Thirteen EU states demand regulatory pause and review of Brussels rules

Coalition demands regulatory pause

A coalition of 13 European Union member states, including Germany, Austria, and Italy, has presented an unpublished five-page letter calling on Brussels to pause new rulemaking. The governments, representing nearly half of the 27-nation bloc, propose declaring a year of implementation and consolidation. Under this initiative, European Union officials would be required to review, simplify, untangle, and potentially repeal existing regulations before enacting new measures. The signatories argue that reducing the overall volume of legislation will relieve administrative pressure on European companies. By lightening these operational burdens, the member states intend to support business activity, strengthen the regional economy, and preserve European prosperity.

Pressures facing European business

The joint document warns that the attractiveness of Europe as an investment and business location faces serious risks. Signatories outline a series of structural and geopolitical challenges that are placing European companies under sustained disadvantage relative to global competitors.

Europe's competitiveness is increasingly under pressure from geopolitical tensions, climate change, high energy costs, strategic dependencies on raw materials, overcapacities in third countries, and the global struggle for investments.

The member states argue that overcoming these headwinds requires a predictable framework that actively encourages private investment. They contend that existing compliance obligations restrict entrepreneurial flexibility at a time when European businesses must navigate international cost disparities and industrial overcapacity in third countries.

Friction over administrative responsibility

The five-page document follows two weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the European Union address. During that speech, von der Leyen addressed the reduction of administrative burdens only briefly, despite earlier commitments making deregulation a central pillar of her second term in office. She also placed responsibility on national governments, demanding that member states halt gold-plating, the practice of adding extra regulatory requirements when transposing European Union directives into domestic law. That stance caused surprise among diplomats, members of the European Parliament, and industry representatives in Brussels, who viewed the response as an evasion of executive accountability.

Treaty obligations and impact assessments

The 13 member states reject the Commission's framing, maintaining that the reduction of administrative overhead is an institutional obligation rather than a task limited to national capitals. The joint paper points out that lowering regulatory friction directly upholds the foundational European Union treaty principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

Reducing bureaucracy is not only an economic goal, but also a legal obligation.

To enforce these principles, the coalition calls on the European Commission to attach far greater weight to preparing impact assessments for every new legislative proposal. The governments demand systematic evaluations of how proposed European regulations affect industrial competitiveness before they reach the legislative docket. This demand follows a year in which the European Commission introduced 123 directives and regulations. The signatories argue that without mandatory competitiveness reviews and regulatory consolidation, excessive rulemaking will continue to erode Europe's economic position.