The European Parliament hearings on the Commission's proposal for a "Regulation establishing rules on the access of third countries' goods and services to the EU internal market in public procurement" offers an opportunity to review two key pillars of the proposal. First, the Directive...

International reference pricing (IRP) has become a popular policy instrument in Europe as government seeks to curb healthcare costs and notably reduce expenditure on medicines. IRP builds on systematic price comparisons with other countries and aims at fixing low reimbursement levels for drugs...

This policy brief outlines the chronology of the developments since Edward Snowden leaked the documents on large-scale electronic surveillance, including PRISM and Tempora programmes, the policy implications and the public's response. It concludes that the nature of the debate has shifted from a...

Despite major advancements in the Japan-EU FTA (JEUFTA) negotiations, the talks remain difficult in the railway sector. These difficulties flow largely from the fact that the Japanese railways are organized on a radically different legal and economic basis than the railway systems in the EU....

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was launched with highest of ambitions. Yet after more than 500 days of negotiations, the results are plainly discouraging. The EU and the US misunderstood each other's intention on market access, and deteriorated into retaliatory...

The arrival of a new European Commission is a good opportunity for Europe to re-consider its policy vis-à-vis China. Under Xi Jinping, China is going through a period of change in domestic as well as foreign policy - and this change adds urgency to Europe's quest for an effective China policy....

Given the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and several intra-Asian agreements, the EU is focused on large-sized free trade agreements (FTAs) to avoid trade diversion and to maintain Europe's ability to set the trade policy agenda. The EU is now negotiating with all TPP countries except Australia,...

The industrial internet - the network of intelligent machines, software analytics and people - would address the European productivity slowdown by providing a foundation for new businesses, new jobs and higher productivity. While the new Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy makes a number of...

Forced data localisation measures are on the rise around the world, fragmenting the Internet and increasing costs for businesses and consumers. Until the year 2000, only 15 measures were imposed globally. By 2007, the number of measures doubled and it more than doubled again until today. The...

While innovation is central for the quality of healthcare and improving health outcomes, it is also a source of increasing costs for governments. Confronted by fiscal pressures, governments have made efforts to restrict access to innovative treatments. While such policies are understandable,...