“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
![GeoPolicy: getting ready for the European Parliament Election](https://blogs.egu.eu/geolog/files/2019/01/42938456691_84438a0ff8_o-1-700x400.jpg)
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?
![GeoPolicy: How do Members of European Parliament learn about science?](https://blogs.egu.eu/geolog/files/2016/07/EP_strasbourg-700x400.jpg)
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
![GeoPolicy: 8 ways to engage with policy makers](https://blogs.egu.eu/geolog/files/2016/05/16582050707_82cb593b19_k-700x400.jpg)
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]