The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU has come to a very crucial minute - it is not only the beginning of the fresh legislative cycle, but besides the time of geopolitical tensions and economical challenges. In this context, we are pleased that the voice of entrepreneurs has been taken seriously. The appointment of the Council of Entrepreneurs for the Presidency proved to be an appropriate decision – it created a space for real dialog between administration and business environment. Leviathan has been an active associate in these meetings and we are pleased to note that the calls for support for SMEs, deregulation or fair access to the interior marketplace have been heard and taken into account in the work of the Council of the EU. We are besides seeing a affirmative trend – more and more companies are curious in the EU agenda and want to influence European policy. That's a good direction. We hope that this cooperation model, based on expert cognition and regular contact with the administration, will be maintained permanently, even after the Presidency has ended. We are pleased that the administration has done a large deal to work actively with business during the Presidency. We are counting on this trend to continue," she says. Margaret Mroczkowska-Horne, Director-General of the Confederation of Leviathan.
Read the detailed summary of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council in the following areas:
Legislative simplificationSingle market
Digital policyHealth policy
Energy and climate policyEU enlargement
Legislative simplification
Simplification has become 1 of the key priorities of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council. In line with the objectives contained in the Budapest Declaration and the Letty and Draghi reports, this is besides a precedence for the fresh European Commission. fast implementation of Omnibus packages is intended to stimulate investment and innovation and improve the legal environment of businesses. For years, European business has called on EU institutions to simplify regulations for companies, but it cannot be done at the expense of the quality of the law. associate States' representatives agreed on an EU Council negotiating mandate to simplify sustainability reporting (CSRD) and due diligence (CS3D) requirements, says King Graf, Deputy Director-General for European Affairs in the Leviathan Confederation.
The proposal forms part of the Omnibus I package presented by the Commission on 26 February 2025, in consequence to the European Council's call for simplification of EU rules. Under the CSRD, the Council proposed, inter alia, raising the thresholds to 1000 workers and 450 million euro turnover, and excluding listed SMEs from their responsibilities. In the CS3D, thresholds were raised to 5,000 employees and 1.5 billion euros of turnover, due diligence obligations were limited to the closest trading partners (so-called tier 1), and the work to prepare climate change plans was postponed by 2 years. The Council maintained the Commission's proposal to abolish the single government of civilian liability and extended the deadline for the implementation of the CS3D until July 2028. Tripartite negotiations can begin erstwhile the European Parliament has adopted its position.
This approach fits into the broader Presidency's trio (Poland-Denmark-Cypr) programme, which focuses on strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of the European economy. The continuation of this work by successive presidencies will be crucial to finalising the reforms, says Luana Żak, Deputy Directors of the Leviathan Confederation Delegation in Brussels.
The future of the Single Market
By Ewelina Augustiniak, EU expert in the Lewiatan Confederation, from a business perspective, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council played an crucial function in continuing and strengthening the dialog on the future of the EU Single Market.
The Ministry of improvement and Technology issued the 3rd edition of the Black Barrier Book, presenting circumstantial barriers to the functioning of the single market, both legal and administrative. The paper stresses the difficulties in providing cross-border services, the unjustified formalities for posting workers, as well as the divergent approach of associate States to EU rules.
This paper was a mention point during the Single marketplace Forum (SIMFO) – a debate on the future of the Single Market, held on 17 February 2025 in Krakow. By listening to business voice and the request for urgent action, the European Commission published a Communication on a fresh Single marketplace strategy for the EU on 21 May 2025, based on a imagination of a simpler and strengthened interior market.
The strategy identifies the 10 biggest obstacles:
- complexity of EU government and excessive bureaucracy,
- incomplete implementation of EU law by associate States,
- obstacles to setting up and operating in another EU country;
- problems with designation of professional qualifications,
- free and inefficient establishment of standards and standards,
- shredded provisions on packaging, labelling and waste,
- outdated and inconsistent product rules,
- fragmentation of regulation in services,
- burdensome procedures relating to the posting of workers,
- territorial restrictions on access to products and services.
It is worth examining the European Commission's proposals and its comprehensive approach, both in the field of services, administration, SMEs and EU law enforcement. The coming months will be decisive, due to the fact that it is circumstantial legislation, their implementation and enforcement that will find the real impact on business," she said. Ewelina Augustiniak.
