Written by Isabelle Gaudeul-Ehrhart.
At the beginning of a new year and, from an institutional perspective, of a new mandate, what should we focus on and understand to navigate the coming months? Out of so many competing issues on Parliament’s agenda, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) selected 10 for closer examination.
The event was introduced by Jutta Schulze-Hollmen, Director at EPRS. She highlighted that if there is a tendency to consider every year as a special year, it is certainly not less the case in 2025. In these challenging times, she pointed to some notes of hope in the publication. Lasse Boehm, Head of the Economic Policies Unit, EPRS, moderated the event. He guided the audience through a 10-stage journey, starting with economic issues, zooming in on a few sectoral issues, and then zooming out again to look at the financial means to address the challenges, ending with the overarching issue of trust.
Martin Hoflmayr introduced the challenge of balancing scale with innovation for productivity. Liselotte Jensen explained what is as stake when it comes to setting the 2040 climate target. Marcin Szczepanski helped the audience understand what is behind the emerging concept of ‘European economic security’ – an issue complemented by Sebastian Clapp‘s talk on strengthening the European defence industry.
With the scene now set, the event focused on three sectoral policies: Maria Niestadt on helping the EU compete on artificial intelligence, Mathias Gullentops on European electric cars, and Costica Dumbrava on speeding up the return of irregular migrants.
The question of how to finance these challenges was addressed by Marianna Pari, who explored what it takes to shape the EU’s future finances. Alessandro D’Alfonso then discussed the need to strengthen capacity to invest in the future.
Naja Bentzen concluded the series of issues by addressing the all-important issue of trust.
After a time for audience questions and policy analysts’ answers and comments, Vice-President Victor Negrescu closed the event. He started by paying tribute to the work of EPRS policy analysts, pleased that such an event could give their back-stage work more visibility. Commenting on various issues from the publication, he concluded with thoughts on the growing need for democracy and on Europe’s potential to rise to the challenges.
The recording will be available soon.
Read the complete in-depth analysis on ‘Ten issues to watch in 2025‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
The central task of the Members Research Service is to ensure that all Members of the European Parliament are provided with analysis of, and research on, policy issues relating to the European Union, in order to assist them in their parliamentary work.