Focus on… policy

Two key policy documents outline the EU’s plans for the next five years and for 2025:

Competitiveness Compass
2025 Work Programme
Clean Industrial Deal
Circular Economy Act, including WEEE recast

Competitiveness Compass

Published in January, the Competitiveness Compass is a new roadmap to restore Europe’s dynamism and boost economic growth.

The Compass builds on the analysis of Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European competitiveness and provides a strategic framework to drive the Commission’s work during this new mandate.

2025 Work Programme

On 11 February, the Commission also released its 2025 Work Programme, outlining the legislative and non-legislative initiatives for the year. The main themes include regulatory simplification to boost competitiveness.

The first legislative proposal, the Simplification Omnibus, was published on 26 February and targets a 25% reduction in corporate sustainability reporting and supply chain transparency obligations.

It aims to alleviate administrative burdens, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enhancing their operational efficiency.

Clean Industrial Deal

The Clean Industrial Deal, which was announced in the Commission’s 2025 work plan, was also published on 26 February, and aims to marry climate and competitiveness under one overarching industrial strategy for the coming five years.

One of the key measures announced in the Clean Industrial Deal is a new Circular Economy Act, planned for Q4 2026.

Circular Economy Act, including WEEE recast

The Circular Economy Act will aim to:

• enable the free movement of circular products, secondary raw materials and waste
• introduce measures to foster a higher supply of high quality recyclates, and
• stimulate demand for secondary materials and circular products

The Act will be based on three main pillars:

• a revision of the Waste Framework Directive (WFD)
• an amendment to the Landfill Directive, and
• a recast of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive

Under the revision of the WFD, the EU aims to:

• simplify the transition of materials from waste to secondary raw materials, making it easier to recover and reuse resources, and
• harmonise and expand extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems, incorporating digital tools for better waste management

Through the revision of the WEEE Directive, which is now expected in Q4 2026 as an element of the Circular Economy Act, the EU Commission wants to:

• create a European market for critical secondary raw materials from recycling and recovery
• expand the scope of instruments for the green and digital transition, and
• harmonise EPR systems

Supporting actions will include improved circularity of scrap metal and industrial policy measures, and a streamlined regulatory framework with reduced administrative burdens.