News Tank Academic presents its best of 2025

2025 was Ursula von der Leyen's first full year as Commission President for her second term, marked in particular by the proposal in July for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, the European Union's medium-term budget.

The Commissioners in charge of Education, Research and Innovation presented their first major policy plan. In March, Roxana Mînzatu, the Executive Vice-President for Social Rights, Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, proposed her Union of Skills, the Commission's response to Europe's need to better train its citizens for the challenges of the future. In May, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, presented the start-up and scale-up strategy, "to make the EU the best place in the world to launch and grow technology-driven innovative companies".

In the same month, the EU's ministers for higher education agreed on a strategy for the introduction of a European degree label in 2026 and committed to restarting discussions on a potential European degree by 2029.

In July, European Commission President Ursula von der…