What to expect in EU policy in 2021?

A collective sigh of relief greeted the Christmas Eve agreement on a post-Brexit free trade deal. After months of criticism over his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson won the media plaudits for ‘getting Brexit done’. For the EU, it put an end to years of frustrating and time-consuming talks with its awkward former member.

Climate policy will again take centre stage in 2021, with the European Commission expected to table a mammoth package of green laws in June, before the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow caps off a year packed with milestones for European climate policy in December.

The EU will double down on its efforts to use the Covid-19 crisis to accelerate the ‘Green’ and digital transitions, fuelled by its €1.95 trillion stimulus, an intense policy agenda and new trade opportunities to improve its global standing.

Since the pandemic started last year, European citizens have had to radically realign their lives to the new reality. For the most part, this has meant rapidly migrating our personal and professional lives online. With this comes a broad range of policy measures aimed at reinforcing Europe’s connectivity and heightening cybersecurity standards across 2021.

In the Western Balkans, where all EU applicant countries (bar Turkey) are located, the year ahead will be dominated by Europe's quest for a vaccine and efforts to restart the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. 

2019 is likely to be the year in which the much awaited reform of the main EU's massive farming subsidies programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), will see the light.