Robert Schuman Foundation

Democratising the experience of living in a country other than one's own is one of the promises of the European project. But there is still plenty of room for progress and many areas for practical and administrative improvement.

The People's Party (PP) led by Alberto Nunez Feijoo came out ahead in the Spanish parliamentary elections on 23 July, with 33.05% of the vote and 36 seats (+47 compared with the 2019 elections). He came in ahead of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Party (PSOE), which won 31.7% of the vote and 122 seats (+2). Vox, led by Santiago Abascal, fell back with 12.39% of the vote and 33 seats (-19). The Sumar (Add) movement, which brings together sixteen left-wing political parties, won 12.31% of the vote and 31 seats. As the PP does not have an absolute majority (176) with Vox, it is not expected to be able to form a government. Pedro Sanchez could also try to form a coalition with Sumar and regionalist parties. If none of them succeed, new elections could be called...

It is vital to build a European narrative, and to show that the European idea is not just the brainchild of technocrats, says musician and baritone Jorge Chaminé, founder and president of the European Music Centre.

In order to make Europe better known, the Foundation proposes an interactive map with fact sheets of the 27 Member States of the European Union and its neighbours.

You want to know everything about the European Union? Test your knowledge!

While European civil law has evolved considerably and greatly facilitates the task of judges and legal practitioners, many very real difficulties remain for European citizens, particularly in terms of family life, the transfer of assets, support for vulnerable adults and the circulation of public documents.

Although Ariane 5 has just successfully completed its final launch, Europe's space industry appears to be lagging behind. It needs to build a new industrial strategy and reform the sector's institutions to meet the challenges posed by the Americans and the Chinese.

The complementarity between NATO, which is holding its summit in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July, and the European Union has never been more evident than since the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, writes Jean-Dominique Giuliani.

With broad perspective, hindsight and objectivity "The Schuman Report on Europe, the State of the Union 2023", analyses the profound changes that have taken place in Europe, and how they have been accelerated by the shock of the war in Ukraine. This 14th edition includes 30 original maps and a full set of commented statistics. The book is available in English in digital format.

The Robert Schuman Foundation has published a new edition of its Permanent Atlas of the European Union. The third edition of this unique book provides a comprehensive and easily accessible overview of the Union, the euro area and each of the 27 Member States. It summarises historical milestones and political and statistical realities of the Union and offers more than 50 physical and geopolitical maps of Europe.

Europe has changed, Jean-Dominique Giuliani emphasises in the introduction to the "Schuman Report on Europe, the State of the Union 2023", to be published by Marie B. In under five years the European Union has acquired most of the tools it needed to develop an industrial policy, to organise solidarity in times of hardship and a strategy of autonomy in economic and health matters.

In response to the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union has introduced a €672.5 billion recovery fund. On 12 December, the Commission gave a positive assessment of the revised Luxembourg plan. On 16 December, it paid €1.4 billion to Bulgaria and €700 million to Croatia, and the Council adopted Hungary's plan. The Foundation offers you an interactive map of the plans country by country, to know the amounts and the timetable.

Member States and the EU have taken action to tackle rising energy prices. On 13 December, the Irish government mobilised €10 million to combat fuel poverty and €248 million for housing modernisation. Austria and Slovenia decided to tax energy companies' excess profits. In Germany, the Bundestag adopted on 15 December a cap on electricity and gas bills for households and industries. The Foundation provides a regularly updated map of these measures.

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