UPN, Alm.del - 2024-25 - Bilag 126: Rådssekretariatets konklusioner fra mødet i Det Europæiske Råd den 20. marts 2025

Det Udenrigspolitiske Nævn 2024-25
UPN Alm.del Bilag 126
Offentligt

European Council

Brussels, 20 March 2025

(OR. en)

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CO EUR 1

CONCL 1

NOTE

From:

To:

Subject:

General Secretariat of the Council

Delegations

European Council meeting (20 March 2025)

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Conclusions

Delegations will find attached the conclusions adopted by the European Council at the above

meeting.

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Conclusions

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The European Council held an exchange of views with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on

the geopolitical situation and multilateralism.

UKRAINE

The European Council held an exchange of views with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President

of Ukraine.

The European Council discussed the latest developments as regards Ukraine. The text

set out in document EUCO 11/25 was firmly supported by 26 Heads of State or

Government.

The European Council will revert to the issue at its next meeting.

II.

MIDDLE EAST

Recalling its previous conclusions, the European Council addressed the situation and

latest developments in the Middle East.

The European Council deplores the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, which has

caused a large number of civilian casualties in recent air strikes. It deplores the refusal

of Hamas to hand over the remaining hostages. The European Council calls for an

immediate return to the full implementation of the ceasefire-hostage release agreement.

It stresses the need for progress towards its second phase, with a view to its full

implementation leading to the release of all hostages and a permanent end to hostilities.

The European Council recalls the importance of unimpeded access and sustained

distribution of humanitarian assistance at scale into and throughout Gaza. This access

and distribution, as well as the supply of electricity to Gaza, including for the water

desalination plants, must be resumed immediately.

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Conclusions

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The European Council welcomes the Arab Recovery and Reconstruction Plan endorsed

at the Cairo Summit on 4 March 2025. The European Union stands ready to engage with

its Arab partners, as well as with other international partners, on that basis.

The European Union remains firmly committed to a lasting and sustainable peace based

on the two-state solution. The European Union is ready to contribute to all efforts

towards this solution and calls on all parties to refrain from actions that undermine its

viability. It will continue to work with regional and international partners to that end.

The European Union will continue supporting the Palestinian Authority and its reform

agenda.

The European Council strongly condemns the recent widespread violence against

civilians in Syria’s coastal region and

urges the transitional authorities to ensure the

protection of all civilians and that perpetrators of violence are held accountable in

accordance with international norms and standards. The European Council notes that

comprehensive transitional justice in particular is essential on the path to reconciliation.

The European Council underlines the importance of a peaceful and inclusive transition

in Syria, free from harmful foreign interference, and the protection of the rights of

Syrians from all ethnic and religious backgrounds without discrimination.

Syria’s

independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within secure borders should be fully

respected, in accordance with international law. It welcomes the agreement reached on

10 March 2025 between the transitional authorities and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The European Council

recalls the EU’s recent suspension of restrictive measures as part

of a gradual, reversible approach. The European Union will continue to examine

possible further suspensions of restrictive measures on the basis of close monitoring of

the situation in Syria. The European Council welcomes the outcome of the ninth Syria

Conference

‘Standing

with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition’ of

17 March 2025.

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Conclusions

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10.

The European Council welcomes the end of the political impasse in Lebanon and

expresses

the European Union’s

readiness to work with the new authorities to stabilise

the economic and security situation in the country. The European Council reiterates its

call on the parties to implement the terms of the 27 November 2024 ceasefire agreement

and for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

III. COMPETITIVENESS

11.

A more competitive Union will be a stronger Union, better able to protect its citizens, its

values and its interests on the global stage while sustaining its prosperity and the

European social model. The need to invest in our defence and our competitiveness are

closely interlinked. The European Council underlines the urgent need to strengthen

Europe’s competitiveness,

building on the Budapest Declaration on the New European

Competitiveness Deal and on its conclusions of 6 March 2025 on European defence.

In that regard, the European Council welcomes in particular the presentation of the

Competitiveness Compass of 29 January 2025, the Clean Industrial Deal of

26 February 2025 and the Omnibus simplification agenda.

12.

