# Implementation and Simplification Canonical URL: https://digital-acquis.eu/strategy/implementation-and-simplification Entry type: strategy Source edition current through: 17 July 2026 (2026-07-17). This is not a page modification date. Status: not recorded. A delivered initiative is not necessarily legislation in force. Document type: Communication Release date: 2025-02-11 ## Summary The communication sets out how the Commission intends to make EU rules easier to implement and less burdensome. It combines implementation strategies and stakeholder dialogues with a continuing review of legislation, practical checks with businesses and stronger assessment of regulatory costs. Simplification packages cover areas including sustainability, investment, smaller companies and digital rules. Digital tools and procedures are intended to make compliance easier across borders. Annual reporting would track implementation and burden reduction, while cooperation with Parliament and Council would support clearer assessment of amendments and more effective lawmaking. ## Sources - [Official source]() ## Action items (21; complete published list) ### 1. Action item 200001 Systematic Implementation Strategies: The Commission will prepare a dedicated implementation strategy for each major legislative act, identifying transposition challenges, tracking arrangements, and support measures including for SMEs; directives will be accompanied by explanatory templates and transposition roadmaps for Member States. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 1. Digital dimension: yes. ### 2. Action item 200002 Implementation Dialogues: Each Commissioner will host at least two stakeholder dialogues per year to assess progress and identify areas needing policy attention, with outcomes reported in annual enforcement and implementation progress reports. [from H1 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 2. Digital dimension: yes. ### 3. Action item 200003 Administrative Burden Reduction Targets: The Commission expands its burden reduction targets from reporting costs to all recurring administrative costs, aiming to cut the EUR 150 billion EU-wide baseline by at least 25% for companies and 35% for SMEs by end of mandate. [2025–2029] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 3. Digital dimension: yes. ### 4. Action item 200004 Omnibus Package on Sustainability: Simplifies CSRD, CSDDD, and EU Taxonomy requirements to reduce supply-chain trickle-down effects on SMEs, ease CBAM obligations for smaller importers, and better align sustainability reporting with investor needs. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 4. Digital dimension: no. ### 5. Action item 200005 Omnibus Package on Investment Simplification: Facilitates deployment of InvestEU and the European Fund for Strategic Investments and streamlines related reporting requirements. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 5. Digital dimension: yes. ### 6. Action item 200006 Omnibus Package on Small Mid-Caps and Paper Removal: Introduces proportionate requirements for small mid-cap companies and removes paper-format obligations from product legislation. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 6. Digital dimension: yes. ### 7. Action item 200007 Cybersecurity Act Review and Digital Acquis Fitness Check: Reviews the Cybersecurity Act to enable streamlined multi-purpose reporting and avoid duplication, as part of a broader first-year assessment of whether the digital acquis adequately reflects the needs of SMEs and small mid-caps. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 7. Digital dimension: yes. ### 8. Action item 200008 European Data Union Strategy: Addresses existing data rules to create a simplified and coherent legal framework enabling businesses and administrations to share data seamlessly and at scale, while maintaining privacy and security standards. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 8. Digital dimension: yes. ### 9. Action item 200009 CAP Simplification Package: Addresses sources of complexity and excessive administrative burden for farmers and national administrations in managing, monitoring, and reporting under the Common Agricultural Policy, leveraging digitalisation. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 9. Digital dimension: no. ### 10. Action item 200010 Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act: Extends accelerated permitting procedures to additional sectors in transition, broadening the scope of streamlined authorisation processes beyond the Renewable Energy Directive. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 10. Digital dimension: yes. ### 11. Action item 200011 REACH Targeted Revision: Simplifies EU chemicals rules to reduce compliance burdens for the chemicals industry without lowering health, safety, or environmental protection standards. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 11. Digital dimension: no. ### 12. Action item 200012 European Business Wallet: Enables businesses to manage national, cross-border, and EU regulatory requirements, notifications, and compliance processes in one unified, user-friendly digital platform, building on the Digital Wallet. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 12. Digital dimension: yes. ### 13. Action item 200013 MFF Simplification Proposal: Presents a new long-term EU budget designed to reduce financial landscape fragmentation, ease administrative burdens for beneficiaries and implementing authorities, and improve access to EU funds while retaining financial safeguards. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 13. Digital dimension: yes. ### 14. Action item 200014 Stress-Testing of EU Acquis: Continuous cross-portfolio review of the entire body of EU legislation for cumulative impacts, inconsistencies, and simplification potential, with each Commissioner responsible for their area and results feeding annually into the Commission Work Programme. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 14. Digital dimension: yes. ### 15. Action item 200015 Reality Checks: Hands-on exchanges with practitioners, particularly SMEs and small mid-caps, to verify the real-world assumptions underpinning EU legislation, identify practical hurdles, and feed findings into stress-testing and future simplification proposals. [from H1 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 15. Digital dimension: yes. ### 16. Action item 200016 Reinforced SME and Competitiveness Checks: Systematic application of reinforced SME and competitiveness impact assessments to all legislation affecting companies, covering cost competitiveness, international position, innovation capacity, and cumulative sectoral effects, with stronger sector focus informed by the Draghi report. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 16. Digital dimension: yes. ### 17. Action item 200017 Impact Assessments for Delegated and Implementing Acts: Delegated and implementing acts involving significant policy choices or impacts not previously assessed will be subject to dedicated impact assessments or cost-savings analyses, with particular attention to SME effects. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 17. Digital dimension: yes. ### 18. Action item 200018 Digital-Ready Policymaking — Embeds digital considerations from the outset of legislative design, including use of regulatory sandboxes, cross-border interoperability for public administrations, expansion of the Single Digital Gateway, and systematic application of 'digital by default' and 'once-only' principles. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 18. Digital dimension: yes. ### 19. Action item 200019 Methodology for Co-Legislator Amendment Assessment: The Commission will propose a simple methodology enabling the European Parliament and Council to estimate the administrative costs of significant amendments without delaying legislative negotiations. [Q2 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 19. Digital dimension: yes. ### 20. Action item 200020 Annual Overview Report on Implementation and Simplification: Annual cross-Commission report presenting progress on burden reduction targets, enforcement actions, and national implementation, with interactive data published on Europa. [from 2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 20. Digital dimension: yes. ### 21. Action item 200021 IIA Better Lawmaking Renewal: The Commission will work with the European Parliament and Council to renew the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Lawmaking, clarifying institutional roles in delivering simpler and more effective rules. [2025] Provenance: source document doc-021, paragraph 21. Digital dimension: yes. ## Referenced entries - [European Data Union Strategy]() — status: delivered. The strategy will establish a simpler, coherent EU framework for secure, large-scale data sharing between businesses and public administrations to power AI. It will align and streamline existing rules and practices, strengthen cross-border interoperability, and embed robust safeguards for confidentiality, integrity, security and IP. Concretely, it will: promote common technical and semantic standards (e.g. schemas, metadata, APIs); enable trusted data intermediaries and data-pooling mechanisms; expand access via privacy-preserving methods (e.g. anonymisation, synthetic data, secure processing); and clarify fair, transparent licensing for B2B and public-private data use. Closely linked to AI Factories, new Data Labs will federate sectoral datasets and connect to Common European Data Spaces to unlock high-quality training data at scale. Source document doc-021, action item 200008: > European Data Union Strategy: Addresses existing data rules to create a simplified and coherent legal framework enabling businesses and administrations to share data seamlessly and at scale, while maintaining privacy and security standards. [2025] - [European Business Wallet]() — status: in progress. It will provide a legally recognised digital identity for economic operators, enabling companies to share verified data and credentials across borders and receive notifications in a secure channel. Built on BRIS and the European Unique Identifier, and aligned with the EU Digital Identity Wallet rollout and the Once-Only Technical System, it replaces document-heavy compliance with interoperable, data-based exchanges. The Wallet is a cornerstone of the Single Market simplification agenda and the EU Startup & Scaleup Strategy, lowering costs for SMEs, easing licensing and reporting, and making cross-border operations seamless, turning digital-by-default rules into practice across the EU business lifecycle. Source document doc-021, action item 200012: > European Business Wallet: Enables businesses to manage national, cross-border, and EU regulatory requirements, notifications, and compliance processes in one unified, user-friendly digital platform, building on the Digital Wallet. [2025] - [Annual Enforcement and Implementation Progress Reports]() — status: ongoing. Annual Enforcement and Implementation Progress Reports provide the Council and European Parliament with updates on simplification, implementation and enforcement within each Commissioner's area of responsibility. The 2025 Annual Progress Reports cover 1st January to 31 July 2025. They address simplification and stress testing, implementation support, enforcement, progress made and concrete next steps across the Commission's portfolios. Source document doc-021, action item 200002: > Implementation Dialogues: Each Commissioner will host at least two stakeholder dialogues per year to assess progress and identify areas needing policy attention, with outcomes reported in annual enforcement and implementation progress reports. [from H1 2025] - [Reality Checks]() — status: ongoing. Reality Checks are hands-on diagnostics that bring Commission services to practitioners to test whether EU rules work in real life. Through targeted technical exchanges, teams identify hurdles in authorisations, permitting, control and compliance, capture good practices, and map where national transposition or “gold-plating” adds cost or fragmentation. Findings verify the assumptions behind legislation, quantify burdens and expected savings, and assess if planned simplifications are realistic. Results feed directly into evaluations and fitness checks, the gradual stress-test of the acquis, and the design of future simplification packages, ensuring evidence-based fixes and quicker, cheaper compliance without lowering standards. Source document doc-021, action item 200015: > Reality Checks: Hands-on exchanges with practitioners, particularly SMEs and small mid-caps, to verify the real-world assumptions underpinning EU legislation, identify practical hurdles, and feed findings into stress-testing and future simplification proposals. [from H1 2025] - [Reinforced SME and Competitiveness Checks]() — status: forthcoming. Will be mandatory for proposals with business impacts, combining a reinforced SME test with a sector-focused competitiveness lens. The check assesses four dimensions (i.e. cost/price effects, international competitiveness, innovation capacity, and specific SME impacts) and examines cumulative burdens across value chains. Findings will shape mitigation (e.g. lighter regimes, phased timing, digital-by-default delivery) and be transparently presented in impact assessments, with stronger analysis of indirect effects on SMEs. Fitness checks will also report on efficiency for SMEs. Results feed progress reports and a stress-test of the acquis, ensuring no new Single Market barriers and aligning rules with Europe’s overall growth agenda. Source document doc-021, action item 200016: > Reinforced SME and Competitiveness Checks: Systematic application of reinforced SME and competitiveness impact assessments to all legislation affecting companies, covering cost competitiveness, international position, innovation capacity, and cumulative sectoral effects, with stronger sector focus informed by the Draghi report. [from 2025] ## Current developments Latest updates from Digital Policy Alert and Global Trade Alert. No reviewed developments available; this does not establish that no developments exist. ## Associated policy priorities - [AI & Data Capabilities and Deployment]() - [Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment]() - [Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation]() - [Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation]() ## Broader policy context (shared priority; not a direct citation) - [Action Plan on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence]() — status: delivered. The action plan sets out measures to make advanced AI capabilities available for cybersecurity while addressing AI-enabled threats. It covers an EU evaluation capacity for AI models, structured access to advanced capabilities, secure testing, guidance, vulnerability management and training. It also proposes a pilot campaign on critical open-source resilience, an EU Grand Challenge for AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, and use of AI Factories' computing capacity for cyber resilience. - [AI Act Service Desk]() — status: not recorded. The Service Desk will be the EU’s single-entry helpdesk and information platform for AI Act compliance. Hosted by the AI Office, it will offer free, tailored guidance for companies and public authorities—especially SMEs—plus interactive self-assessment tools, decision trees, FAQs, templates and practical advice on obligations, risk classification, conformity assessment and documentation. It will also route users to national competent authorities and consolidate standards and best-practice resources so compliance is faster, cheaper