To enhance our competitiveness, we will

• introduce a competitiveness compass to close the innovation gap, decarbonise and increase security
• complete the single market in key sectors to allow companies to scale up
• implement a new approach to competition policy
• reduce administrative burden and reduce reporting obligations by at least 25% and at least 35% for SMEs
• stress-test the EU acquis and make proposals to simplify and codify legislation to eliminate overlaps and contradictions, while maintaining high standards
• propose a new EU-wide legal status to help innovative companies grow
• have a new SME and competitiveness check to help avoid unnecessary administrative burden
• propose to renew the Interinstitutional agreement on simplification and better law-making

To stay the course on the goals set out in the European Green Deal, decarbonise our economy and bring down energy prices, we will

• present a Clean Industrial Deal to make our industry competitive and create quality jobs
• propose to set out a 90% emission-reduction target for 2040in the European Climate Law
• support industries and companies through the transition by launching an industrial decarbonisation accelerator act, helping to speed up related planning, tendering and permitting
• reduce energy costs for households and businesses by completing the energy union
• invest in clean energy infrastructure and technologies
• activate and extend our aggregate demand mechanism to go beyond gas and include hydrogen and critical raw materials
• secure supplies of raw materials, clean energy and clean tech with the development of clean trade and investment partnerships
• continue to be a leader in international climate negotiations
• encourage rail travel and propose a single digital booking and ticketing regulation, to ensure that Europeans can buy one single ticket on one single platform and get passengers’ rights for their whole trip

To shift to a more sustainable pattern of production and consumption, retaining the value of resources in our economy for longer, we will

• help to create market demand for secondary materials and a single market for waste through a new circular economy act
• put forward a new chemicals industry package, providing clarity on ‘forever chemicals’, or PFAS
• work to complete the European health union, diversifying supply chains, fostering access to most advanced treatments, making the health and pharmaceutical sector more resilient
• work on reducing dependencies on critical medicines and ingredients by putting forward a critical medicines act
• step up our work on preventive health, in particular for mental health, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, as well on treatments for degenerative illnesses and research on autism
• safeguard the security of our healthcare systems by proposing a European action plan on the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers

To increase productivity through diffusion of digital technologies, we will

• encourage investments in digital infrastructures to improve access to secure, fast and reliable connectivity
• continue to step up our enforcement of the EU digital laws
• tackle challenges with e-commerce platforms
• step up investment in supercomputing, semiconductors, the Internet of Things, genomics, quantum computing, and space tech
• ensure access to supercomputing capacity for AI startups and industry via an AI continent action plan
• boost new industrial uses of AI and improve public services with an apply AI strategy
• pool all our resources through the Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE)
• ensure seamless and at-scale data sharing with a European data union strategy

To enhance Europe’s competitiveness and drive it towards a new age of invention and ingenuity, we will place research, innovation, science and technology at the centre of our economy. We will

• increase research spending to focus more on strategic priorities
• expand the European Research Council and the European Innovation Council
• make it easier and faster to bring biotech from the laboratory to the market with a European biotech act
• support green and digital transitions and develop high-value technologies through a strategy for European life sciences
• enhance collaboration between research departments, higher education and business by strengthening university alliances

We will invest massively in our sustainable competitiveness, by using public investment to leverage and de-risk private capital. We will

• put forward risk-absorbing measures to make it easier for commercial banks, investors and venture capital to finance fast-growing companies
• review our rules to address barriers that restrict the amount of European capital available to finance innovation
• leverage private savings to invest in innovation and the clean and digital transitions with the establishment of a European savings and investments union
• revise public procurement rules to enable preference to be given to European products for certain strategic sectors
• develop strategic technologies and manufacture them in Europe by establishing a European competitiveness fund that will also support Important Projects of Common Interest

To improve people’s careers and our competitiveness, we will

• establish a union of skills which will focus on investment, lifelong learning and skill retention
• work to improve basic skills
• propose a STEM education strategic plan to address decline in performance, the lack of qualified teachers in areas linked to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and bring more girls into STEM education and careers
• promote vocational education and training (VET) with a European strategy for VET
• boost and refocus skills funding in the EU budget
• ensure cross-country skill recognition by putting forward a skills portability initiative and continue to work towards a European degree

