european parliament

GeoPolicy: A Week Inside the European Parliament – Science, Policy, and the Role of Experts

Bianca Drepper March 28, 2025

As the selected scientist in the EGU’s 2024 Science-Policy Pairing Scheme, I had the opportunity to experience life inside the European Parliament for a week with the support of Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Jutta Paulus and her team, who are part of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. A week is short, but in these few days, I gained deeper insights into the inner workings of ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: Exploring the European Parliament with last year’s Science-Policy Pairing Scheme candidates

Chloe Hill September 11, 2024

Each year, the EGU’s Science-Policy Pairing Scheme offers selected EGU members the opportunity to experience life inside the European Parliament. This Pairing Scheme aims to promote evidence-informed policymaking, provide the scientists involved with insights about how Members of the Parliament (MEPs) use research in their decision-making, and encourage stronger science-policy partnerships! For th ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: Life inside the European Parliament – an assistant’s view

Chloe Hill June 30, 2023

This month’s GeoPolicy blog features an interview with Sebastian Jehle, Accredited Assistant to Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Norbert Lins. Understanding policymaking processes is vital to be able to engage with decision-makers and to provide scientific information that is both useful and timely. Sebastian was kind enough to answer some of my burning questions about life inside the Europ ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: Exploring life inside the European Parliament

Elias Symeonakis February 8, 2023

The EGU’s annual Science-Policy Pairing Scheme connects a selected EGU member with a Member of the European Parliament to promote evidence-informed policymaking and encourage stronger science-policy partnerships! In November 2022, EGU Member of Manchester Metropolitan University Elias Symeonakis was paired with the selected Member of the European Parliament, Norbert Lins, an MEP representing Germa ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: 5 ways for scientists to take the lead on evidence-informed policymaking

Chloe Hill December 9, 2022

On 15 November 2022, the EGU and the European Parliament Intergroup on ‘Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development’ jointly coordinated an event, ‘Supporting the EU’s Biodiversity Targets by Bridging the Science-Policy Divide’. The event highlighted how science could be used to support the ambitious targets outlined in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and proposed EU Nature Rest ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: All about the European Parliament Intergroup on ‘Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development’

Chloe Hill June 17, 2022

This month’s GeoPolicy blog features an interview with Ilias Grampas, Manager of the European Parliament Intergroup (EP) on ‘Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development’ and Deputy Director of the European Bureau for Conservation and Development (EBCD). Ilias was kind enough to answer some of my burning questions about the role of the EP Intergroup in connecting Members of the Europea ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: My experience with the EGU’s science-policy pairing scheme

Solmaz Mohadjer January 28, 2020

“Thanks for coming, but no time for celebratory drinks,” I told my colleagues. I arrived in Brussels right after defending my doctoral thesis to brief the Finnish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Miapetra Kumpula-Natri and her team about the impact of sea-level rise and climate change on the coastal communities of the Baltic Sea. Climate science? Baltic Sea? EU Parliament? I was soon bombar ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: getting ready for the European Parliament Election

Chloe Hill January 25, 2019

The European Parliament currently has 751 members who belong to one of the eight political groups, at least one of the 20 different committees and represent approximately 500 million people from the 28 EU Member States. The EU Parliament plays an extremely important role in the EU. It oversees the EU budget, launches investigations into specific issues and shares legislative powers with the Counci ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: How do Members of European Parliament learn about science?

Sarah Connors August 17, 2016

Only ~5% of Members of European Parliament, or MEPs, have a background in the physical sciences1, yet many political challenges require an understanding of the science surrounding these issues. Issues such as locating and extracting mineral resources, understanding climate change impacts, and developing new low-carbon technology. The European Commission (EC) and the European Parliament (EP) have s ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: 8 ways to engage with policy makers

Sarah Connors July 13, 2016

Scientific research is usually verbally communicated to policy officials or through purposefully written documents. This occurs at all levels of governance (local, national, and international). This month’s GeoPolicy post takes a look at the main methods in which scientists can assist in the policy process and describes a new method adopted by the European Commission (EC) that aims to enhance scie ...[Read More]