Good morning, everyone.
Apologies for my late arrival due to a lively debate on the 2025 Commission Work Programme which ran over time.
This Commission Work Programme is our first under the current mandate and is a vital document with a clear message: we cannot carry on with business as usual.
We have translated the Political Guidelines of President von der Leyen into concrete plans for initiatives to be tabled this year.
We also set the political tone for our work over the next five years, considering the new reality of growing global competition and unpredictability.
Todays unique challenges require our Work Programme to be as impactful as possible.
We aim to focus sharply on pursuing our strategic interests, including reinforcing the competitiveness of the European economy.
We have also responded to calls from businesses for simpler rules.
Competitiveness and simplification are key themes of this work programme.
We are announcing 51 flagship initiatives, with 11 focusing on simplification, including three omnibus packages.
We identified 37 evaluations and fitness checks for existing legislation.
We propose to withdraw 37 proposals currently awaiting decision by the Parliament and the Council where progress appears unlikely.
We will propose to repeal four pieces of existing EU legislation.
Our competitiveness agenda includes a Clean Industrial Deal to help businesses regain competitiveness while decarbonizing.
We will propose a Savings and Investment Union to enable investment opportunities and prevent capital from leaving Europe.
This will support financial institutions on the global market and meet the EUs funding needs.
We will present a new EU Long-Term Budget to simplify, enhance flexibility, and target EU action more effectively.
Thank you.