14/05/2025
The European Parliament has accepted the European Commission’s proposal to withdraw 33 of the 37 pending legislative proposals previously put forward in the name of political discontinuity. This puts an end to these files, but they could be relaunched in the future. This decision follows the Commission’s presentation of its 2025 Work Programme, which plans to streamline the legislative process by removing initiatives deemed politically blocked or obsolete.
The move was confirmed in a letter published by Euractiv, which reported that parliamentary committees had reviewed the list of 37 proposals and chose to retain only four:
- Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules for the allocation of slots at European Union airports (COM(2011)827, 2011/0391 (COD)),
- Proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment outside the labour market, irrespective of age, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief, COM(2008)0426, 2008/0140(CNS),
- Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on standard essential patents and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, (2023/0133(COD)),
- Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence (AI Liability) (2022/0303(COD)).
While the retention of the anti-discrimination directive and the AI liability file was welcomed by civil society and several Member States, the acceptance of the withdrawal of a proposal to reform access to EU documents has raised concerns among transparency advocates and legal experts.
The proposal in question aimed to revise Regulation 1049/2001, the current legal framework governing public access to EU documents. This regulation predates the Lisbon Treaty and is widely considered to be outdated. In 2011, the European Parliament adopted important amendments to bring the Regulation into line with Article 15.2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 42 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, both of which strengthen citizens’ rights to legislative transparency.
The mass withdrawal raises concerns about changing the institutional balance of the EU. While the Commission can propose legislation, it cannot unilaterally terminate negotiations once the Parliament and Council are involved. The key question now is whether the co-legislators will reassert their role, or whether they will allow these withdrawals to discreetly mark a decline in legislative transparency.
Discover the full list of legislative proposals deemed withdrawn here.