EU elections explainer: Heading into the next term, reading the smoke signals

This is the second article in a two-part series, with the first article providing analysis on the 2024 transition year of EU leadership overhaul.

The period before an election is a good time to take stock of the finishing legislative mandate. What was promised? What was achieved? What is still in the making? What has been discarded or forgotten? What may come next?

In Brussels, these questions echo with a few pragmatic realities:

• The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, was primarily set up to propose new laws and enforce existing ones. Despite regular calls to slow down the regulatory train, there will be more regulation from Brussels. It's the cycle of EU life.
• The EU is a vast array of Eurocrats, lobbyists and policymakers representing 27 member states and a gordian knot of interests. Agreeing on new legislation has become increasingly challenging. At times it leads to rushed and chaotic endings, such as with the AI Act and unfinished business, such as with e-privacy , and all too often it results in unclear or contradictory rules.
• The EU policymaking process is lengthy and will inevitably bridge electoral terms. New legislative proposals need to go through preparatory steps, including roadmaps, advisory expert groups and public consultations, that take months, if not years. But when a proposal is made, it inevitably crosses the finish line 99% of the time.