2025 should therefore mark a step change in the EU’s action to boost competitiveness,

strengthen the Single Market, promote quality jobs and ensure successful twin

transitions, in line with the agreed climate objectives. In order to achieve these goals,

and contribute to closing the innovation and productivity gap with

the EU’s

global

competitors and within the EU, the European Council agrees to give priority to

simplification and reducing regulatory and administrative burdens, lowering energy

prices and mobilising private savings to unlock necessary investment in the

EU economy.

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Conclusions

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Simplification and reducing administrative burdens

13.

Following up on the Commission communication of 11 February 2025 on

implementation and simplification, the European Council calls for efforts at all levels

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EU, national and regional

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to ensure a clear, simple, smart and innovation-friendly

regulatory framework and to drastically reduce, as a matter of urgency, administrative,

regulatory and reporting burdens for businesses and public administrations, without

undermining predictability, policy goals, high standards and the integrity of the Single

Market. In this context, the European Council:

calls on the Commission and the co-legislators to work towards achieving the

target of reducing the cost of all administrative burdens by at least 25 %, and by at

least 35 % for SMEs;

calls on the Commission to keep reviewing and stress-testing the EU acquis to

identify ways to further simplify and consolidate existing legislation;

urges the co-legislators to take work forward on the Omnibus simplification

packages presented on 26 February 2025 as a matter of priority and with a high

level of ambition, with a view to finalising them as soon as possible in 2025;

calls on the co-legislators to adopt the proposal on the stop-the-clock mechanism

on sustainability reporting and due diligence without delay and at the latest by

June 2025;

calls on the Commission to rapidly follow up with further simplification

initiatives, including on industrial decarbonisation and on security and

defence; and

urges the Commission and the co-legislators to adhere to better regulation

principles throughout the legislative process, thereby avoiding over-regulation and

the introduction of administrative burdens, in particular on SMEs.

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Conclusions

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Energy

14.

Recalling its commitment to pursue the dual objective of European energy sovereignty

and climate neutrality by 2050, and in order for the Union to remain competitive

globally, the European Council:

calls for all efforts at EU and Member State level to be urgently stepped up, in

order to better protect EU citizens and businesses from high energy costs, secure

the supply of affordable and clean energy and build a genuine Energy Union

before 2030, which will require ambitious electrification using all net-zero and

low-carbon solutions, and investment in grids, storage and interconnections at

national and EU level. Recalling the agreed energy targets, the European Council

calls for cross-border and Union-wide long-term investment planning, with a view

to fully integrating and interconnecting the EU energy market, contributing to the

Union’s

energy security, and infrastructure protection and resilience; and

welcomes in that context

the presentation of the Commission’s

Action Plan for

Affordable Energy on 26 February 2025, which outlines both structural and short-

term measures, in particular for the most affected citizens and businesses, while

preserving the integrity of the Single Market; and urges the Commission, the

Council, the Member States and all other relevant stakeholders to start delivering

on these actions in 2025. It calls for efforts to enable additional energy supplies to

Europe to be intensified, notably to ensure security of supply for all Member

States.

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Savings and Investments Union

15.

Having regard to the challenges

to the EU’s competitiveness,

it is of paramount

importance to create truly integrated and deeper European capital markets, by achieving

the Capital Markets Union as a matter of urgency and completing the Banking Union.

A genuine Savings and Investments Union will help channel hundreds of billions of

euro of additional investment to the European economy every year, helping to boost the

EU’s

competitiveness, strategic autonomy and economic security.

16.

In this context, and in the light of the Commission communication of 19 March 2025,

the European Council:

expects the co-legislators to quickly agree on all pending proposals from the 2020

Action Plan on the Capital Markets Union, including on insolvency;

to complement actions at EU level, stresses the need for national-level actions in

order to increase the size and depth of capital markets that are accessible to all

citizens and businesses across the Union;

with a view to expanding opportunities for citizens, calls:

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on the Commission, the Council and Member States to advance work

towards greater retail participation in capital markets by making available

European investment and savings possibilities, including enhanced

possibilities for EU-wide savings and pension products, drawing on best

practices, in time to allow decisive steps to be taken in 2025; and

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on the Commission to swiftly propose, in 2025, improvements to the

existing pan-European personal pension product;