and consistent across the Single Market. - [AI Factories]() — status: not recorded. Open, EU-wide hubs built around EuroHPC supercomputers that bundle AI-optimised compute, data storage, programming support and talent to develop frontier models and applications. Startups, SMEs, researchers and public bodies get streamlined one-stop access to computing time, data labs linked to Common European Data Spaces, and services for testing, validation and skills—cutting training from months to weeks and lowering costs. The first 13 Factories across 17 Member States are networked, with AI Factory Antennas extending reach. EuroHPC will provide a single entry point and procure AI-dedicated systems in 2025/26, tripling Europe’s available AI capacity. - [AI Factory Antennas]() — status: not recorded. Antennas will extend Europe’s AI compute to every region by giving Member States without local supercomputers a light-footprint node that offers remote access to the AI-optimised resources of a linked AI Factory in another country. They will plug into EuroHPC’s single entry point and common access policy, enabling streamlined allocation of compute and support services, with tailored fast tracks for startups, SMEs and selected EU projects. Antennas will interconnect with AI Factories, European Digital Innovation Hubs, Testing & Experimentation Facilities, and emerging Data Labs to deliver hands-on training, testing, and data services. All Antennas and Factories will be networked EU-wide for consistent access and support. - [AI Gigafactories]() — status: forthcoming. AI Gigafactories will give Europe frontier-scale compute to train state-of-the-art models. Each site will exceed 100,000 high-performance processors, be designed for energy and water efficiency and circularity, and be federated with EuroHPC’s AI Factories. Financing will blend public-private partnerships with the InvestAI Facility and an official EuroHPC call in Q4 2025. Facilities will co-locate data, training, safety and evaluation capabilities; provide shared access for startups, researchers and the public sector; and anchor regional skills pipelines. As a pilot for the Competitiveness Coordination Tool, they will crowd-in private capital, spur EU AI-chip design ahead of the 2026 Chips Act review, and secure sovereign AI capacity. - [AI Pact]() — status: forthcoming. The AI Pact is a voluntary preparatory framework for organisations ahead of the AI Act's implementation. Its first pillar convenes stakeholders to exchange experience, best practices and information through the AI Office. Its second invites providers and deployers to publish pledges covering actions and timelines, including governance, mapping likely high-risk systems, and staff awareness and literacy. Pledges are not legally binding and impose no legal obligations. - [Apply AI Alliance]() — status: not recorded. Apply AI Alliance is the strategy's main coordination forum, bringing together AI providers, industry leaders, academia and the public sector so policy action reflects real-world needs. The wider Apply AI Strategy seeks to increase AI adoption and innovation, particularly among SMEs, support an 'AI first' approach, and promote a 'buy European' approach in the public sector. Its sectoral measures cover 10 key industries and public services, alongside support through Experience Centres for AI, AI Factories, testing facilities and regulatory sandboxes. - [Apply AI Strategy]() — status: delivered. The Strategy adopts an “AI-first” approach to accelerate adoption across flagship sectors (including health, robotics, manufacturing, defence/space, mobility, telecoms, energy, environment, agri-food, and culture/media) backed by around €1 billion from EU programmes to catalyse deployment. It tackles cross-cutting barriers by turning EDIHs into AI Experience Centres for SMEs, building frontier capabilities via a new Frontier AI initiative, and providing clear, practical support for AI Act compliance through guidance and a Service Desk. Governance is unified through an Apply AI Alliance and an AI Observatory to set KPIs and monitor impact, complemented by the AI in Science and Data Union strategies. - [Common European Data Spaces]() — status: not recorded. Will provide trusted, interoperable environments for cross-sector and cross-border data use, turning today’s fragmented datasets into high-value shared resources for businesses and public administrations. Linked tightly to Data Labs, they will offer services such as dataset cleaning and enrichment, standardised formats, synthetic data, shared technical building blocks, and cross-space interoperability to accelerate AI development and deployment. Antitrust-compliant data pooling will be enabled via trusted data intermediaries and governance under the EU data framework, lowering barriers for SMEs while protecting confidentiality and security. A common software layer (e.g. SIMPL) will simplify access and reuse across spaces, strengthening Europe’s AI ecosystem and data economy. - [Data Labs]() — status: not recorded. Embedded in the AI Factories ecosystem, Data Labs will federate datasets and link them to the relevant Common European Data Spaces, giving developers a single, trusted entry point to high-value data. They will provide AI developers with large volumes of high-quality data in health, energy and other domains under clear access conditions and governance. Beyond brokerage, they will offer value-added services: dataset cleaning and enrichment; standardised formats; synthetic data; and shared technical building blocks that strengthen interoperability across sectors and borders, with data-pooling compliant with competition rules via trusted intermediaries under the Data Governance Act. The Commission’s Simpl software will lower integration costs and expand participation. - [Digital Europe Programme 2025-2027]() — status: not recorded. Digital Europe funds projects that move digital technology from research towards market deployment, with a focus on supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors, advanced digital skills and wider use of digital technologies. The programme supports the EU's green and digital objectives, resilience and digital sovereignty. It is intended to benefit citizens and businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, through direct and indirect management. - [Digital Omnibus on AI]() — status: in progress. The Digital Omnibus on AI proposes changes to simplify implementation of the AI Act while maintaining protections for health, safety and fundamental rights. It responds to delayed standards, guidance and national authorities that could raise compliance costs for high-risk AI systems. The proposal would link the application of certain high-risk obligations to the availability of measures that support compliance, and would also amend EU aviation-safety rules. - [Digital Omnibus on Data]() — status: in progress. The Commission will table a simplification package to cut compliance costs in the digital acquis while preserving protections. It will rationalise data rules (i.e. DGA, Free Flow of Non-Personal Data, Open Data), modernise cookie/tracking provisions to curb consent fatigue, and streamline overlapping cybersecurity incident reporting, with targeted adjustments to ensure predictable application of the AI Act. It will also clarify obligations under the European Digital Identity framework and align with the forthcoming Business Wallet, applying ‘one-in, one-out’. A Digital Fitness Check will assess cumulative effects and cross-border fragmentation. - [European AI Observatory]() — status: not recorded. The European AI Observatory is one of the governance measures in the Commission's Apply AI Strategy, adopted on 8 October 2025. The Commission says it will set up an AI Observatory to provide indicators to assess the impact of AI in the sectors covered by the strategy and in future