EU Insight 14 February 2025

Brussels, 14 February 2025

COMMISSION 2025 WORK PROGRAMME FOCUSES ON SIMPLIFICATION AND COMPETITIVENESS
The Commission unveiled its Work Programme for the year 2025, presenting the Commission’s intended flagship initiatives, to be unveiled over the course of the year. The document serves as a roadmap laying out the Commission’s policy priorities for its first year in office, a roadmap which heavily focuses on operationalising the competitiveness and simplification agendas. In that vein, noteworthy upcoming initiatives will include the Clean Industrial Deal, the first Omnibus Simplification Package, the Savings and Investments Union Strategy, as well as the proposal on the EU’s 2040 emissions reduction target. The Work programme also lists initiatives the Commission decided to withdraw i.e. those which the Commission has given up on, which notably include the AI Liability Directive.

COMMISSION TO MOBILISE €200 BILLION FOR AI INVESTMENT IN NEW LANDMARK INITIATIVE
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled InvestAI, a new initiative to unlock over €200 billion for AI projects across the EU. In her words, this public-private partnership aims at making Europe an AI continent, emphasizing the EU’s role in the global race for AI leadership. The Commission will allocate €20 billion from existing programmes to four AI gigafactories, while additional funding should come from private investment, Member States’ funding, and the European Investment Bank. The announcement came during the AI Action Summit in Paris, meant to present the EU as an innovation-friendly jurisdiction for AI. This forum also provided the occasion for a meeting between U.S. Vice-President JD Vance and President von der Leyen, yielding thus the first official high-level meeting between the EU and the new Trump Administration.

“MAKING EUROPE SIMPLER AND FASTER” IS THE COMMISSION’S NEW MANTRA
Alongside the presentation of the 2025 Work Programme, the Commission presented its simplification strategy for the next 5 years with the aim of “making Europe simpler and faster”. Drawing on recommendations from the Draghi Report, the strategy puts forward a series of measures to enhance the implementation of the EU’s regulatory framework, simplify existing legislation, and improve the legislative process from a competitiveness standpoint. The strategy will immediately be put in practice this year through the launch of three Omnibus packages – targeting sustainability reporting and due diligence, investments, and SMEs – as well as amendments to the Common Agricultural Policy, and key cybersecurity legislations. Aside from presenting new simplification initiatives, the Commission commits to continue assessing the existing regulatory framework through yearly fitness checks of sectoral legislation.

COMMISSION UNVEILS COMMUNICATION ON THE NEXT MFF
Further accompanying its Work Programme, the Commission presented its communication on the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) – the EU’s 7-year budget – which is up for renewal by 2028. The Communication outlines the Commission’s plans to help prepare for the next MFF, notably through public consultations running until May 2025, a Tour d’Europe planned by Budget Commissioner Serafin, and the creation of a citizens panel and online platform. Broadly speaking the Commission intends for the next EU budget to be simpler, more focused, and impactful. To achieve that, while the Commission simply makes note of the need for new revenue sources to flow directly into the EU’s budget (new own resources), some Member States have called for a significant increase in the budget altogether. The Commission plans to present its proposal for the next financial framework in July 2025.

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE DAY MARKS BALTIC GRID DECOUPLING FROM RUSSIA
After more than 10 years of gradual decoupling, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania successfully disconnected from Russia’s energy grid on Saturday, touted by Von der Leyen, as the “Energy Independence Day”. In the broader context of the Ukraine war, the move aims to reduce Moscow’s influence on the region, and further the EU’s ambitions of phasing out reliance on Russia for its energy needs. The full connection of the three countries to the EU’s electricity network was achieved 10 months earlier than planned, involving 1.23€ billion in investments provided by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility and other funding supplied by the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK
• 17 February: Eurogroup. On the agenda: Euro area macroeconomic outlook, Eurogroup work Program until July 2025.
• 17-18 February: Informal Meeting of the General Affairs Council. On the agenda: Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) after 2027.
• 18 February: Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). On the agenda: Competitiveness, Ukraine war, Economic governance framework.
• 19 February: College of Commissioners. On the agenda: A Vision for Agriculture and Food.

Tuomas Tierala, Managing Partner Brussels, Kreab
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Kreab • Tel: +32 2 737 6900 • tuomas.tierala@kreab.com • www.kreab.com/brussels • X: @KreabEU • LinkedIn: Kreab Worldwide