On 20 November, the European Commission released its 2025-2029 Strategic Plan, a guiding document establishing a pathway towards addressing the priorities of the current mandate. Amongst main challenges for the next five years, the strategy highlights the digital revolution and artificial intelligence, the climate and biodiversity crises, security threats, migration, and prosperity and competitiveness. In addition, aligned with the Strategic Plan, the Commission released annual management plans for each of its directorates, similarly focusing on current priorities.

Overall, reducing administrative burdens and simplifying legislation appear as one of the biggest concerns and objectives of the mandate across sectors. On energy and climate, the strategy promotes adhering to the targets of the European Green Deal with “pragmatism, technology-neutrality and innovation”. The document presents seven general objectives. While none of them explicitly refers to the energy transition or to research and innovation (R&I) in their titles, the first one, « A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness », encompasses the Clean Industrial Deal and R&I policies. Interestingly, within this general objective, the European Commission establishes clear impact indicators, including measuring greenhouse gas emissions, the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption, as well as gross domestic expenditure on research and development.

Within the Energy annual management plan, the European Commission intends to focus on implementing the energy dimension of the Competitiveness Compass, and sets six specific objectives: lowering energy costs for all; completing the Energy Union; attracting investments; preparing for crises; strengthening energy diplomacy; and ensuring affordable housing, measured respectively through the annual renewable capacity increase, the electrification rate, the investment in renewables and energy infrastructure, and the adoption of international agreements. Interestingly, when it comes to investment, the plan singles out Small Modular Reactors, making nuclear energy the only low-carbon technology directly mentioned, in a document otherwise recommending technology neutrality.

The Research and Innovation’s management plan recognises R&I as “powerful catalysts for addressing Europe's most pressing challenges” and is organised around contributing to the European Commission’s Strategic Plan’s main objectives. In addition, it sets specific goals such as fostering scientific and technological progress, accelerating the commercialisation and scaling up of emerging research, and facilitating the green and digital transitions. Within the scope of the latter, the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan is recognised as a significant tool to accelerate the development and deployment of clean, resilient and competitive energy technologies across Europe, in line with the Draghi report’s recommendation of improving multi-level governance.  

The plans overall confirm the orientation of the European Commission’s work, as outlined in the Competitiveness Compass and in the 2024-2029 Ursula von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines presented at the beginning of the new mandate, characterised by a strong focus on competitiveness and simplification, giving research and innovation and industrial decarbonisation a central spot on the agenda. However, while the publications signal a willingness to implement the Green Deal, they do not explore potential contradictions of these goals with the EU’s simplification agenda and make little reference to climate concerns.