sectors, to monitor developments and trends, and to follow the changes AI may bring to the labour market. The Observatory will also support the organisation of sectoral discussions and will be used for political analysis and decision making, as well as for informing the AI community and the broader public about recent developments in the field. The Commission adds that, based on the monitoring activities, it will make a proposal, in the context of the Digital Decade, for a public and private AI investment target. - [Experience Centres for AI (EDIHs)]() — status: not recorded. The network of European Digital Innovation Hubs will be transformed into AI Experience Centres, covering 85 % of European regions and fully integrated with the AI Factories ecosystem. These centres will provide companies and public administrations with hands-on access to computing power, high-quality data, testing and experimentation environments, regulatory sandboxes, and tailored training. By linking AI deployment directly to Europe’s supercomputing and data infrastructure, the Experience Centres will accelerate the uptake of AI across sectors, foster innovation in strategic industries, and ensure that European businesses can test, scale, and adopt AI solutions under trusted conditions - [Frontier AI Initiative]() — status: not recorded. The Frontier AI Initiative is announced in the Commission's Apply AI Strategy, adopted on 8 October 2025, in the section on supporting AI as a production factor. The Commission says it will launch and coordinate a Frontier AI Initiative to accelerate progress in frontier AI capabilities in Europe by bringing together Europe's leading industrial and academic actors and supporting strategic efforts. The initiative will focus on unlocking advanced capabilities through cutting-edge AI architectures and high-quality data, using the computing capacity offered by the AI Factories and Gigafactories. Alongside it, the Commission says it will launch major EU-wide competitions to develop open frontier AI models, and that these projects will receive free access to EuroHPC supercomputers. The strategy does not give the initiative a dedicated budget or name the body that will administer it. - [GenAI4EU]() — status: not recorded. Will scale Europe’s generative-AI capacity through targeted R&I and deployment across sectors. Around €700 million in Horizon Europe and Digital Europe calls will fund advanced models and solutions (e.g. to optimise manufacturing lines, improve robot autonomy and human-robot collaboration, strengthen cyber-defence, and enhance medical imaging) while up to four public-sector pilots will accelerate adoption by improving decision-making, streamlining processes, and making services more accessible. Building on the AI Innovation Package and the AI Continent Action Plan, the calls in Q1 2026 will prioritise high-impact uses and innovation procurement to crowd-in private investment and translate research outputs into market-ready solutions. - [InvestAI]() — status: not recorded. The program will mobilise €200 billion to scale Europe’s AI capacity through a layered public-private fund that de-risks private capital with the EU budget and national co-financing. It will finance four AI gigafactories each with around 100,000 latest-generation AI chips, creating the world’s largest PPP for trustworthy AI and giving startups and industry broad access to compute. Initial EU contributions will come from Digital Europe, Horizon Europe and InvestEU, with cohesion funding from Member States. InvestAI complements the €10 billion AI Factories programme and serves as a pilot for strategic-technology financing under the Competitiveness Compass. - [Special Envoy for Industrial AI]() — status: not recorded. On 3 June 2026 the Commission appointed Jim Hagemann Snabe as Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence. The Commission says he will advise President Ursula von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen on industrial AI. His advisory role covers the entire industrial AI ecosystem, with a particular focus on AI infrastructure, including data centres, high-performance computing and the semiconductor supply chains, together with foundational AI technologies such as large language models, generative AI and cloud services, and AI applications across industrial sectors. The Special Envoy is to deliver a report on industrial AI that the Commission describes as evidence-based and forward-looking, with actionable recommendations aimed at strengthening Europe's digital sovereignty. Mr Hagemann Snabe holds the status of a non-remunerated Special Adviser until 31 March 2027 and will suspend his membership of the Google Cloud advisory board and the C3.ai board during the mandate. - [Competitiveness Coordination Tool (CCT)]() — status: not recorded. The Competitiveness Coordination Tool joins the EU, Member States and industry to deploy major investment projects and pursue reforms supporting strategic value chains. Current projects range from AI Gigafactories and clean-transport corridors to batteries, energy connections, chemicals, med-biotech, bio-based materials, offsite construction, circularity hubs and advanced chips. Examples include €20 billion being mobilised for AI Gigafactories and €10 million of initial EU funding for the European Med-Biotech Accelerator. The Tool is testing a new way to coordinate investment across Member States. - [Definition of Innovative Enterprises, Startups and Scaleups]() — status: delivered. The Commission will propose a harmonised EU definition of startups, scaleups and innovative companies, building on existing SME and new small-mid cap (SMC) categories to ensure coherence across policies and datasets. This closes today’s patchwork of national and programme-specific definitions that hinders measurement and targeted support. The common taxonomy will underpin a European Startup & Scaleup Scoreboard and KPIs, enable tailored financing and simplification measures, and align eligibility across EU instruments and Member State schemes. It complements the Single Market Strategy’s formal SMC definition so high-growth companies can benefit from rules as they scale across borders. - [EU Antitrust Procedural Rules Reform]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will revise Regulation (EU) 1/2003 and its implementing act to make antitrust enforcement faster, digital-ready, coherent. Options include stand-alone data-preservation orders; inspection powers covering all business records regardless of storage; the ability to summon individuals; streamlined interim measures and time-bound commitment proceedings; and a modernised access-to-file regime via confidentiality-bound external advisors. The review may harmonise complainant and third-party participation and strengthen coordination where Member States use stricter unilateral-conduct laws, safeguarding single-market consistency. The initiative seeks effective application of Articles 101/102 while reducing administrative burden, incorporating case law, and clarifying rules. - [European Competitiveness Fund (ECF)]() — status: in progress. The EU’s investment engine for 2028–2034 will consolidate 14 programmes under a single rulebook and access point to back projects from research to scale-up, deployment and manufacturing. It will operate through four policy windows—clean transition, digital leadership, health/biotech/bioeconomy, and resilience/security/defence/space—and mobilise the full EU financial toolbox, including an ECF InvestEU instrument, alongside project advisory and SME services. The Fund’s indicative envelope is €234.3 billion, with Horizon Europe tightly connected for a seamless journey from idea to market. Overall, the ECF de-risks private capital, cuts fragmentation, and accelerates high-impact investments with EU value added. - [European Innovation Investment Pact]() — status: forthcoming. The Pact will mobilise long-term institutional capital for Europe’s most innovative companies and funds. In coordination with the EIB Group, the Commission will convene pension funds, insurers and other asset owners to make voluntary allocations to EU funds-of-funds, venture capital vehicles and direct investments in unlisted scaleups. Commitments will be benchmarked, transparent and aligned with strategic technologies, complementing InvestEU, the EIC and the Scale-Up Europe Fund. The Pact will drive pan-European deployment, crowd-in private capital through de-risking structures, and deepen capital markets by expanding late-stage equity supply and patient growth finance. - [European VC Funds Regulation Reform]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission is preparing a review of the European Venture Capital Funds (EuVECA) Regulation as part of its savings and investments union strategy, with adoption envisaged later in 2026. In January 2026 it opened two consultations, a targeted one for fund managers, businesses, investors and public authorities and a public one, seeking feedback on the obstacles faced by EU venture and growth capital funds and on possible measures to address them. Both consultations remained open until 12 March 2026. The Commission says it is also considering a possible broader policy initiative beyond the EuVECA framework, which would cover a wider range of venture and growth capital fund managers. It says the feedback will inform its policy work on venture and growth capital funds, which it links to the savings and investments union and to the EU startup and scaleup strategy. - [General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) Review]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will overhaul the GBER to cut red tape and streamline compatibility conditions while preserving a level playing field. The review fixes textual inconsistencies, updates definitions, and reflects new priorities (i.e. social-economy finance, training/employment aid, and SGEI/affordable housing) to ease use by SMEs, start-ups and granting authorities. It will reduce notifications, improve readability, and give Member States more design flexibility, with transparency and monitoring maintained. As the current GBER expires end-2026, the revision will also prolong its application. - [InvestEU Amendment (Omnibus II)]() — status: not recorded. Lifts the EU guarantee by EUR 2.5 billion, provisioned from EFSI surpluses and reflows, to mobilise EUR 25 billion. It is paired with extended combinations of legacy instruments and targets EUR 50 billion additional investment in this MFF. It adds an InvestEU financial instrument under the Member State compartment, enabling funded equity and deployment in non-euro currencies, and encourages swift national transfers. Simplifications reduce reporting and adjust SME rules, delivering EUR 350 million in cost savings. The extra capacity will back higher-risk equity, debt and guarantees for Clean Industrial Deal priorities (i.e. clean-tech manufacturing, grids and energy infrastructure, clean mobility, and recycling) including a Clean Tech Guarantee Facility via the EIB Group. - [Lab to Unicorn Package]() — status: not recorded. The Lab to Unicorn Initiative will turn Europe’s scientific excellence into scaled companies. From 2026, the Commission will back a network of leading university-rooted startup and scale-up hubs to collaborate across borders, opening shared access to services, infrastructures and corporate demand. A common blueprint will standardise licensing, royalty/revenue-sharing and equity models for universities and inventors, while capacity-building strengthens technology-transfer offices and embeds venture-builder roles in research organisations and universities. The Initiative will issue guidance on State-aid and IP rules so public institutions can grant IP and infrastructure access lawfully. Together, these measures compress time-to-market and raise Europe’s scale-up success rate. - [Merger Guidelines Review]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will modernise the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines to reflect dynamic, innovation-driven competition and Europe’s strategic needs. The review will better weigh innovation, resilience, investment intensity in strategic sectors; recognise supply-chain security and scale economies where relevant; and clarify treatment of ecosystem and data-driven effects. The update will codify recent case law and practice, streamline evidence standards, and provide faster procedures, including clearer safe harbours and remedies guidance. While preserving a level playing field, the revised approach will align merger control with the competitiveness agenda, closing the innovation gap, enabling efficient European scale, and supporting decarbonisation. - [Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-34]() — status: not recorded. The Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028-2034 is the Commission's proposal for the next long-term EU budget, presented on 16 July 2025. The Commission proposes a budget of almost €2 trillion, or 1.26% of the average EU gross national income between 2028 and 2034. It says the budget would invest in people, EU countries and regions, drive prosperity through competitiveness, research and innovation, protect people and build preparedness and resilience, build partnerships for a stronger Europe in the world, and bring in new own resources. The Commission says the design includes more flexibility across the budget, national and regional partnership plans, and simpler, more streamlined and harmonised EU financial programmes. The framework will run for seven years and should come into force in January 2028. The proposal is being negotiated with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before final adoption. - [New Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI)]() — status: ongoing. Important Projects of Common European Interest enable Member States to fund cross-border innovation and infrastructure projects with benefits for the Union, the internal market and society. They bring public and private sectors together on large-scale projects that address market or systemic failures and societal challenges. Member States define the scope, select participating companies and projects, and fund them from national budgets. The Commission provides guidance and assesses proposals, while the Joint European Forum supports discussion of possible future IPCEIs. - [Public Procurement Act]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will overhaul the EU procurement framework to make public spending a strategic lever for competitiveness, security and innovation. The revision will enable sustainability, resilience and European-preference criteria in strategic sectors, while staying consistent with EU and international commitments. It will simplify and digitise procedures, embed once-only data reuse, curb overspecification, and promote innovation-friendly tools (e.g. outcome-based/R&D purchases, clearer IP clauses). Rules will be consolidated across legislation to ease use by all administrations and open tenders to startups and SMEs. Defence and security procurement will be modernised and cross-border aggregation strengthened to create lead markets and scale. - [Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines]() — status: not recorded. The Commission will recalibrate state-aid rules so viable startups and scaleups can access temporary support without being misclassified as “undertakings in difficulty.” The review will update static financial tests that penalise high-growth, R&D-intensive firms, clarify eligibility, and enable bridge financing, liquidity support or restructuring aid where appropriate. Safeguards against propping up non-viable firms will remain, with stronger proportionality, time-limits and burden-sharing. Clearer guidance for universities and research organisations complements the effort, reducing uncertainty when IP or infrastructure is involved. The reform removes unintended barriers to growth while preserving a level playing field. - [Savings and Investment Account (SIA)]() — status: not recorded. Savings and Investment Accounts are presented as a voluntary route for individuals to invest alongside everyday bank or savings accounts. They may hold shares, bonds or funds, use simple tax rules and offer tax benefits. The Commission encourages Member States to establish or improve these accounts, while regulated providers must operate within EU investor-protection rules and give clear, comprehensible product information. - [Savings and Investments Union (SIU)]() — status: in progress. The Savings and Investments Union programme seeks to increase retail participation, channel savings into productive investment and strengthen EU capital markets. It includes a blueprint and tax recommendation for savings and investment accounts, a financial-literacy strategy, pension measures and measures on institutional equity investment. Further work covers venture and growth capital, cross-border investment barriers, trading and post-trading rules, supervision, banking integration and a mid-term review. - [Scaleup Europe Fund]() — status: not recorded. A market-based, privately managed vehicle deployed via the EIC Fund to bridge Europe’s late-stage equity gap for deep-tech scaleups. It will mobilise substantial private capital and make direct equity investments in strategic sectors (i.e. AI, quantum, advanced semiconductors, biotech, clean tech, defence and space) reinforcing technological sovereignty and economic security. Operating without prejudice to the next MFF, the Fund will coordinate closely with InvestEU and complement the European Tech Champions Initiative (including ETCI 2.0), alongside EIB Group instruments. By tackling fragmented capital markets and financing needs with ticket sizes above €100 million, it will help Europe retain and scale its most promising companies. - [TechEU Investment Programme 2026]() — status: not recorded. The Commission, together with the EIB Group and private investors, will deploy TechEU to close Europe’s late-stage financing gap for disruptive innovators, using debt, equity and quasi-equity delivered directly and via financial intermediaries. It targets scale-ups in AI, clean tech, critical raw materials, energy storage, quantum, semiconductors, life sciences and neurotechnology, complementing InvestEU and the Clean Industrial Deal. TechEU will also support exit pathways and late-growth rounds, and anchor a deeper pan-European market through ETCI 2.0 to crowd-in institutional capital. The programme aims to build industrial capacity, de-risk strategic projects and mobilise significant private investment at scale. - [Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER)]() — status: not recorded. The Commission is revising the TTBER and accompanying Guidelines to modernise EU rules for IP licensing and speed the diffusion of innovation. The draft updates clarify market-share safe harbours (including a longer grace period), address data licensing, strengthen soft safe-harbours for technology pools, and introduce guidance for licensing negotiation groups, alongside updated case-law on settlements and no-challenge clauses. The aim is greater legal certainty for pro-competitive collaboration (especially in data- and AI-intensive sectors) while safeguarding competition. - [Action Plan against Cyberbullying]() — status: delivered. The Commission will present a comprehensive EU approach to prevent, detect and respond to cyberbullying, with a primary focus on minors and youth. It will set a common EU definition, promote national strategies and focal points (e.g. trusted flaggers), and prioritise vulnerable groups including girls and women, LGBTIQ youth, migrants and persons with disabilities. Actions span prevention and digital well-being, safer product design, streamlined reporting and takedown (scaling good practices like France’s App 3018), victim support, and proportionate responses to perpetrators. Delivery will leverage and enforce the DSA, BIK+ and victims/VAW directives, with progress monitored through Safer Internet Centres, BIK policy reports and DSA enforcement. - [AVMSD Revision]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will run the AVMSD ex-post evaluation under Article 33 by 19 December 2026, followed, where appropriate, by proposals to review the Directive. Council conclusions (May 2025) suggested key reform priorities: clarify scope (incl. influencers/professional creators), ensure coherent interplay with DSA/EMFA, strengthen protection of minors and rules for VSPs, safeguard prominence/access to general-interest content and major events, and improve cross-border enforcement through the new European Board for Media Services. The exercise should keep the Single Market as the anchor (country-of-origin), avoid overlapping obligations, and de-risk regulatory fragmentation via clear definitions and digital-by-default, once-only procedures. - [Circular Economy Act (CEA)]() — status: forthcoming. The Act will create a true Single Market for waste and secondary raw materials, boosting supply and demand for quality recyclates at competitive prices. It will harmonise end-of-waste criteria, simplify and expand extended producer responsibility (including a one-stop producer registry), and revise e-waste rules to recover critical materials, while aligning with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products framework. Public procurement criteria, incentives for scrap use, and digitalised demolition permits will accelerate circular design and recycling. Strong enforcement—including for e-commerce channels—will ensure compliance. - [Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation (CPCR) Reform]() — status: forthcoming. The Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation provides a framework for national authorities to work together on cross-border breaches of consumer rules. The authorities can seek information from domain registrars and banks, use mystery shopping, and order the immediate removal of websites hosting scams. The Commission coordinates cooperation and can coordinate EU-wide action, while authorities may accept business commitments to correct practices and provide remedies and compensation. - [Digital Fairness Act (DFA)]() — status: forthcoming. Based on a fitness check of EU consumer law in 2024, the Commission plans to propose a Digital Fairness Act that curbs manipulative design (“dark patterns”), addictive features and subscription traps; clarifies rules for influencer and AI-driven marketing; strengthens protections for minors; and streamlines information duties so consumers face less overload and can cancel easily. Options include amending the Unfair Commercial Practices and Consumer Rights directives or proposing a new regulation, ensuring coherence with the DSA, DMA and the AI Act. It will drive harmonised, high-impact enforcement with clear duties for platforms and advertisers, easy redress for consumers, and deterrent penalties. - [e-Declaration for the Posting of Workers]() — status: in progress. The proposed e-Declaration would create a voluntary multilingual public interface linked to the Internal Market Information System for posting-worker declarations. Participating host Member States could require service providers from other Member States to use a standard electronic form, with data transferred automatically to national authorities. The proposal aims to reduce administrative burden, improve administrative cooperation and inspections, and support protection of posted workers' rights without changing the underlying posting framework. - [E-commerce Toolbox]() — status: delivered. The E-commerce