The Council of the European Union has formally adopted the 'one substance, one assessment' (OSOA) legislative package aimed at streamlining chemical safety assessments across the EU. The package comprises three legislative acts: a regulation establishing a common data platform managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and a regulation and directive reallocating scientific tasks among EU agencies. The platform will integrate data from over 70 pieces of EU legislation covering medical devices, toys, food, pesticides and biocides. The acts will enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal, with the data platform to become operative within three years.

The Council of the EU has adopted the Platform Work Directive, which aims to improve working conditions across EU digital labour platforms. The Directive will correctly determine the employment status of individuals working for platforms to ensure that they are granted the labour rights they are entitled to. It will also introduce the use of algorithms in human resources management, monitored by qualified individuals, and give workers the right to contest automated decisions. The new law further requires Member States to establish a legal presumption of an employment relationship between the employer and worker, which will be triggered when circumstances indicating control are found. The Directive will now be signed by the Council and the European Parliament, and will enter into force once it is published in the Official Journal of the EU. Member States will have two years to transpose the Directive into their national legislation.

The Council of the EU has adopted new rules revising Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR)) and Regulation (EU) 2017/746 (In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (IVDR)) to prevent shortages and enhance transparency and accessibility to information. The Regulation revises the legislation on medical devices, by extending the transition period for certain in-vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVDs), boosting the gradual roll-out of EUDAMED and putting obligations on manufacturers to highlight potential shortages of critical medical devices and IVDs. The Regulation will come into force following publication its in the Official Journal of the EU.

The Council of the EU has adopted a Regulation amending Regulation (EU) 2017/852 to ensure products are mercury-free, which includes completely stopping the use of dental amalgams and restricting manufacturing, import and export of other mercury-added products. The revised rules address the remaining use of mercury in the EU to achieve the EU's zero pollution goals. The present rules ban the use of dental amalgam for treating teeth in children below 15 years old, and pregnant or breastfeeding women. The new rules will extend this prohibition from 1 January 2025 to cover everyone in the EU. Exceptions will be applicable when the dental practitioner deems the use of dental amalgam strictly necessary to address specific medical needs.  The rules will also ban the export of dental amalgam from 1 January 2025 and will ban manufacturing and import of dental amalgam in the EU from 1 July 2026. From 2025–26, six additional mercury-containing lamps will be placed for a manufacturing, import and export ban. The Regulation will now be signed and published in the Official Journal of the EU and will come into force 20 days following its publication and will become directly applicable in the EU.

The Council of the EU has adopted a new regulation to reinforce market surveillance against manipulations and ensure open and fair competition in the wholesale energy markets. This Regulation amends the Regulation on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency, Regulation (EU) 1227/2011 (the REMIT regulation) and the Regulation on the establishment of ACER, Regulation (EU) 2019/942. It creates clearer and stricter requirements for market participants in the EU who are resident in a third country who will have to designate, through a written mandate, a representative in a Member State in which they are active in the wholesale energy market. Also, this new Regulation gives the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) the right to investigate cases with a cross-border dimension, where at least two Member States are affected although national regulatory authorities will have up to three months to object to the exercise of ACER’s investigatory powers when these have been formally initiated or an investigation has been conducted based on the same facts. The power to impose fines for infringements or breaches of the prohibitions or substantive obligations included in the Regulation will remain in the hands of the Member States. The Regulation will enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

The Council of the EU has adopted a revised trans-European transport network (TEN-T) Regulation to build a reliable and high-quality transport network that will provide sustainable connectivity across Europe. TEN-T is planned to be upgraded in three steps, until 2030 for the core network, 2040 for the extended core network and 2050 for the comprehensive network. The new Regulation combines the core network corridors with the rail freight corridors to the  ‘European Transport Corridors’.  These corridors are of high strategic importance for the development of sustainable and multimodal freight and passenger transport flows in Europe. Presidents of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament will sign this Act before it can be published in the Official Journal.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the Digital Omnibus on AI proposal, approving a regulation to simplify certain provisions of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act. The regulation delays the application of rules for high-risk AI systems until 2 December 2027 for stand-alone systems and 2 August 2028 for AI systems embedded in products. It also bans AI systems that generate non-consensual intimate content or child sexual abuse material from December 2026, extends the deadline for establishing national AI regulatory sandboxes to 2 August 2027, and shortens the deadline for implementing transparency measures for AI-generated content to 2 December 2026.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the amended Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 (European Climate Law), which establishes the binding objective of climate neutrality by 2050 and a 2030 target of at least 55% net emissions reduction and sets a binding EU climate target for 2040. Under the amended regulation, the EU must reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (after deduction of removals) by 90% compared to 1990 levels by 2040. This new milestone strengthens and complements the existing legally binding objective of climate neutrality by 2050.

The Council of the EU has adopted an amendment to the Benchmarks Regulation aimed at reducing administrative burdens for EU companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This amendment focusses on the scope of benchmark rules, the use of benchmarks from third-country administrators, and certain reporting requirements. The main goal is to reduce red tape for SMEs by easing regulatory burden on non-significant financial benchmark administrators. The amendment will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and is set to take effect from 1 January 2026. This proposal was part of a 2023 initiative to streamline financial reporting requirements.

The Council of the EU has adopted an amendment to Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173, the Regulation establishing the European High-Performance Computing (EuroHPC) joint undertaking, to include the development and operation of 'AI factories' in its objectives. These AI factories, which will include an AI supercomputer, an associated data centre and AI-oriented supercomputer services, will be open to public and private users and be available to start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to train their AI models. Host entities of AI factories will be entitled to receive financial support for the acquisition and operating costs of the AI supercomputers. The amendment to the Regulation will be published in the Official Journal and will enter into force 20 days later.

The Council of the European Union has adopted two pieces of legislation, amending the Solvency II directive and introducing new rules on insurance recovery and resolution (IRRD). The directives will be published in the EU's Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later. The new rules will start applying two years after their entry into force.

The Council of the EU has adopted amendments to Directive 2012/19/EU on waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), which includes a range of products such as computers, fridges and photovoltaic panels. The amendments clarify that the costs of the management and disposal of waste from photovoltaic panels placed on the market after 13 August 2012 rest with the producer of the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), and extended producer responsibility for EEE products that were added to the scope of the directive in 2018 should apply to those e-products that were put on the market after that date. The amendments also introduce a review clause to assess the need of a revision of the directive, which the European Commission must assess no later than 2026. The text of the amendments will now be signed by the co-legislators and published in the EU's Official Journal. Member States will have up to 18 months to transpose the amended directive into national law once it enters into force.