Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service Podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about the European political priorities for the next half decade.

More specifically, how they're set through the European Council's strategic agenda and the Commission's political guidelines.

We'll examine what these two key documents focus on, where they converge

and where they differ. Stay with us.

Before the start of each new legislative term, the European Council, representing the heads of

state or government of all EU countries, as well as its president and that of the European Commission,

sets the EU's political priorities for the next five years.

This document is called the Strategic Agenda, and it is one of the most important treaty-based roles of the European Council.

Taking it into account, the European Commission follows up with the President's political

guidelines.

These will then be translated into more specific policies and actions in the Commission's

annual work programmes before being submitted to the Parliament and Council in the form of

proposals for EU legislation.

So together, they are the backbone of Europe's political vision and plans.

That's right, though they're slightly different in nature.

So while the European Council's strategic agenda sets the big picture goals

without getting into too much detail,

the political guidelines include specific initiatives, some even with

a concrete timeline to achieve the macro objectives. So it's a bulkier document.

Although organized differently, both documents agree on three core priorities for the EU

up to 2029. Democracy, security and competitiveness.

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