The EU doesn’t make policy in a vacuum.  EU policy-making takes place in a framework which is political, hierarchical and founded on democratic input.  EU leaders, elected in their own countries, set a strategic agenda.  The President of the European Commission’s political guidelines are shaped and endorsed both by the European Council and the directly-elected European Parliament.  Delivery of those objectives is the context in which the EU legislates on specific policies and measures.  

Strategic agenda 2024-29

Every five years, EU leaders agree on the EU’s political priorities for the future. This takes place in the context of the European Parliament elections and ahead of the appointment of each European Commission.

Shortly after last year’s European Parliamentary elections, EU Heads of State and Government at a meeting of the European Council on 27 June 2024 agreed a strategic agenda which set the EU’s prioritiesand itsstrategic orientations for the institutional cycle 2024-2029. As such, it was intended to guide the work of the EU institutions. It is structured around three pillars:

• a free and democratic Europe
• a strong and secure Europe
• a prosperous and competitive Europe

The Political Guidelines

In July 2024, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had to reshape and remould the Strategic Agenda into a rounded package of selling points that would get her across the finishing line, winning more than the 362 votes that she needed to be re-elected by the new European Parliament.  That repackaging of the Strategic Agenda resulted in what is known as the Political Guidelines.  

In her Political Guidelines of 18 July 2024, von der Leyen set out her priorities for the next European Commission for the years 2024 to 2029. Under the motto “Europe’s choice”, the guidelines emphasise the EU’s choice to unite its societies and values, to ensure democratic values, to face new realities, and to be bold and ambitious. They outline the EU’s priorities together with ideas and proposals on how to achieve them.

Mission letters

Once re-elected, President von der Leyen negotiated the composition and portfolios of her new team of Commissioners with member state governments.  Each of her proposed Commissioners received their own Mission letter from her.  Von der Leyen put forward her list of Commissioners-designate and their portfolios, reflecting the ambitions set out in the Political Guidelines. These Commissioners-designate appeared in public hearings at the European Parliament in November 2024, and on 27 November, following a debate with President von der Leyen, MEPs approved the new College of Commissioners as a whole. 

Work programme

Every year the European Commission adopts a Work Programme which sets out its key initiatives for the year ahead. It informs citizens how the EU will deliver on its political priorities and turn them into concrete action. 

So, still to come, we can expect a Commission work programme for 2025 setting out in concrete terms the specific measures which the European Commission will bring forward as its legislative programme for adoption by the institutions.  It will detail pending proposals, new initiatives, proposals for withdrawals, evaluations and fitness checks, as well as proposals for rationalising reporting requirements.

Image: by European External Action Service