EU leaders discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, competitiveness, European defence, the next MFF, migration, oceans, multilateralism and the Western Balkans.
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, was invited to a working lunch.
A Euro Summit in inclusive format was held on the margins of the meeting.
European Council conclusions, 20 March 2025
Remarks by President António Costa at the press conference following the European Council meeting of 20 March 2025
Euro Summit, 20 March 2025
The text on Ukraine was firmly supported by 26 heads of state or government.
Ukraine
Three years into Russia’s war, the EU remains steadfast in its solidarity with and support for Ukraine. To date, the EU has provided €139.2 billion to Ukraine, including €49.3 billion in military support.
The EU is committed to continuing to support Ukraine and its people, in coordination with like-minded partners and allies.
Russia’s war against Ukraine (background information)
A comprehensive, just and lasting peace
The EU is committed to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, based on the UN Charter and international law. In this respect, EU leaders reiterated the principles they set out for a peace negotiation at the special European Council on 6 March.
They also welcomed the joint statement by Ukraine and the US, including the proposal for a ceasefire agreement, humanitarian efforts and the resumption of US intelligence sharing and security assistance.
They called on Russia to show real political will to end the war and called for:
the exchange of prisoners of war
the release of civilians
the return of all Ukrainian children and other civilians unlawfully deported and transferred to Russia and Belarus
Special European Council, 6 March 2025
Ukraine: Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union following the Ukraine-U.S. meeting in Saudi Arabia (press release, 11 March 2025)
Russia’s immobilised assets
The EU remains ready to step up pressure on Russia, including by applying new sanctions and by strengthening the enforcement of existing sanctions.
Subject to EU law, Russia’s assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war and compensates Ukraine for the damages caused by the war.
How Russian immobilised assets are used (background information)
EU solidarity with Ukraine
Security guarantees
The EU maintains its peace through strength approach, which requires Ukraine to be in the strongest possible position. Ukraine’s own military and defence capabilities are an essential component of this.
To deter future Russian aggression, Ukraine also needs to have robust and credible security guarantees. To this end, EU leaders welcomed the efforts that have begun to be made in this regard together with like-minded and NATO partners and expressed their readiness to contribute, particularly by supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself effectively.
They also called on member states to urgently step up efforts to address Ukraine’s pressing military and defence needs.
Financial support
The EU will continue to provide Ukraine with regular and predictable financial support. To this end, EU leaders called on:
the Commission to swiftly frontload financing under the Ukraine Facility and the G7 extraordinary revenue acceleration loan
the Commission and member states to use all options under the Ukraine Facility to increase support
The Ukraine Facility (background information)
EU membership
EU leaders stressed that the EU will intensify support for Ukraine’s reform efforts to become a member state. In this regard, they highlighted the importance of progress in accession negotiations in line with the merit-based approach and of opening clusters once the conditions are met, starting with the fundamentals as soon as possible.
Ukraine: enlargement (background information)
EU military support for Ukraine
Competitiveness
Faced with multiple complex challenges, the EU needs to strengthen its competitiveness and enhance Europe’s open strategic autonomy and resilience in order to stay prosperous and maintain its global leadership.
In this context, the leaders underlined that the need to invest in defence is closely interlinked with the EU’s competitiveness.
A more competitive Union will be a stronger Union, better able to protect its citizens, its values and its interests on the global stage while sustaining its prosperity and its social model.
European Council conclusions, 20 March 2025
They also stressed that 2025 should mark a step change to boost competitiveness, strengthen the single market, promote quality jobs and ensure successful green and digital transitions, in line with the agreed climate objectives.
In this regard, they agreed to prioritise simplification, lowering energy prices and mobilising private savings in order to unlock necessary investments. They also welcomed the competitiveness compass, the clean industrial act and the omnibus simplification packages presented by the Commission.
Competitiveness compass (background information)
Simplification and reducing administrative burdens
Simplification must be implemented at all levels to provide a clear and innovation-friendly regulatory framework, without undermining predictability, policy goals or the single market.
In this regard, the leaders called on the Commission, the Council and the Parliament to:
work towards achieving the target of reducing administrative burdens by at least 25% and 35% for small- and medium-sized businesses
advance work on the simplification packages presented on 26 February 2025
adopt the stop-the-clock mechanism on sustainability reporting and due diligence by June 2025
adhere to better regulation principles throughout the legislative process
They also called on the Commission to present further simplification packages, including on industrial decarbonisation and on security and defence, and to continue reviewing the body of EU law to identify ways in order to simplify and consolidate existing laws.
Commission simplifies rules on sustainability and EU investments, delivering over €6 billion in administrative relief (European Commission, 26 February 2025)
Competitiveness and industry
Energy
The EU is committed to achieving European sovereignty and climate neutrality by 2050, while remaining competitive globally. In this context, the leaders called for efforts to be urgently stepped up to:
protect citizens and businesses from high energy costs
secure the supply of affordable and clean energy
build a genuine energy union before 2030, including electrification through net-zero and low-carbon solutions
ensure cross-border long-term investment planning to fully integrate and interconnect the EU energy market
intensify additional energy supplies to Europe
They also welcomed the Commission’s action plan for affordable energy and urged all relevant stakeholders to start delivering on the actions therein in 2025.