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Conclusions

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with a view to increasing private funding for businesses, calls on the Commission:

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to put forward proposals to improve the private equity and venture capital

ecosystem and, in line with the respective competences under the Treaties,

to propose an optional 28th company law regime allowing innovative

companies to scale up, in time to allow the co-legislators to take decisive

steps by 2026;

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to swiftly propose, in 2025, a revised securitisation framework, including

targeted adjustments to the prudential framework, while maintaining

financial stability; and

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to keep under review the global level playing field in the banking and

insurance sectors and take appropriate measures;

with regard to improving the convergence and efficiency of the supervision of

capital markets across the EU and reducing fragmentation, calls on the

Commission, working where relevant with national and European competent

authorities:

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to ensure convergent supervisory practices. To that end, it is essential to

foster homogenous implementation, interpretation, application and

enforcement of EU law by national competent authorities;

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to complete the assessment of and the work on the conditions for enabling

the European Supervisory Authorities to effectively supervise the most

systemic relevant cross-border capital and financial market actors, with the

aim of strengthening financial integration and ensuring financial stability,

simplifying processes and reducing compliance costs, taking into account

the interests of all Member States, and, on the basis of that assessment, to

put forward, as appropriate, a proposal on supervision;

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to swiftly remove barriers to market-led consolidation of market

infrastructure and to cross-border investment; and

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to streamline existing rules and eliminate duplication, clarify regulatory

provisions and reduce the cost of compliance and reporting;

underlines the importance of mobilising private financing for the European

defence industry and invites the Commission to consider making further use of

EU programmes, such as building on the experience of the InvestEU Member

State compartment, taking into account the specific character of the security and

defence policy of certain Member States.

Single Market, industry and skills

17.

These competitiveness priorities will be supported by an ambitious new horizontal

Single Market Strategy, to be presented in June 2025, which should aim at deepening

the Single Market, by removing remaining barriers, in particular in the area of services

and essential goods, addressing fragmentation, and improving the application and

enforcement of Single Market rules.

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Conclusions

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18.

The European Council also calls for the following specific work strands to be pursued

without delay:

building on the Clean Industrial Deal, the Automotive Action Plan of

5 March 2025 and the Steel and Metals Action Plan of 19 March 2025, which

refer to technological neutrality, work must be stepped up

to secure Europe’s

industrial innovation, renewal and decarbonisation and to ensure the growth of

tomorrow’s key

technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum

technologies, semiconductors, 5G/6G and other critical technologies, while paying

particular attention to traditional industries in transition, notably the automotive,

shipping, aviation and energy-intensive industries, and the need to secure a level

playing field. To this end, it calls on the Commission to put forward, without

delay, a targeted proposal for additional flexibilities to the 2025 milestone under

the Regulation setting CO2 emissions performance standards for cars and vans,

and to take forward the review foreseen in this Regulation; and

following the Commission communication of 5 March 2025 on a Union of Skills,

further efforts should be made to enhance the acquisition, recognition and

retention of skills across the EU, from the building of basic skills to engaging in

life-long learning, reskilling and upskilling, in line with the European Pillar of

Social Rights and its Action Plan.

Other actions and way forward

19.

The European Council addressed priorities for the 2025 European Semester and

endorses the Recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area. The European

Council also considered the employment and social situation in the European Union.

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Conclusions

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20.

The European Council stresses that, going forward, all the abovementioned

competitiveness priorities and actions should work together, in a mutually reinforcing

manner, along with relevant EU instruments, to support research and innovation,

investment, convergence and cohesion, connectivity, trade diversification and economic

partnerships, growth and economic resilience in the European Union. The European

Council remains seized of all these matters, and will assess progress on competitiveness

and the green and digital transitions at its meeting in October 2025.

IV.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE AND SECURITY

21.

Following up on its conclusions of 6 March 2025 and in the light of the White Paper on

the Future of European Defence of 19 March 2025, the European Council calls for an

acceleration of work on all strands to decisively

ramp up Europe’s defence

readiness

within the next five years. It invites the Council and the co-legislators to swiftly take

work forward on the recent Commission proposals. The European Council calls for the

implementation of the actions identified in its conclusions of 6 March 2025 in the field

of capabilities to start as a matter of urgency and for continued work on the relevant

financing options.

