European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) 2025 work programme

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published its 2025 work programme which is embedded in its revised single programme document 2025-2027. The year 2025 marks the start of this three-year plan.

EIOPA’s mission is to protect the public interest by contributing to stability in the short, medium and long term. This mission is achieved by promoting a sound regulatory framework and consistent supervisory practices.

To achieve these objectives, EIOPA has outlined the following 6 areas of priorities in its Annual Work Programme for 2025:

• Priority 1: Sustainable finance
• Priority 2: Digitalisation
• Priority 3: Supervision
• Priority 4: Policy
• Priority 5: Financial stability
• Priority 6: Governance

Priority 1: Sustainable finance

Contribute to building up sustainable insurance and pensions (including by addressing protection gaps) for the benefit of EU citizens and businesses.

Sustainable finance will be a key focus across all EIOPA activities, including integrating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) risks into prudential frameworks and supporting the analysis of sustainability risks.

There will be an emphasis on corporate sustainability reporting, as well as reviews on the implementation of sustainability-related product disclosures and rules governing product design and sales processes.

EIOPA will:

• Continue its work to deliver on the requirements arising from the review of the Solvency II Directive, recognising that the availability of data and models is critical for effective ESG risk management.
• Aim to address gaps in natural catastrophe protection, including through joint actions, sharing expertise and data (e.g. catastrophe modelling), and designing tools/policies to improve risk awareness, incentivise adaption and mitigation efforts.
• Update the EU-wide dashboard on insurance protection gaps, to promote risk awareness and financial inclusion.
• Sustainable finance will remain a central topic in EIOPA’s supervisory dialogues with third countries.

Priority 2: Digitalisation

Support the supervisory community and industry to mitigate the risks and seize the opportunities of the digital transformation, including by further promoting data driven culture.

EIOPA will assess financial inclusion to ensure fair and ethical treatment of consumers, promote digital literacy, and encourage a consumer-centric digital transformation aligned with innovation.

It will continue implementing actions according to its digital finance strategy, focusing on consumer outcomes and leveraging previous work, with particular reference to three areas:

1. Ensuring innovation is aligned with the best interest of citizens
2. Building the sustainability and resilience of all insurance market players
3. Enhancing the supervisory capabilities of EIOPA and the NCA’s

Building the sustainability and resilience of market players will include updating the risk management framework to address the opacity of some AI algorithms, operational resilience in the face of rising cyber-attacks, and the increasing need for more robust and agile IT functions.

Supervisory capabilities will be enhanced with continued collaboration on more agile and efficient supervisory processes and technologies.

Priorities:

• Support National Competent Authorities (NCAs) in the supervision of the AI Act and oversee market surveillance of the insurance and pensions sectors.
• Support the proposal for a regulation on FIDA
• Focus on consumer outcomes including promoting consumer-centricity in the digital transformation of insurance and pensions, and the ethical use of data to combat financial exclusion and safeguard privacy, while keeping agile to accommodate changes.

Priority 3: Supervision

Promote sound, efficient and consistent prudential and conduct supervision throughout Europe, particularly in view of increased cross-border business.

To further improve quality of supervision and strengthen supervisory convergence, EIOPA will continue enhancing the use of all tools available:

1. Independent oversight: Monitoring and challenging supervisory practices, supporting NCAs to ensure efficient supervision through bilateral country visits, group supervisor dialogues, and collaboration.
2. Internal models: EIOPA will help identify issues with internal models that could create an uneven playing field and hinder competitiveness, particularly among large groups.
3. Common benchmarks: EIOPA will continue to review tools to assist NCAs following the Solvency II review, IORP II implementation, and conduct of business supervision, while focusing on emerging supervisory risks.
4. Review practices and outcomes: EIOPA will carry out peer reviews, thematic reviews, lessons learned and coordinated mystery shopping exercises.

The three ESAs will continue to closely liaise on a regular basis with the aim to strengthen cooperation among each other and to foster cross sectoral consistency, as well a supervisory convergence.

Priorities:

• Actively engage with National Competent Authorities (NCAs) on group supervision by participating in the colleges of supervisors and establishing collaboration platforms
• Promote products that offer value for money, are simple to understand and meet consumers’ needs to finance financial inclusion
• Improve the supervisory toolbox for better outcomes and enhanced cooperation on cross-border supervision
• Conduct oversight activities of Critical Third-Party Providers
• Utilise EIOPA’s extensive knowledge on internal models to identify relevant issues
• Revise supervisory convergence tools and integrate new material, especially considering the Solvency II review, focusing on NCAs implementation of the IORP II Directive, and continuing peer review activities
• Collect data to further align reporting between insurance and pensions sectors, aiming to make reporting more cost efficient.

Priority 4: Policy

Deliver high-quality advice and other policy work taking into account changing and growing needs of society as well as the effects of new horizontal regulation.

1. Implementation of Solvency II review:  EIOPA will update its technical standards and guidelines in line with amendments to Solvency II, with a focus on reducing the number of existing standards and guidelines where possible. In completing the Single European Rulebook, EIOPA’s focus in 2025 will be on conduct regulation and updating the already developed Rulebooks.
2. Retail Investment Strategy (RIS): EIOPA expects to receive new mandates deriving from the RIS such as technical guidance, guidelines and development of new IT tools (Q2 2025).
3. Addressing pension gaps: EIOPA is prepared to any possible follow-up work to its recent technical advice to the European Commission. EIOPA is also committed to work on the further development of sustainable and adequate pensions, particularly defined contribution schemes. Additionally, EIOPA will provide advice on the potential review of the Pan-European Personal Pensions Product (PEPP) or other long-term savings products
4. International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) activity: EIOPA will continue to play an active role in the IAIS, notably with reference to the Insurance Capital Standard of the IAIS as its monitoring period comes to an end in 2024.

Priority 5: Financial stability

Further enhance financial stability, with particular focus on the analysis of financial sector risks and vulnerabilities, and emerging threats.

• EIOPA will continue to monitor, analyse, and assess risks and vulnerabilities in the insurance and occupational pensions sectors, adopting a preventive approach and coordinating actions as necessary.
• In 2025, EIOPA will focus on the implementation of the Insurance Recovery and Resolution Directive (IRRD) and potential work on Insurance Guarantee Schemes.
• EIOPA will conduct EU-wide bottom-up IORP stress tests and increase the use of top-down modelling for financial stability risk assessment in the insurance sector.
• The Authority will continue providing guidance on monitoring and analysing risks arising from macroeconomic developments, financial markets, insurance undertakings, and IORPs, including developing recommendations and mitigating actions. This will be supported by ongoing economic research through the EIOPA External Research Platform, along with publishing insurance and IORP indicators and statistics to enhance the financial stability toolkit.

Priority 6: Governance

Be a model EU supervisory authority setting global high standards of corporate governance, and fostering efficient cooperation within the EU and globally.

EIOPA aims to operate as a modern, agile organisation, ensuring sound public administration. In 2025, processes will be adjusted to facilitate swift decision-making and proactive resource allocation, while accommodating remote working and fostering cooperation across borders.

• EIOPA will be ready to absorb new tasks, such as DORA while maintaining a cost-effective operating model and introducing efficiency gains.
• EIOPA will maintain a strong corporate culture and meeting high standards of integrity, diversity, and inclusion while improving sustainability of operations and reduction of carbon footprint.