European Commission Releases 2025 Work Program

By Annette Van Raamsdonk, Elizabeth Pugh and Evangeline Loh

2025 Commission Work Program

The European Commission (EC) shared its priorities for 2025 (February 11, 2025). A press release accompanied the announcement, fact sheet and formal communication (COM(2025) 45 final), as well as the corresponding ANNEXES 1 to 5.

The primary message: “Moving forward together: A Bolder, Simpler, Faster Union”.

The communication describes the actions the EC intends to prioritize under the EC President, Ursula von der Leyen, for the 2025 year to fortify and unite the European Union (EU). In addition, there is a desire to simplify rules.

Some of the priorities for 2025

The Single Market Strategy appears to be a revision of the New Legislative Framework (NLF) into a new modern horizontal strategy. A targeted revision of the REACH Regulation is proposed to simplify chemical requirements “without compromising on safety and environmental protection”, among other initiatives. The plan discusses the list of scheduled “evaluations and fitness checks” (ANNEX 2) as a means to evaluate existing legislation.

2025 Commission Work Program - Annexes

The explicit details are described in the ANNEXES. Annex 1 delineates the simplification of the REACH Regulation and Digital Package and the Single Market Strategy (ANNEX 1). The Evaluation of the Regulation on Medical Devices (MDR, 2017/745) and In Vitro Diagnostic Devices (IVDR, 2017/746) is scheduled for Q4 2025 (ANNEX 2).

Concluding remarks

As expected, an assessment of the MDR and IVDR is slated for the last quarter of this year.

The objectives of the EC are lofty though, so it is important that there be a plan to guide the work. We applaud the EC’s efforts.