Toolbox combines customs, product-safety, consumer, digital and market-surveillance measures for online retail. It calls for progress on customs reform and proposes controls on imports shipped directly to consumers, coordinated enforcement and safety actions. The Commission also plans action on product passports, interoperable enforcement databases, web crawlers, marketplace cooperation, consumer awareness, professional training, cooperation with countries of origin and investigation of possible dumping or illegal subsidisation. - [Energy Labelling Omnibus]() — status: in progress. On 24 June 2026 the Commission proposed a regulation simplifying the EU rules on energy labelling and tyre labelling, one of its omnibus simplification packages. The Commission says the simplified rules will make requirements easier for suppliers and retailers of home appliances, electronic devices and tyres, while ensuring that consumers still receive the information they need when buying a product. The proposal keeps the energy labelling framework, which the Commission says has proven effective in reducing energy use, and streamlines the rules to make them easier to apply, cut costs and facilitate enforcement. It widens digital options, such as electronic shelf displays, a QR code in related documentation or on the product, and displaying the label as part of the contractual offer. The Commission estimates administrative savings of up to €125 million annually over the next 10 years. Some newer labels, including those for smartphones, will also give information on durability and repairability. - [EU Action Plan on Online Fraud]() — status: forthcoming. The EU Action Plan on Online Fraud is a forthcoming Commission initiative announced in the 2030 Consumer Agenda and action plan for consumers in the single market, adopted on 19 November 2025. The Commission says online fraud schemes are among the fastest growing crimes online and are causing significant harm to consumers. To strengthen the ability to combat online fraud in the EU, it will publish an action plan on online fraud. Its goals will include boosting prevention measures, making law enforcement action more effective and strengthening support for fraud victims in recovering their funds. The Consumer Agenda does not give a date for the action plan's publication. - [EU Digital Travel Application]() — status: in progress. The EU Digital Travel application would let travellers create a digital travel credential and submit travel data for checks before reaching an external border. The proposal aims to reduce bottlenecks while helping border authorities verify documents, identity and security risks in advance. It provides for single or repeated use, secure validation against the travel document's chip and possible storage in the European Digital Identity Wallet. - [EU Inc. – 28th Regime]() — status: in progress. It will create an optional, EU-wide corporate framework—digital by default—to let innovative firms set up, operate, and raise capital seamlessly across borders. The proposal may rely on TFEU Article 352 or a harmonised national form via Articles 50/114, with a progressive, modular design. It targets 48-hour incorporation and “once-only” data sharing via BRIS, EUID, and an EU Company Certificate, leveraging the European Business Wallet. Investment-friendly options under consideration include simpler capital increases, flexible share classes, and standard private-equity terms. Complementing the European Innovation Act, it cuts failure costs, fragmentation, and compliance burdens. - [European Product Act (EPA)]() — status: forthcoming. The European Product Act would update three parts of EU product law: the new legislative framework of product rules, market surveillance and compliance, and standardisation. The Commission work programme 2026 schedules the legislative measures for Q3 2026. It cites Article 114 TFEU for the framework and standardisation updates, and Articles 33 and 114 TFEU for market surveillance and compliance. - [MDR/IVDR Reform]() — status: in progress. The MDR/IVDR reform proposal seeks a leaner, less costly framework for medical devices and in vitro diagnostic devices while retaining a high level of patient health protection. It would improve oversight and coordination of notified bodies, widen the expertise and advisory role of expert panels, and provide further support through the European Medicines Agency. The proposal also aims to improve the single market and reduce risks of device shortages. - [Multimodal Digital Mobility Services]() — status: in progress. The proposed Regulation on multimodal booking aims to make it easier for travellers to search for, compare, combine and book travel options across transport modes. It would set common requirements for multimodal digital mobility services, including neutral display and ranking, marketing-information data, emissions information and certain data sharing. The proposal excludes SMEs from its scope, repeals the computerised-reservation-systems code of conduct, and provides for national enforcement, complaints, penalties, monitoring and reporting. - [One Europe, One Market Roadmap]() — status: delivered. The Commission will set milestones to finish the Single Market where it matters most (i.e. capital, services, energy and telecoms) while advancing a 28th regime and a ‘fifth freedom’ for knowledge and innovation. The roadmap will tackle the “Terrible Ten” barriers, codify digital-by-default procedures, and use the Competitiveness Coordination Tool to align national reforms and EU investment. A delivery scoreboard will track progress, backed by faster infringement action and “once-only” data sharing for firms. Measures include deepening the Capital Markets/Savings & Investment Union, grid and interconnector build-out, the Digital Networks Act, and service-sector opening, turning commitments into measurable outcomes. - [Single Digital Booking and Ticketing]() — status: in progress. The Commission will propose an EU framework enabling passengers to buy a single ticket for cross-border rail journeys across multiple operators, with passengers’ rights applying across the whole trip. It will mandate interoperable data and open, non-discriminatory APIs for schedules, fares and reservation systems; ensure through-ticketing, real-time disruption information and seamless refunds/re-routing; and set governance for liability, revenue settlement and dispute resolution. The initiative complements paperless mobility actions and aims to make rail a convenient, default choice for long-distance travel while boosting tourism and Single Market integration. - [Single Market Barriers Prevention Act]() — status: forthcoming. The EU will move from reacting to fragmentation to preventing it at source. Building on the Single Market Strategy, the Act would systematise ex-ante screening of draft national measures, reinforce notification/transparency obligations, and require Member States to self-assess EU-law compliance before adoption, curbing “gold-plating.” It would hard-wire a competitiveness/SME check for significant amendments, introduce rapid-reaction deadlines to fix non-compliant rules, and align agencies and regulators to ensure uniform application. Annual progress reporting and more decisive infringement where needed will anchor accountability, complemented by a shift to digital-by-default administration and a “1-in, 27-out” simplification ethos to keep new barriers from emerging. - [A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook]() — status: delivered. The Commission's communication seeks to make EU law easier to design, implement and enforce, with a strategic focus on the single market. It introduces simplicity by design, more focused impact assessments, clearer access to legislation, realistic implementation deadlines and digital drafting and acquis-management tools. It also calls for enforcement