Blog written by Monica Gamba, Nora Doorley, and Marion Le Nabec
On 11 February, the European Commission adopted and unveiled the 2025 Work Programme which detailed new initiatives for this year, pending proposals still on the table, withdrawals and envisaged repeals. Additionally, Annex II outlines the Commission Annual Plan on evaluation and fitness checks with the objective to further simplify and “find opportunities to cut costs as part of [the Commission] stress checking”. Maroš Šefčovič Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, presented the Work Programme for 2025 to MEPs earlier today, Wednesday 12 February, during a three hour-long plenary debate in Strasbourg.
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The Work Programme notably lacks the ambitious green transition and sustainability initiatives that characterised the previous mandate, signalling a shift in priorities towards streamlining and simplification also when it comes to environment-focused policies. It includes simplification measures concerning the Common Agriculture Policy and other policy areas affecting farmers, for instance, due to be presented in the second quarter of this year.
Building upon President Von der Leyen’s priorities for 2024-2029, the document outlines a number of planned initiatives to be presented throughout 2025. The declared objectives mostly revolve around competitiveness, simplification, innovation, preparedness & security of the Union, fully in line with the Letta and Draghi reports which characterised the last few months of Von der Leyen’s previous mandate.
During the first months of 2025, the European Commission plans to build on the Competitiveness Compass, the first major initiative of this mandate aimed at steering productivity growth in Europe, and which strategically set the stage for the upcoming work of the Commission.
The future direction of the EU industrial policy will be shaped by the Clean Industrial Deal, including an Action Plan on Affordable Energy, the European Climate Law amendment, and the long-awaited roadmap towards ending Russian energy imports coupled with a White Paper on the Future of the European Defence. Towards the of the year, an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will be presented to support energy intensive industries. As part of the Commission’s efforts towards further enhancing competitiveness, simplification and security, other initiatives include the First Omnibus package on sustainability and the Second Omnibus package on investment simplification aiming at streamlining sustainability reporting, sustainability due diligence and taxonomy, and create a new category of small mid-caps. A Union of Skills, a new European Internal Security Strategy, a Communication on a Savings and Investments Union and a New common approach on returns under the migration and asylum pact are due to be unveiled before April 2025.
Other major initiatives to be presented in the first quarter encompass a new Vision for EU agriculture and food led by Commissioner Christophe Hansen, a Critical Medicines Act by Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi, and a Roadmap for Women’s Rights by Commissioner Hadja Lahbib.
Innovation will be bolstered in the first year through an AI Continent Action plan covering AI Factories boosting competitive AI ecosystems in Europe as well as the Apply AI strategy. It will be followed by a Quantum Strategy of EU, an EU Start-up and Scale-up Strategy as well as the Digital Networks Act expected at the end of 2025.
Later this year, the European Commission is planning to adopt strategic legislative files such as New rules on drug precursors, the Space Act and the Review of the Securitisation Framework. Other key initiatives to further guide sector-specific developments range from the Single Market Strategy, the Ocean Pact, a Pact for the Mediterranean, a new Strategic EU-India Agenda, An EU fit for enlargement: policy reviews and reforms, a Bioeconomy strategy and a Quality jobs roadmap. In the last few months of 2025, the long-awaited revision of the REACH regulation on the authorisation and restriction of chemicals, the European Business Wallet, the Firearms Trafficking Directive, the Revision of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, and the Bioeconomy strategy will provide additional guidance for future work.
When it comes to withdrawals, it is relevant to note the decision of the European Commission to withdraw a number of files for which no foreseeable agreement was envisaged. Among those, numerous proposals within the realm of financial affairs including the Proposal for a Directive on credit servicers, credit purchasers and the recovery of collateral, and the Proposal for a Regulation on sovereign bond-backed securities. Particularly noteworthy, the decision of the Commission to further assess whether another proposal should be tabled, or a different approach should be preferred, with regard to the AI Liability Directive and the Regulation on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (Recast).
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Image source: European Parliament