The European Commission is committed to making EU legislation more efficient and easier to implement, aiming to reduce administrative burdens by 25% overall and 35% for SMEs. This agenda is central to the Commission’s efforts to strengthen competitiveness and deliver benefits for citizens and businesses.
To achieve these objectives, the Commission has already introduced a series of simplification initiatives in many areas, as well as 10 Omnibus Packages.

These include sustainable finance, investments, CAP simplification, small mid-caps, defence, chemicals, automotive, environment, digital, and food and feed safety.These initiatives aim to help EU businesses grow and boost their productivity and global competitiveness by making the business environment simpler, less costly, and more efficient.

In parallel, the Commission also aims to improve the practical implementation and enforcement of EU legislation to ensure rules are applied consistently and effectively across Member States.

However, some stakeholders warn that initiatives presented as simplification could drift into deregulation, meaning rules are weakened or removed rather than made clearer. At the same time, a key challenge of the simplification initiatives is to ensure that EU rules are clear, proportionate, and effectively applied across all Member States.

Listen to this Euractiv Hybrid Conference to discuss how simplification of the EU regulatory framework can drive its competitiveness and productivity. Questions to be addressed include:
• How can the EU enhance productivity and competitiveness through simplification ?
• How can digital tools be leveraged to simplify compliance and reporting?
• How can the EU ensure that simplification does not lead to deregulation?
• What changes and impact can businesses expect from the Commission’s simplification initiatives?
• What measures are needed to ensure effective and consistent implementation across Member States?

On 1 January 2025, the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) entered into force. Through this initiative, the European Commission aims to protect human health and improve water quality, and hence the environment, for all EU citizens.

One of the key innovations of the revised Directive is the introduction of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. Under the Directive, micropollutants must be removed through quaternary wastewater treatment, with the costs financed via EPR by the sectors considered responsible for the pollution caused by the use of their products. The European Commission has identified the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries as the two sectors mainly responsible for the micropollution in wastewater.

There is broad support for the EU’s environmental objectives, but opinions diverge on how these goals should be achieved and on the practical implementation of the Directive. Fair burden-sharing remains a central concern, with responsibility currently focused on just two industries.

Concerns have been raised that the scheme risks imposing disproportionate financial burdens, potentially threatening the availability and affordability of essential medicines, for example, while other industries are not incentivised to become more sustainable. To be effective, the EPR framework should be built on robust scientific data, transparent methodologies, and a genuine application of the polluter-pays principle, reflecting actual contributions to pollution. Greater policy coherence is also seen as necessary to safeguard EU competitiveness.

Others underline that the scheme has the potential to unlock much-needed private investment in the water sector and accelerate the deployment of advanced treatment technologies.

Listen to this Euractiv Hybrid Conference to explore how the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and its EPR scheme can be implemented effectively, fairly, and sustainably, while balancing environmental ambition with industrial competitiveness and public health needs.

Questions to be addressed include:

- How can the EPR scheme be designed to ensure a fair and evidence-based application of the polluter-pays principle?
- What are the implications of the Directive on medicine availability, patient access, pharmaceutical innovation, and EU competitiveness?
- How can policymakers ensure balanced burden-sharing while securing the investments needed to achieve Europe’s water quality objectives?
- How can the UWWTD be implemented in a way that aligns environmental objectives with broader EU health, industrial, and innovation policies?
- How can all relevant stakeholders collaborate to deliver the UWWTD’s environmental objectives while ensuring access to medicines?

As Europe strives to position itself at the forefront of the global digital economy, data centres are emerging as the backbone of competitiveness and innovation, enabling digitalisation, artificial intelligence, cloud services, and the broader digital transition. This presents challenges due to rising energy consumption, which will need the development of large-scale renewable capacity to replace fossil fuels, alongside other substantial investments in grid infrastructure.

As part of these efforts, the European Commission is set to publish early 2026 its Strategic Roadmap for digitalisation and artificial intelligence in the energy sector which will aim at accelerating the deployment of digital tools (including AI technologies) across key decarbonisation sectors, such as power-grid optimisation, energy efficiency, and demand-side flexibility.

Panel 1: Powering the intelligence – How to integrate data centres in the EU energy system

Data centres are highly resource-intensive, consuming large amounts of electricity and requiring considerable grid hosting capacity. Europe faces the challenge of finding ways to balance the future backbone of the digital economy with its sustainability and decarbonisation goals.

The publication of the Heating and Cooling Strategy in the first quarter of 2026 will support the decarbonisation efforts in the sector by improving its efficiency and system integration.

In addition, the revision of the Energy Efficency Directive will promote a new rating scheme for data centres and foster their integration into the energy system.

This panel aims to explore both current and future solutions for the sustainable integration of data centres into the European energy system. Questions to be discussed include:

• What are the existing solutions to harness data centres’ energy intensive profile and make them fit for a decarbonising energy system?
• Data centres are expected to boom in many geographies around the continent. Is Europe ready to face this challenge?
•How can the new EU legislative framework underpin this process without jeopardising the climate goal?

Panel 2: AI – What’s in it for the energy sector?

Despite their energy intensive profiles, data centres and AI applications can substantially support the clean transition of the energy sector by boosting renewables efficiency, enhancing grid stability and fostering automatisation. The upcoming Strategic Roadmap for digitalisation and artificial intelligence in the energy sector will address such opportunities and the further arising challenges of AI integration in the energy sector.

This panel will explore how AI will integrate, benefit or challenge our energy systems. Questions to be discussed include:

• What AI applications are ready for deployment to support the clean transition of the energy sector?
• How can AI support Europe’s strategic autonomy in the energy sector?
• What role can AI play in reducing the energy cost of resource-intensive infrastructure like data centres themselves?