Digital policy
By Aleksandra Musielak, manager of the Digital marketplace Department of the Lewiatan Confederation, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union was a period of intensive action in the field of digital policies, abounding in initiatives aimed at shaping a modern, innovative regulatory environment. This commitment was confirmed by a gathering of the EU Council on Transport, Telecommunications and Energy, held on 6 June under the leadership of Poland.
During this meeting, associate States adopted a number of key papers reflecting the priorities of the Polish Presidency, including a study on deregulation supporting digital innovation. It includes a number of recommendations inspired by Leviathan's proposals, aimed at facilitating economical activity in the digital sphere and improving the socio-economic environment in Poland and the full European Union. Among the proposed solutions were the extension of adjustment periods for entrepreneurs towards fresh regulations and the re-application of the stop-the-clock mechanism, which allows for the postponement of EU digitalisation rules in the absence of essential compliance tools specified as method standards. This is peculiarly crucial in the implementation of the Act on Artificial Intelligence and the Act on Cyber-Resistance," he says. Ms Alexandra Musielak.
The study besides calls for the implementation of the "one-off" rule for reporting cybersecurity incidents, eliminating the request for multiple reporting in different associate States, while clearly distinguishing between legal acts specified as the NIS2 Directive (including operational services) and the CRA Directive (referring to products). An integral part of this approach is the European meta-platform for incidental reporting, integrated into national systems through APIs.
In addition, the paper points to the request to make common basic screening measures and a multi-level framework for assessing the reliability of suppliers. It is equally crucial to guarantee consistency and compatibility between key legal acts specified as the Data Act, the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive or, potentially, the Digital marketplace Act. It besides stressed the request to destruct duplicating and inconsistent hazard assessment cycles and to simplify enforcement mechanisms for the application of algorithms in the Platform Work Directive and in the AI Act.
Among the tangible results of the Polish Presidency are besides the creation of the Artificial Intelligence mill in Poznań – a national centre that will support the improvement of advanced AI technologies, integration of supercomputers, data resources and cooperation between discipline and industry. “This investment, co-financed by the European Commission, will become an crucial link of European digital infrastructure and a strategical competence centre,” she said. Eliza Turkiewicz, expert at the Digital marketplace Department of the Leviathan Confederation.
It was besides crucial to adopt Council conclusions on reliable and resilient communications that support the European Commission in its work on future regulation – Digital Networks Act. They take account of the market's voices, demanding to item the scale of the challenges facing the improvement of digital infrastructure – including not only the war of Russia against Ukraine or the expanding number of physical attacks, cyber attacks and hybrid attacks on this infrastructure, but besides the occurrence of natural disasters caused by global climate change. In consequence to these challenges, as expected by telecoms companies, the Council recommended "mobilising strategical investments to strengthen the protection and resilience of digital infrastructure", including focusing on ensuring uninterrupted access to energy sources in emergency situations.
Health policy
During the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, a common position on improvement of EU pharmaceutical law was reached and adopted by the Council, which opens the way for further negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission. "This is the first specified wide revision of pharmaceutical government since 2004, aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European drug marketplace and equal access for patients to treatment across the EU," he said. Casper Oilcake, manager of the Department of wellness and Sector Protection Life Sciences at the Leviathan Confederation.
The Polish Presidency has led to a compromise on many hard issues, having regard, inter alia, to the simplification of marketplace protection to 1 year and to the creation of conditions for generic manufacturers to prepare for the early entry into the marketplace during ongoing data protection. The shortening of this period will let cheaper generic medicines to appear more rapidly on the market, which will benefit both the EU manufacture and wellness systems. As a result, public contributors will be relieved of the financial burden and patients will gain access to more affordable therapies.
In addition, fresh government has been introduced to make a comprehensive drug shortage management strategy that will allow, inter alia, coordination between associate States on surpluses and shortages of medicines.
Energy and climate policy
The motto of the Polish Presidency was “Safety, Europo!” and 1 of its 7 priorities was energy transformation.