22.

The European Council recalls that a stronger and more capable European Union in the

field of security and defence will contribute positively to global and transatlantic

security and is complementary to NATO, which remains, for those States that are

members of it, the foundation of their collective defence.

23.

The above is without prejudice to the specific character of the security and defence

policy of certain Member States, and takes into account the security and defence

interests of all Member States, in accordance with the Treaties. The European Council

invites the Commission and the High Representative to report regularly on progress

made in the implementation of its conclusions on defence. It will revert to all strands of

work on this issue at its next meeting.

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Conclusions

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NEXT MULTIANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK AND NEW OWN

RESOURCES

24.

The European Council had a first exchange of views on the next Multiannual Financial

Framework and on new own resources.

VI.

MIGRATION

25.

The European Council took stock of progress in the implementation of its conclusions

on migration, including in light of the recent letter from the President of the

Commission. The European Council encourages further work in particular on: the

external dimension, notably through comprehensive partnerships; the implementation of

adopted EU legislation and the application of existing legislation; the prevention and

countering of irregular migration, including through new ways in line with EU and

international law; efforts to facilitate, increase and accelerate returns, using all relevant

EU policies, instruments and tools; the concepts of safe third countries and safe

countries of origin; the fight against instrumentalisation, human trafficking and

smuggling; visa policy alignment by neighbouring countries; as well as safe and legal

pathways in line with national competences. The European Council recalls

the EU’s

determination to strengthen security at its external borders and ensure their effective

control, in line with EU and international law.

26.

The European Council calls on the co-legislators to make progress, as a matter of

priority, on files with a migration dimension. In particular, it invites the co-legislators to

swiftly examine the recent Commission proposal on returns.

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Conclusions

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VII. OCEANS

27.

In the light of current global and geopolitical challenges, the European Council stresses

the strategic importance of the oceans, water resilience and the blue economy in

strengthening

the EU’s competitiveness

and resilience, maritime security, and

environmental sustainability and protection, in the context of the triple planetary crisis

of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

28.

The European Council welcomes the Commission’s intention to put forward an

ambitious, holistic and forward-looking European Ocean Pact, in line with the

respective EU and Member State competences, that will foster healthy oceans and seas,

energy security, maritime security, food security, sustainable fisheries and a sustainable

and competitive EU blue economy, with special emphasis on coastal and island

communities, and contribute to global science-based knowledge and responsible

governance of the oceans.

29.

In addition, the European Council took stock of preparations for the UN Ocean

Conference, to be held in Nice from 9 to 13 June 2025, and called for increased global

action and ambition, including accelerated ratification of the Agreement under the

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of

Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement),

to advance ocean protection and governance at international level.

VIII. MULTILATERALISM

30.

The European Union has always upheld and will continue to uphold the UN Charter and

the rules and principles it enshrines, in particular those of sovereignty and territorial

integrity, political independence and self-determination. The European Council

reaffirms the Union’s steadfast commitment to effective multilateralism and to the

rules-based international order with the United Nations at its core.

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31.

The European Union will remain a predictable, reliable, and credible partner and

welcomes the opportunity to work together in a changing environment with all its

partners, as well as with the United Nations and its agencies in driving forward the

internal reform process

–

the UN80 initiative

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to ensure that the United Nations

remains effective, cost-efficient and responsive.

32.

The European Union is committed to the Pact for the Future, which is a crucial step

towards revitalising the United Nations, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,

and reforming the international financial architecture. The European Union stands ready

to cooperate with all stakeholders to ensure its effective implementation.

33.

The European Council looks forward to the Fourth International Conference on

Financing for Development, to be held in Seville from 30 June to 3 July 2025, which

will be an important step towards putting in place a renewed global financing

framework for sustainable development. It calls on relevant EU institutions to work

towards an ambitious outcome, together with Member States.

IX.

OTHER ITEMS

34.

The European Council discussed the situation in the Western Balkans and invites the

Council to address the matter in April 2025.

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