A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

European Commission Work Programme 2025: Enhanced engagement with Northern Ireland stakeholders

February 6, 2025

Aoife Keating Fitzpatrick, Glenda Doherty

Reading Time: 5 minutes

On 11 February 2025, the European Commission (the Commission) will present its Work Programme (CWP) for the year ahead during the European Parliament’s plenary session. Publication of the CWP is important as it outlines the legislative and policy actions the Commission plans to take, providing a roadmap for the coming year. The 2025 Work Programme will be the first programme published since the June 2024 elections for the European Parliament and the return of the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2024. As part of the Windsor Framework, the European Commission committed to enhanced engagement on the CWP with Northern Ireland stakeholders, thus recognising Northern Ireland’s unique position in relation to the EU post-Brexit.

The Commission Work Programme (CWP)

The CWP is an annual document that sets out the Commission’s priorities for the year ahead, detailing both new policy initiatives and pending proposals that are already being considered by the European Parliament (the Parliament) and the Council of the European Union (the Council). These proposals cover a broad range of issues and include legislative and non-legislative measures, as well as plans for repealing or withdrawing certain existing laws or legislative proposals. The CWP will likely focus on the new Commission’s seven key priorities for 2024-2029 which are:

Once President von der Leyen presents the programme to the plenary, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will have an opportunity to take the floor and express their views. The CWP will then also be shared with other institutional partners, following which the Commission, the Parliament and the Council will prepare a Joint Declaration on the EU legislative priorities.

Enhanced engagement with Northern Ireland stakeholders

The Commission, as the only EU institution with the power to initiate legislation, is responsible for drafting and proposing new laws. Before making any proposals, it conducts a thorough impact assessment, evaluating the potential economic, social, and environmental impacts of a policy. This assessment includes input from non-governmental organisations, national authorities, industry experts, and EU advisory bodies. The Commission’s Have Your Say on Europe and its policies webpages provide an online forum through which citizens and businesses can respond to public consultations and share their views on new EU policies and existing laws. Once the Commission has gathered input, it drafts formal legislative proposals, which then need to be approved by the Council and the Parliament to become law.

In February 2023, the Commission issued a statement on enhanced engagement with stakeholders in Northern Ireland. This was part of a broader effort to ensure that the views of stakeholders are heard on proposed EU laws that will apply to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. These new measures were designed to improve the Commission’s interactions with businesses and civil society in Northern Ireland, ensuring that their views are considered in the development of Commission legislative proposals.

The Commission stated that its enhanced engagement would be grounded in the principles of participation, openness, and accountability, and would include the following key actions:

Annual presentations and consultations: The Commission committed to engaging directly with Northern Ireland stakeholders to discuss upcoming policy initiatives and legislative proposals. The intention was to ensure stakeholders are informed early and can engage meaningfully with the proposals that most affect them.
Joint Consultative Working Group: The Commission committed to discussing relevant elements of the work programme within the Joint Consultative Working Group on the implementation of the Windsor Framework (JCWG). Established under Article 15 of the Protocol, the JCWG serves as a dedicated forum for information exchange and consultation between delegates from the UK Government and the European Commission. It provides a platform where representatives from Northern Ireland (invited by the UK) and from Ireland (invited by the EU) may also participate, even though their inclusion is not a formal requirement. This allows for direct feedback on ongoing initiatives.
Dedicated information sessions and workshops: The Commission stated that it would organise information sessions and workshops for stakeholders in Northern Ireland when requested. These are to focus on new EU initiatives and help stakeholders better understand the implications of proposed policies and legislation.
Windsor Framework webpage: A dedicated section of the Windsor Framework webpage should publish relevant public consultations and provide access to the latest EU proposals and initiatives that are pertinent to Northern Ireland. Such transparency should ensure stakeholders are aware of upcoming developments thus facilitating their engagement at the right time.
Impact assessments with a Northern Ireland focus: For relevant new EU policies, the Commission committed to incorporating a dedicated overview of Northern Ireland stakeholders’ input into its impact assessments. This overview will set out the stakeholders’ views on the implications of the policies for Northern Ireland and how they have been considered in the final proposal.

Commentary

In its statement on enhanced engagement with stakeholders in Northern Ireland the European Commission highlighted that the scope of that engagement would apply to ‘the limited set of Union law that applies to Northern Ireland’. This set of law would appear to include:

EU laws which apply in Northern Ireland under Annex 2 of the Windsor Framework (single market, customs and trade), which fall within the remit of the Democratic Scrutiny Committee and are subject to the Stormont Brake; and
EU laws which apply in Northern Ireland which fall within all other Annexes of the Windsor Framework including Annex 1 (rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity protections); Annex 3 (value added tax (VAT)); Annex 4 (Single Electricity Market) and Annex 5 (State Aid).

While the scope of engagement in relation to EU law that applies to Northern Ireland appears relatively clear, questions remain regarding: how stakeholders will be identified; where and when engagement with them will occur; and how they can request that the Commission organise information sessions or workshops on new initiatives.

The Commission has committed to highlighting proposals of particular interest or relevance for Northern Ireland stakeholders and to publishing a list of such initiatives on the Commission’s Windsor Framework webpage. It is not clear though how such interest or relevance will be determined and whether or not the consultation mechanisms provided will extend beyond the Commission’s existing ‘Have Your Say’ and ‘Impact Assessment’ consultations.

The Commission’s statement on enhanced engagement states that before engagement with stakeholders the CWP will be discussed within the Joint Consultative Working Group. It remains to be seen, however, if information obtained from the enhanced engagement will influence the engagement undertaken by the JCWG.

No formal mechanism exists for exchange of information between the Commission and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Nevertheless, a wider general awareness of the opportunities to share their views on new EU policies and existing laws with the Commission may facilitate the work of the Assembly’s Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee (the DSC). The functions of the DSC, as defined in the Windsor Framework (Democratic Scrutiny) Regulations 2024, include examination and consideration of certain ‘new EU acts’ and ‘replacement EU acts’ which apply to Northern Ireland. Given that the CWP 2025 will be the first to be published following elections, in June 2024, to the European Parliament, it will be of particular significance to the work of the DSC, which may be notified that a new EU act or a replacement EU act has been proposed by the Commission.

Finally, it is worth noting the CWP will contain proposals, which fall outside of the scope of the areas of EU law that apply in Northern Ireland and to which the commitment to enhanced engagement relates. Some of these proposals, however, may be of particular relevance to stakeholders here given their potential to result in regulatory divergence.

The CWP 2025 will be published following its presentation to the European Parliament on 12 February 2025, but a draft programme was published this week on Euractiv and can be found here: