperous and competitive Europe’ and ‘a free and democratic Europe’. EU leaders are also expected to adopt lengthy conclusions related to competitiveness, notably addressing the single market and the capital markets union. They will also address the war in Ukraine, and hold a strategic debate on EU-Türkiye r ..read more

Written by Albaladejo Román. Ukraine enjoys excellent conditions for agriculture, including around a third of the world’s most fertile land. Three crops dominate the country’s agricultural production: wheat, maize and sunflower, intended primarily for export. Medium-sized agricultural enterprises lead crop production, although some companies farm as much as 500 000 hectares. This is a direct consequence of Soviet collectivisation, and the agricultural policies adopted after Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Only recently did Ukraine start opening up its land market. In 2013, Russia blocked ..read more

Written by Clare Ferguson and Katarzyna Sochacka. Approaching the end of the mandate, a number of debates on important legislative proposals took place during the April I 2024 plenary session: on the migration and asylum package, reform of the EU electricity market, and the pharmaceutical package. Members also debated Russia’s undemocratic elections, and in particular their extension to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament, Chinese police activity in Europe, the rule of law in Hungary, and the rule of law and media ..read more

Written by Clare Ferguson with Sara Van Tooren. Members meet in Brussels this week for the penultimate plenary session of the ninth legislature. As the main topics for debate on the agenda include subjects as weighty as migration and asylum, energy and equality, access to pharmaceuticals and scrutiny of EU budget spending – the debates and voting sessions in particular, are likely to last much longer than usual. The session begins on Wednesday lunchtime with an address in a formal sitting by His Majesty King Philippe, King of the Belgians, whose country currently holds the Council Preside ..read more

Written by Gabija Leclerc and Branislav Stanicek. In 2003, at the Thessaloniki Summit, the European Council set out its determination to fully support the EU perspective of the Western Balkan countries. However, in the context of relatively limited progress in implementing reforms needed to align with the EU, none have joined since Croatia’s accession in 2013, since when the region has been confronted by ‘enlargement fatigue’ and increasing Russian and Chinese interference. Responding to these challenges, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who took office in November 2019, def ..read more

Written by Tambiama Madiega with Rafał Ilnicki. Economic indicators show that the United States (US) is the front-runner for both private investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and venture capital in generative AI, followed by China. US companies are also developing most of the large languages models (LLMs) underpinning AI innovation. EU starts-up are beginning to scale up. Investment in AI and generative AI Figure 1 – Private investment in AI by country, 2022 (€ billion) Source: Stanford University, 2023 AI Index Report. The global AI market was valued at over €130 billion* in 2023 a ..read more

Written by Marcin Grajewski. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act moved close to final adoption when the European Parliament voted in favour of the text on 13 March. It will become law after the final endorsement of the Council of the European Union, making the Union the first major world power to adopt horizontal legislation governing AI. The act defines the rules for using and selling artificial intelligence systems in the EU, and regulates general-purpose AI tools such as ChatGPT and AI-based biometric surveillance. It also requires much more transparency than up to now in high-risk AI syst ..read more

Written by Anja Radjenovic (1st edition). In November 2023, the Commission proposed a directive to modernise and strengthen the legal framework on the fight against migrant smuggling. The proposal addresses the steady rise in irregular arrivals in the EU and the rise in smuggling on all main EU entry routes. The current directive defining the offence of facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence in the EU, and the framework decision on strengthening of the penal framework have both been widely criticised for their failure to provide legal certainty and uniformity of implementati ..read more