The European Commission has published its eighth Programme Illustrative Nucleaire (PINC) under Article 40 of the Euratom Treaty, assessing €241bn in nuclear investment needs through 2050. The programme outlines regulatory priorities including enhanced nuclear safety standards, waste management protocols, and measures to accelerate licensing through regulatory cooperation. The Commission will finalise the PINC following an Opinion from the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), with discussion scheduled at the Energy Council on 16 June 2025 in Luxembourg. The assessment aligns with EU decarbonisation targets, the REPowerEU Plan and Clean Industrial Deal objectives.

The European Commission has published a Communication on building the future with nature, which highlights the challenges and barriers in the EU biotechnology and biomanufacturing sector and proposes a series of targeted actions to boost biotechnology and biomanufacturing across the EU. The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations also welcomed the Commission's Communication and called on the Commission to put forward a comprehensive health and life science strategy in its next mandate so that European patients can have access to innovative new treatments and technologies.

The European Commission has released a white-label age-verification blueprint to support EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA) implementation. The solution enables users to prove they are over 18 for restricted content without revealing personal data, built on open-source technology compatible with European Digital Identity Wallets. Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain will pilot the solution through national digital wallets. Next steps include enhancing features with zero-knowledge proofs, scaling to additional Member States, and providing tailored implementation strategies for national digital wallet integration. Technical specifications are available for market players to develop solutions compliant with EU DSA Article 28 guidelines.

The European Commission has published draft definitive findings of its anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese battery electric vehicle (BEV) imports, proposing to adjust countervailing duties from 17% to 36.3% on companies like BYD, Geely, and SAIC and introduce an individual duty rate of 9% to Tesla. The Commission also proposes not to retroactively collect countervailing duties. Interested parties have until 30 August 2024 to comment, after which the Commission will present its final determination to Member States for a vote. Definitive measures must be imposed by 30 October 2024, and will be in force for five years.

The European Commission has published an Explanatory Guide to support implementation of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) microplastics restriction, which came into effect on 17 October 2023. The guide, developed with the European Chemicals Agency, includes implementation provisions, Q&A sections, and decision trees for borderline cases. Part I will be translated into 22 EU languages by Q3/2025. The restriction aims to prevent 500,000 tonnes of microplastic release over 20 years, with specific transitional periods ranging from 2027 to 2035 for various products including cosmetics and detergents.

The European Commission has released an internal Cloud Sovereignty Framework setting out baseline requirements to ensure that data processing and storage in EU institutions and agencies comply with Union data-protection, cybersecurity and sovereignty principles.

The European Commission has published a new independent study offering a comprehensive overview of the net-zero manufacturing industry across EU countries. The study aims to address the challenge of limited data availability by providing a detailed mapping of manufacturing capacity for selected net-zero technologies and an analysis of existing policies and incentives. It reveals that nearly three-quarters of EU countries have introduced incentive programmes to encourage investments in net-zero technology manufacturing. The study also highlights the EU Net-Zero Industry Act, which creates a regulatory framework to enhance European manufacturing capacity for net-zero technologies and key components.

The European Commission has renewed its two 2021 adequacy decisions permitting the free and secure transfer of personal data between the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Law Enforcement Directive. The renewals follow a six-month technical extension adopted in June 2025, which enabled the Commission to assess amendments to the UK data protection framework introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act. The decisions were adopted after a favourable opinion from the European Data Protection Board and approval by Member States through the comitology procedure. Each decision is subject to a six-year sunset clause, expiring on 27 December 2031, and will be reviewed after four years, with the possibility of further renewal.

The European Commission has adopted a delegated decision renewing Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2015/2290 granting provisional equivalence under the Solvency II Directive (2009/138/EC) for the US. The renewal will be for a further ten years starting on 1 January 2026.  The decision allows EU insurance groups to continue calculating capital requirements for their operations in the US on the basis of local rules.

The European Commission has adopted a report concluding that the recycling efficiency and material recovery targets under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (the EU Batteries Regulation) remain appropriate. The assessment, supported by a Joint Research Centre technical assessment, considered market developments, technological change and the availability of cobalt, copper, lead, lithium and nickel. The Commission found no grounds for revising the targets. The next assessment is due by 18 August 2031.

The European Commission, together with consumer protection authorities from 23 Member States, Iceland and Norway reported that 30% of 314 online traders incorrectly displayed discounts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. This practice violated the Price Indications Directive, which requires that reference prices represent the lowest price applied in the past 30 days. The coordinated enforcement sweep also uncovered additional violations, including the addition of optional items without consent by 36% of traders, unclear price comparisons by 34%, misleading pressure-selling techniques by 18% and drip pricing by 10%. National authorities may take enforcement action against businesses that fail to comply with these requirements.

The European Commission has reported that signatories to the voluntary Code of Conduct on Disinformation, including major online platforms such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok, alongside fact-checkers, researchers, civil society organisations and advertising industry representatives, have published new reports in the Code’s Transparency Centre detailing measures taken to reduce online disinformation. These are the first reports since the Code was recognised as a code of conduct under the EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA), effective from 1 July 2025, making it a benchmark for compliance by very large online platforms and search engines. Covering the period from 1 July to 31 December 2025, the reports outline actions relating to ongoing crises, including the war in Ukraine, and efforts to safeguard electoral integrity, as well as data on policies, tools and partnerships. The Commission also noted that the Code, endorsed in February 2025 as part of the EU DSA’s co-regulatory framework, requires relevant large platforms, defined as those with at least 45 million monthly EU users, to report every six months and undergo independent annual audits, while other signatories report annually.