The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has called upon the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation negotiators to resolve three fundamental issues before it can agree on the Regulation’s provisions. This comes following the lack of consensus among co-legislators in the trilogue meeting held on 7 March 2024. The issues are the contradiction of the existing frameworks for intellectual property protection rights and trade secrets with the position of the co-legislators, the unnecessary opt out mechanism which produces undue burden on the healthcare system and undefined timelines which will delay the creation of the EHDS.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has responded to proposed EU legislation that would require pharmaceutical companies to launch and continuously supply products in all Member States. EFPIA's analysis, based on data from 94 medicines approved between January 2021 and June 2024, argues that such mandatory launch requirements would not address underlying causes of market access delays, which their research indicates are primarily due to national regulatory processes.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has welcomed the European Council’s general approach on the Critical Medicines Act (CMA), which aims to strengthen medicine availability and supply security across the Europe. EFPIA describes the move as an important step toward improving access to medicines in Europe. It also emphasises the need to ensure that measures introduced under the CMA remain targeted and proportionate, focusing strictly on medicines that are genuinely critical. EFPIA supports collaborative procurement during health emergencies but cautions against provisions that could fragment supply chains or weaken the sector’s competitiveness. It further calls for harmonised, EU-wide contingency stock requirements to prevent market distortions.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has welcomed the European Commission’s roadmap towards phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments, describing it as an important step forward in advancing ethical, science-based innovation in Europe.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has launched a new long-term inquiry titled ‘Reforming the Water Sector’. This inquiry aims to examine several issues facing the water industry, including financial stability, consumer protection, water security, environmental concerns, and emergency responses to flooding, outages, and drought. The EFRA Committee will begin evidence sessions in January 2025, focusing on the impact of Ofwat's final determination on the permitted water bill increases over the next five years. The inquiry will also review the government's ongoing work in this area, including the progress of the Water (Special Measures) Bill and the findings of the Independent Commission on the water sector, expected by mid-2025.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has published the government's response to its report on negotiating a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU rules governing food safety, animal health, and plant health in which the government did not agree with the Committee’s recommendation for a 24-month transition period for affected businesses. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), on behalf of the UK government, confirmed that the agreement is intended to take effect from mid-2027 and stated it will work with businesses to support adjustment rather than introduce a formal transition period. The government also declined to pursue a veterinary medicines agreement alongside SPS negotiations, relying on existing domestic schemes while remaining open to future cooperation, and accepted the need to protect UK animal welfare standards while retaining flexibility to diverge in certain areas, including precision breeding and other regulatory matters.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has warned that proposed UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary negotiations raise significant constitutional issues, including parliamentary scrutiny of dynamic alignment, implications for sovereignty, and challenges for the UK internal market and devolution settlements.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) Secretariat has published the 2026 Draft List of Datapoints for the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), reflecting the revised ESRS adopted by the European Commission through a Delegated Regulation in July 2026 following EFRAG's simplification of the standards in 2025. The draft list has been prepared using the same methodology as the IG 3 List of Datapoints published in 2024 and incorporates usability enhancements, including the categorisation of datapoints using distinct data types. Stakeholders are invited to review the methodology and report any flaws through an online survey by 23 October 2026. The final resource is expected to be published by the end of 2026 following consideration of the feedback received.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) have published guidance on the interoperability between European and international sustainability reporting standards. It aims to support companies that want to comply with both standards, with a particular focus on climate reporting.

As part of its efforts to facilitate the implementation of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has launched a consultation seeking views from European companies subject to Directive (EU) 2022/2464 (the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) on the practice and challenges associated with disclosing transition plans. EFRAG is seeking to conduct interviews with interested parties throughout April and May 2024, and will use the input gained to create guidance on transition planning. The deadline for making an expression of interest is 23 April 2024.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has launched its public consultation on the exposure draft ESRS for listed SMEs (ESRS LSME ED) and the exposure draft for the voluntary reporting standard for non-listed SMEs (VSME ED). The consultation period will run until 21 May 2024, where all stakeholders are invited to provide comments through the online consultation questionnaires. Interested parties are also invited to participate in the field test that will run alongside the consultation. The call for participation in the field test was released on 20 December 2023 with the deadline to submit interest set to 31 January 2024.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has launches the ESRS Knowledge Hub, an interactive online platform designed to support companies, practitioners and stakeholders in navigating the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and broader sustainability reporting materials developed by EFRAG.