to be considered in legal design and accompanies these measures with an Action Plan for Regulatory Deep Cleaning. - [Better Regulation Guidelines Update]() — status: forthcoming. Just like the EU’s rules, its better regulation framework must be simplified to enable a simpler and faster Europe. The Commission will therefore apply a more rigorous and structured application of the proportionality principle in better regulation and put forward a communication to that effect in the first half of 2026. - [EU Treaty Change]() — status: ongoing. To equip a larger, more contested Union, the Commission will pursue institutional reforms, up to targeted Treaty changes where they clearly improve capacity to act and democratic accountability. It couples faster, simpler law-making with rigorous implementation: stress-testing the acquis, reducing administrative burdens, and renewing an interinstitutional pact on better lawmaking. Each Commissioner will hold biannual implementation dialogues and publish annual progress reports, while enforcement against Single Market fragmentation is stepped up. The objective is a Union that legislates less and delivers more so Europe can decide and act at the speed today’s challenges demand. - [European Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification]() — status: not recorded. The Commissioner will lead a whole-of-Commission drive to make EU rules simpler, faster and better enforced. The agenda prioritises early implementation strategies with Member States, hands-on “reality checks” with practitioners, and twice-yearly implementation dialogues in every portfolio feeding annual progress reports and resolute enforcement against fragmentation and gold-plating. New quantified targets will cut recurring administrative costs by at least 25% (35% for SMEs), underpinned by omnibus simplification packages, streamlined permitting, and digital-by-default delivery. A rolling stress-test of the entire acquis will consolidate and clarify rules; reinforced SME/competitiveness checks, proportionate use of delegated/implementing acts, and digital tools (such as a European Business Wallet and once-only interoperability) will lower costs and speed compliance. - [Greater Focus on the Subsidiarity and Proportionality Principles]() — status: ongoing. This measure is part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026, under the heading of regulatory discipline. The Commission says that regulatory discipline is a means to ensure that the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are applied consistently in EU law, so that the Union can focus its efforts and resources on areas where EU-level action is necessary, brings the most added value and is proportionate. It says the same discipline must apply when laying down implementing rules, to prevent EU legislation from becoming too long, complex and costly. In upcoming legislative proposals the Commission will seek to propose only well-designed empowerments for delegated and implementing acts which are strictly necessary to implement and enforce EU rules or international obligations. It calls on the European Parliament and the Council to apply the same discipline throughout the legislative process. - [Innovation Stress Test for Member States]() — status: forthcoming. The proposed innovation stress test would examine legislation while it is being prepared or revised, with the aim of making the regulatory framework more innovation-friendly. It forms part of the planned European Innovation Act, which seeks cross-sectoral conditions for bringing innovative ideas to market. The Act is intended to address commercialisation, collaboration, market access, finance, talent, infrastructure, procurement, regulatory sandboxes and coordination of national and EU policies. - [More strategic Enforcement against Non-Implementation and unlawful Gold-Plating]() — status: ongoing. This measure forms part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026. The Commission defines gold-plating as a Member State introducing, when transposing or implementing EU law, a wider scope, stricter rules or obligations that go beyond the EU legal act. It says it will work with Member States on a toolkit of best practices and criteria to identify and avoid gold-plating, support them during transposition of directives, use implementation dialogues, reality checks and the European Semester to detect gold-plating, and take the risk into account when drafting proposals. On non-implementation, the Commission notes that in 2025 almost 70% of new infringement procedures stemmed from late transposition. Where a Member State notifies no transposition measure, it will as a rule issue a reasoned opinion within six months of the letter of formal notice, and it will be systematically more stringent in calculating the penalties it proposes to the Court. - [Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan]() — status: not recorded. The Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan aims to address inconsistencies, outdated, overlapping and redundant provisions, as well as overly complex rules that may hinder competitiveness and innovation. The Commission identifies priority areas including goods and services, financial services, customs, taxation, health and food safety, agriculture, transport, energy, climate, environment, digital matters, housing and permitting. It accompanies wider measures on simpler lawmaking and stronger implementation and enforcement. - [Review of National and European Agencies]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will audit mandates, governance and resources of Single Market authorities to eliminate overlap, gaps and conflicting procedures. The review will benchmark performance, map workflows, and propose consolidation, clarified competences, interoperable IT, joint inspections and mutual recognition of decisions. It will align agency tasks with the ‘Terrible Ten’ barrier agenda and forthcoming Omnibus simplifications, reducing compliance friction for SMEs and small mid-caps. Deliverables include a reform blueprint and actions to streamline supervision in priority sectors. Expected outcomes: accountability, faster enforcement, consistent interpretation of EU law, lower costs, and improved consumer protection. - [Simplification Platform (High-Level Expert Group)]() — status: not recorded. Simplification Platform will advise the Commission on reducing unnecessary burdens and modernising EU law across national, regional and local application. It will examine gold-plating that can fragment the single market, encourage coordination on simplification, consider digital solutions to reduce red tape, particularly for SMEs, and assess legislative complexity and density. The Platform comprises individual experts, Member States, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, supporting the Better Regulation agenda. - [Well-timed evaluation clauses and the use of sunset clauses]() — status: ongoing. This measure is part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026, in the section on future-proof and adaptive regulation. The Commission says EU and national rules must leave room to adapt to rapid technological and geopolitical change, and that it will ensure rules are re-examined and updated where necessary. It says it will use sunset clauses where appropriate so that laws lapse on a specified future date. Used together with well-timed monitoring and evaluation clauses, the Commission says, sunset clauses can help prevent the unnecessary proliferation of rules and reporting requirements and ensure that laws that are no longer relevant do not linger on the statute books. It adds that the language used for sunset, monitoring and evaluation clauses will be standardised and harmonised. The communication gives no implementation date for this measure. --- [Reading guide and interpretation notes]() · [Methodology]()