The Polish Government pointed out that the success of the Presidency was to give top precedence to deregulation. As a result, the Omnibus package was adopted to simplify reporting, sustainable improvement and investment legislation. "In the area of deregulation, this can be seen as a concrete tangible success, and the deregulation direction has been deeper as a direction for further action by the European Commission," he said. Jakub SafjanskiDirector of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
However, there are many more areas for deregulation. An example is the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. As a consequence of the surprising, previously unconsulted change in its content at the trilogue phase in March 2024, it had negative effects on many sectors of the Polish economy. This amendment concerns Article 29, which provides for the work to usage reusable packaging only for transport within a single country, despite the deficiency of economically and environmentally sound alternate technologies. In this respect, deregulation should continue.
The European Commission's plan for Europe was besides important, including the simplification of energy prices, the simplification of barriers in the EU Single marketplace (with peculiar emphasis on services), the simplification of bureaucracy, the creation of a union of savings and investment and a union of skills.
In addition, a Clean manufacture Pact – a support plan for European manufacture was adopted. This is peculiarly crucial for Poland, where electricity belongs to the most costly in Europe. In May 2025, we were the second most costly electricity marketplace in the EU. The price on the place marketplace was on average 94 EUR/MWh, while in Germany only 67. This is despite the end of the energy crisis caused by Russia's aggression into Ukraine. The reason is, among others, the advanced share of coal in energy production, the increased prices of natural gas and the costs of CO2 emanation allowances borne by coal and gas power plants.
We request an adequate industrial strategy to support green governance and guarantee Europe's global competitiveness. Poland is already a automotive cluster of electrical car factories and components, specified as batteries for electrical cars, and the share of the automotive sector in GDP is as much as 8%. Production plants invest in their own energy from RES and in automation of production, which is simply a affirmative and innovative trend in modernization of our industry. However, the EU industrial strategy has not yet been developed.
The announcement of measures at European level to lower energy prices is simply a step in the right direction. Access to inexpensive energy is now the most serious challenge for European industry, which Mario Draghi pointed out is losing its competitiveness in the world. The recipe is, among another things, the simplification in taxes on electricity and its media by associate States.
The evaluation of the Presidency is hard due to the fact that its function is limited to being an honest intermediary in the process of creating law. This means, on the 1 hand, coordination of the regulatory processes taken over from the erstwhile Presidency and, on the another hand, the anticipation of initiating their own priorities through many meetings at European level. The importance and impact of the associate State itself and its ability to build a wider coalition of EU countries besides play an crucial role.
Declarations alone will not lead to lower energy prices and their media. They are marketplace goods subject to request and supply laws and geopolitical turmoil. The Polish Presidency could not change these conditions due to the fact that it had no influence on it. However, emphasising the function of energy safety and green transition – which makes us independent of imports of energy natural materials – surely contributed to energy security. The next actions of the European Commission and associate States will depend on whether Europe will further strengthen its energy independence," he added. Jakub Safjanski.
Support for EU enlargement
One of Leviathan's demands for the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union was to support the process of extending the European Union to fresh countries, in peculiar east and South east Europe. It was besides a precedence of the Polish Presidency, especially as regards Ukraine and Moldova.
Formally, accession negotiations began in mid-2024 and the first half of 2025 was to give them a peculiar boost. crucial advancement has been made in the implementation of the first stage, the review of the law (screening), which has been completed in more than half of the 7 negotiating clusters. This process should complete in the autumn of 2025.
The ambition of the Polish Presidency was the actual beginning of accession negotiations in the first areas (clusters), or at least in the first (fundamentals). Unfortunately, this did not happen due to the deficiency of unanimity among the EU associate States - so far, Hungary is the main object, says Andrzej Rudka, advisor to the board of the Confederacy of Leviathan and head of the cooperation squad with Ukraine.
It was besides not possible to replace the Autonomous Trade Measures which gave it easier access to the EU marketplace after full Russian aggression, a permanent agreement regulating these issues. As a result, since the beginning of June 2025, trade has been on little favourable terms for Ukraine, as set out in the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (including the EU Association Agreement) in 2014.
The Danish Presidency will so take over these 2 tasks. However, this does not mean no support for reconstruction and improvement of Ukraine – in particular, further tranches of financial support under the Ukrainian Facility (€50 billion), including an investment support programme (€9.3 billion). This reflects the affirmative assessments of reforms undertaken by Ukraine by the European Commission, including the improvement of investment conditions, including private abroad capital.
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