We will act on defence to protect Europeans by

• helping Member States rebuild, replenish, and transform national armed forces by building upon the existing defence industrial programmes, to invest in high-end capabilities in critical areas such as naval, ground, air combat, space-based early warning and cyber
• helping pool resources and counter common threats through flagship European defence projects to be ultimately decided by Member States
• developing a single market for defence products and services, enhancing defence research and development, production capacity and fostering joint procurement

We will develop a preparedness union strategy to ensure we are better prepared for crises by

• better preparing the whole of society for possible crises, including the citizens and the private sector
• strengthening our foresight and anticipation capabilities
• addressing new threats, in particular those linked to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) and cybersecurity
• supporting medical countermeasures against public health threats, including joint procurement and stockpiling

For people to feel safe, we will work on

• a new European internal security strategy to help ensure that security is integrated into EU legislation
• a new European action plan against drug trafficking, which will see us work with partners to close routes and business models of drug traffickers
• a new counter-terrorism agenda to address new and emerging threats and to take a stronger approach to terrorist financing and anti-radicalisation

To deliver stronger common borders, we will

• put in place a fully functional digital border management system
• implement an integrated border management approach
• develop an EU visa policy strategy
• ensure a complete and fully functioning Schengen area

Migration is a European challenge that must be met with a European solution. To manage migration effectively with solidarity at its heart, we will

• implement the pact on migration and asylum and frame our forward-looking vision in the first five-year European migration and asylum strategy
• put forward a new common approach on returns to speed up and simplify the process
• continue developing strategic relations with non-EU countries
• work with Member States to open up legal pathways to migration, based on the skills needs of our economies and our regions

To ensure social fairness, we will

• set out a new action plan on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights to reach our 2030 social headline targets
• support fair wages, good working conditions, training and fair job-to-job transitions through a new quality jobs roadmap
• strengthen European social dialogue through a new Pact for European social dialogue
• address the root causes of poverty through the first-ever EU anti-poverty strategy
• prevent and combat social exclusion of children through education, healthcare and essential public services by strengthening the Child Guarantee
• tackle the housing crisis by putting forward the first-ever European affordable housing plan and creating a pan-European investment platform for affordable and sustainable housing
• rolling out the Social Climate Fund to support renovations and energy-efficient housing
• tackle the root causes of demographic change
• reduce regional disparities so Europeans can live and work in the place they call home

To increase solidarity among citizens, we will

• work on safeguarding the rights of minorities
• strengthen Erasmus+ to allow more Europeans to gain new skills and develop a better mutual understanding
• organise annual Youth Policy Dialogues to ensure young people can use their voice to shape the future of the EU
• set up aYouth Advisory Board with young people from all Member States to advise the President of the Commission on youth issues
• conduct an EU-wide inquiry on the broader impacts of social media on people’s well-being
• address the addictive design of online services
• create an action plan against cyberbullying
• make it easier for people to benefit from Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage

To deliver true equality, we have

• updated the strategy for LGBTIQ equality and developed a new anti-racism strategy, so that everyone can thrive and lead, regardless of who they are
• developed a roadmap for women’s rights and a new strategy for gender equality

The Commission will

• present a vision for agriculture and food to ensure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of our farming sector
• ensure that the EU budget and the EU common agricultural policy are targeted, with the right balance between incentives, investments and regulation
• support family farms and enable farmers to work their land without excessive bureaucracy
• reward farmers who work with nature, preserve biodiversity and natural ecosystems and help to decarbonise our economy
• support the competitiveness of our entire food value chain through investment and innovation on farms, in cooperatives, agri-food businesses and SMEs
• protect Europe’s food sovereignty, including fisheries in our coastal communities
• propose a European ocean pact that will boost the blue economy and ensure the sustainability of our oceans
• strengthen Europe’s water security and promote competitiveness of EU’s water industry by presenting a European water resilience strategy
• work on incentives for nature positive actions and private investments in nature, in particular by developing nature credits
• work towards meeting our international biodiversity commitments, such as those taken in the Kunming Montreal Agreement

One of the greatest risks to our security is the impact of climate change. That is why we will

• aim to develop a European civil defence mechanism, looking at all facets of crisis and disaster management, along community resilience building
• step up work on climate resilience and preparedness
• develop a European climate adaptation plan, to support Member States with preparedness and planning and ensure regular science-based risk assessments

