EU legislative activity resumes in full swing in 2025. What did the 2024 bequeath

In October 2024, the Conference of the Presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament agreed to continue working on the 119 unfinished files inherited by the previous legislative files. They made exceptions for the regulation on circularity requirements for vehicle design and management of end-of-life vehicles, the regulation on passengers’ rights enforcement, the regulation revising the global data collection system on fuel oil for shipping and the regulation on animal welfare during transport.

The group of parties that supported this decision – consisting of the European People’s Party, the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe, and the group of Europe Sovereign Nations – appealed to the need to downsize the competencies of the committee on Environment and Food Safety. This was the result of the decision that the European Parliament recently made.

Among the 48 files currently still in the preparatory phase and awaiting the nomination of a rapporteur are the European Defense Industry Program (EDIP) regulation and the directive to improve trainee conditions.

Four files are at the stage of committee draft reports. This step in the legislative procedure describes legislative proposals for which the rapporteur in the European Parliament has already submitted a proposal that has to be discussed within the relevant committee. Among them, there are the regulations on the rules for the emission and circulation of digital euro and the European Deposit Insurance Scheme.

The text could be then amended if the members of the committees vote so and go for interinstitutional negotiations with the rotating presidency of the Council if the rapporteur of the proposal receives the mandate to this end.

The EU Council’s general approach, which serves as the basis for interinstitutional negotiations, is often adopted after the European Parliament’s first vote.

Ten files have been voted in the relevant committee and are now waiting to receive the mandate to start negotiations in a plenary session. The directive on the European Works Council made this step during the last plenary in December.

Negotiations on files that already passed the first reading in both institutions EU Council are yet to start or have just started on four files, such as the directive on the protection of victims of crime, the new set of rules proposed in a legislative package on retail investor protection and a new directive on a common definition of criminal offences and sanctions in the area of corruption. The Council recently voted in favor of a text that serves as a general approach to start negotiation on a directive that updates rules countering online child sexual abuse.

The two legislative institutions failed to reach a provisional agreement on a final text on some files, such as the regulation on a generalized scheme of tariff preferences and a directive on long-term residents.
Almost 50 legislative files are expected to be subject to interinstitutional negotiations. The proposed regulation on new genomic Techniques – which still lacks an agreement among Member States in the EU Council – the directive on green claims and the package on driving licenses are among them. The list also includes a proposed regulation on greenhouse emissions of transport services, a project of a directive on water pollutants, and a new directive on textiles and food waste.

After the election of the new College of Commissioners, the European Parliament will resume its legislative activity in every way. In its first months of the mandate, the 705-member parliament focused on establishing political groups and committees and on the necessary work to allow the European Commission to take office.