European Parliament

Agenda Item 1: Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising

Agenda Item 2: Substantiation of Green Claims

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Under-Secretary-General: Enes Okkay

Academic Assistants: Derin Engür, Ata Yağız Topaloğlu

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Introduction to the European Parliament

Being one of the legislative bodies of the European Union, the European Parliament also serves as one of its main institutions. The European Parliament has 705 members that represent political parties across the European Union, thereby addressing the democratic deficit of the EU by introducing direct representation and a degree of proportionality to the Union's workings. Additionally, the European Parliament is responsible for adopting EU legislation alongside the Council by following the proposals that are submitted by the European Commission. In conjunction with the Council of the European Union, it negotiates and adopts legislative acts through the ordinary legislative procedure, which is also known as "co-decision". During the co-decision process, the Parliament makes decisions and legislative changes by working on the regulations and proposals submitted by the European Commission.

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Introduction to the Agenda Items

1) Political advertising is everywhere, even more so in the era of digitalization. The EU is no exception to that. With the digitalized world came big data and the ability to target individuals or groups efficiently. Furthermore, the internet resulted in borders that are far more permeable than in 1993, when the European Single Market was established. This resulted in issues that affected not only the ordinary citizens of the EU but also the providers of political advertising. Coupled with the renewed and revitalized threats to European democracy, the situation forces the EU to act. Currently, member-state level legislation is not enough to increase the transparency of political advertising, protect the citizens of the EU from excessive targeting, prevent legal loopholes or clashes, and defend the European democracy from outsider threats. For this reason, the Parliament and the Council must come up with new legislation to tackle these remarkable problems.

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2) Greenwashing is one of the problems that need to be addressed by the EU in order to find common ground between eco-friendly policies and economic interests. It refers to an act of deception in which businesses lie about being eco-friendly and gain the benefits of being seen as such, often to the detriment of the environment. The Substantiation of Green Claims proves important for tackling Greenwashing practices. Substantiation means the verification or backing of a claim with facts. Consequently, the substantiation of green claims refers to verifying or making sure that businesses are as green (i.e., eco-friendly) as they claim. To reach a situation where there is enough transparency between the producers and the customers, the Parliament and the Council must develop strategies together to verify businesses’ eco-friendliness claims.