Europe’s democratic systems and institutions are under attack. To protect our democracy, we will

• propose a new European democracy shield to counter foreign information manipulation and interference online, by detecting, analysing and proactively countering disinformation and information manipulation as well as hybrid threats
• work to increase digital and media literacy to improve societal resilience and preparedness
• create a European network of fact-checkers which will be available in all EU languages
• continue to step up digital enforcement, including of the Digital Services Act and AI Act, to ensure a fair and open online platform environment, prevent dissemination of misinformation and deepfakes and protect civic discourse and electoral processes
• address emerging threats to the integrity of elections across Europe, including by ensuring that transparency requirements in the AI Act, the Digital Services Act and the transparency of political advertising regulation are implemented and strengthening our approach to AI-produced content

In today’s world, where the resilience of our democracies, societies and economies are constantly put to the test, our values are what bind us together and make us stronger. Rule of law makes our society and economies work and ensures that fundamental rights are protected, corruption is tackled, and contracts are enforced. That is why we will

• consolidate the Rule of Law Report and ensure it looks at all issues across Europe, including by adding the single market dimension to the report
• continue to improve our monitoring and reporting on the rule of law, and to strengthen checks and balances, notably by tracking the implementation of recommendations
• invest in upholding the rule of law through EU funding for national measures, for example on fighting corruption
• ensure that respect for the rule of law is a must for EU funds, by building a closer link between the recommendations in the Rule of Law Report and financial support
• make sure that the general regime of conditionality is applied to all EU funds in the future long-term budget
• support free media across the Union by implementing the European Media Freedom Act and increasing our support for and protection of independent media and journalists

To integrate citizens’ participation in policymaking, we will

• regularly choose policy areas where recommendations from a European Citizens’ Panel would have the greatest value, and follow up on the citizens’ recommendations
• step up our engagement with civil society organisations that have expertise and an important role to play in defending specific societal issues and upholding human rights
• strengthen the network of moiptionre than 3,000 local councillors to get a better understanding of how the EU impacts everyday life

To ensure the EU’s enlargement is in line with the promise we gave in our treaties, we will

• ensure that each country looking to join the EU is assessed on its own progress towards meeting all accession criteria, including those on rule of law and fundamental values, which will continue to be the cornerstones of the EU’s enlargement policy
• step up support to prepare candidate countries, notably using the investment and reforms in the growth plan for the Western Balkans and the Ukraine Facility

In parallel with delivering on enlargement, we will build a more strategic approach to our actions in the EU’s wider neighbourhood by

• strengthening our relations with the Mediterranean with a new pact for the Mediterranean. This will focus on investment and partnerships, economic stability, job creation, energy, and security in the region
• working for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and an increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza
• delivering an EU-Middle East strategy that will seek to bring a just resolution to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and pave the way for a two-state solution to ensure security for both Israelis and Palestinians

For Europe’s prosperity, we will establish a new economic foreign policy that focuses on economic security, trade and investment in partnerships. For this, we will

• boost our competitiveness at home and invest in research into strategic technologies
• protect our economy from technology leakage and security concerns
• complete the review of foreign direct investment screening, build a coordinated approach to export controls, and address risks from outbound investments
• deepen our free and fair-trade links with growth centres and partners around the world
• develop new clean trade and investment partnerships and deepen our relationships on critical minerals and raw materials
• improve rules-based trade, including through a reformed and strengthened World Trade Organization
• enforce our trade agreements and use all of our trade defence instruments where and when needed
• take Global Gateway, our initiative to invest in infrastructure projects worldwide, to the next level through a Team Europe approach
• propose a new strategic EU-India agenda and strengthen our cooperation with ASEAN
• work with Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Australia
• drive investments in infrastructure, renewable energy generation, and raw material value chains in Africa
• deepen the cooperation between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean through Global Gateway investment

Europe will play a leading role in reforming the international system by

• actively participating in international summits, like the UN Summit for the Future, that call, among others, for equitable representation for all regions and tackle development and debt
• responding better to the concerns of our partners impacted by European legislation
• finding a more systematic approach to assessing the impact of our laws on non-EU countries and providing more targeted support to help them adjust to and benefit from those laws