Energy prices and security of supply (background information)
Affordable energy action plan (European Commission)
Energy
Savings and investments union
To make the EU more competitive and more autonomous, it is paramount to create truly integrated and deeper European capital markets by achieving the capital markets union and completing the banking union.
A genuine savings and investment union will help channel hundreds of billions of euros of additional investment to the European economy every year.
European Council conclusions, 20 March 2025
In this context, and in light of the Commission communication on the savings and investment union strategy, the leaders stressed the need to take decisive steps in 2025 and 2026 and called on:
the Council and the European Parliament to quickly agree on all pending proposals from the 2020 action plan on the capital markets union, including insolvency
the Commission and the Council to advance work towards greater retail participation in capital markets by making investment and saving possibilities available, including at EU level
the Commission to swiftly propose improvements to the existing pan-European personal pension product
the Commission to propose improvements to the private equity and venture capital ecosystem and to propose an optional 28th company law regime to allow innovative companies to scale up
the Commission to propose a revised securitisation framework
In terms of convergence and efficiency, the leaders called on the Commission and the relevant authorities to ensure convergent supervisory practices and to complete the assessment of the conditions enabling the European supervisory authorities to supervise the most systemic relevant cross-border market actors and put forward a proposal in that respect.
The leaders also stressed the importance of mobilising private financing for the European defence industry, and invited the Commission to consider further leveraging EU programmes such as InvestEU.
Banking union (background information)
Retail investment strategy (background information)
European defence industry (background information)
Communication on the savings and investments union strategy (European Commission)
Capital markets union explained
Single market
To achieve a deeper single market, EU leaders called for specific work strands to be pursued without delay to secure Europe’s industrial innovation, renewal and decarbonisation.
This includes growth in key technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, semiconductors, 5G/6G and other critical technologies, while also paying attention to traditional industries in transition such as the automotive, shipping, aviation and energy-intensive industries.
In this context, the leaders called on the Commission to put forward relevant proposals, including additional flexibilities under the regulation setting CO2 emission performance for cars and vans, as well as the review foreseen in that regulation.
They also called for further efforts to enhance the recognition and retention of skills across the EU.
Artificial intelligence (background information)
The EU single market: benefits, facts and figures
European defence and security
The EU is speeding up efforts to strengthen its defence readiness to deal with immediate and future challenges.
Building on the special European Council on 6 March and the Commission’s white paper on the future of defence, leaders called for an acceleration of all work strands to ramp up Europe’s defence readiness within the next five years.
They also called for the implementation of the actions identified in the European Council conclusions of 6 March 2025 in the field of capabilities to be initiated as a matter of urgency and for continued work on the relevant financing options.
In this regard they also pointed out that a stronger and more capable EU would make a positive contribution to global and transatlantic security and would complement NATO, which remains the foundation of the collective defence of those EU countries that are members.
Security and defence (background information)
EU-NATO cooperation (background information)
Special European Council, 6 March 2025
White paper on the future of European defence (European Commission)
EU defence in numbers
MFF 2028-2034
EU leaders held a first exchange of views on the next multiannual financial framework (MFF), the EU’s long-term budget, and new own resources, a form of revenue that helps finance the EU’s expenditure.
Long-term budget explained (background information)
Financing the EU budget
Migration
Following up on past conclusions, the leaders discussed progress and encouraged further work on:
the external dimension of migration, notably through comprehensive partnerships
the implementation of adopted EU laws
the prevention and countering of irregular migration, including through new ways in line with international law
efforts related to returns
safe third countries and countries of origin
the fight against instrumentalisation, human trafficking and smuggling
visa alignment by neighbouring countries
safe and legal pathways in line with national competencies
In this context, they called on the Council and the European Parliament to advance on files with a migration dimension, especially the recent Commission proposal on returns.
Proposal to establish a common European system for returns (Eur-lex)
Migration and asylum
Oceans
In view of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, EU leaders highlighted the important role of oceans and the blue economy in strengthening the EU’s competitiveness, resilience, maritime security and environmental sustainability and protection.
In this regard, the leaders:
welcomed the Commission’s intention to propose a European ocean pact to foster healthy oceans and a sustainable and competitive blue economy
called for increased global action and ambition, including accelerated ratification of the UN agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ agreement)
took stock of the preparations for the UN ocean conference
Maritime security (background information)
Multilateralism
The EU has always upheld and will continue to uphold the UN charter and the rules and principles it enshrines, in particular those of sovereignty and territorial integrity, political independence and self-determination. In this context, EU leaders:
pledged that the EU will remain a predictable and credible partner
resolved to drive forward the ‘UN80 initiative’ internal reform process to ensure that the UN remains effective, cost-efficient and responsive
expressed their readiness to cooperate with all stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation of the pact for the future
stressed the importance of the fourth international conference on financing for development
EU cooperation with the United Nations
Western Balkans
EU leaders addressed the situation in the Western Balkans and invited the Council to address the matter in April 2025.
Western Balkans (background information)
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