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The President of the European Commission insists that EU countries have no right to use Brussels as a scapegoat for excessive bureaucracy and the failures of the single market, notes Politico magazine in a report, referring to today's informal Summit in Belgium.
European leaders cannot simply blame bureaucrats in Brussels for the EU's economic weakness and must cut their own national bureaucracies and protectionist regulations. That is the message the Commission President will deliver to today's summit.
Fears of Europe's decline in industrial power compared to the US and China are reaching a peak. However, EU institutions in Brussels are in conflict with European capitals such as Berlin and Rome over who is to blame for the bureaucracy.
Sensing that Thursday's European Council meeting could turn into an ambush, with European leaders plotting to attack Brussels for overloading industry with rules on everything from chemicals to livestock, von der Leyen hit back in two speeches she gave to the Council on Wednesday.
"We also need to examine the national level... additional layers of national legislation that simply make life harder for businesses and create new barriers to our single market," she said in her first speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Essentially, this was a response to complaints that Europe is still full of regulatory barriers that prevent the 27 member states from operating effectively as a single trading area.
Citing a disappointing example of the failure of the internal market, he explained that a truck can transport 44 tonnes on Belgian roads, but only 40 tonnes on French roads, creating problems for cross-border trade.
"We proposed legislation to harmonize this issue. Almost two years later, it is still under discussion," the Commission President stressed.
If you ask European leaders who is to blame for the excessive regulations that are “suffocating” businesses, the answer will be Brussels. In preparation for today’s meeting in Belgium, Germany and Italy have drafted a document in which they insist that the EU should “restrain” from pursuing new rules.
"New legislative proposals that are expected to impose excessive additional administrative burdens should be withdrawn or not presented at all," Rome and Berlin said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a speech on Wednesday evening, reinforced this stance and shifted responsibility for Germany's slow growth to Brussels.
Regarding the reduction of bureaucracy, "I know that the European Union institutions are not as fast as they should be. We are fighting against the mechanism that works without interruption and constantly produces new regulations," said the German Chancellor.
"The obstacles for us are part of the European Commission and, unfortunately, part of the European Parliament. I hear that Ursula von der Leyen and others are paving the way for a radical reduction in bureaucracy. But, frankly, we are not where we need to be. And this is a difficult task, but we are doing it," Merz stressed.
A European diplomat told the magazine anonymously that European leaders' attacks on Brussels "are part of the game," even if this "blame game" prevents concrete changes from being made to improve the economy.
An EU official said anonymously that “leaders need to send a clear message to their capitals to work on removing barriers and reducing bureaucracy. From the perspective of the EU institutions, it is important to see what else can be done to avoid different interpretations of our decisions. This will be part of the discussions in Alden Biesen.”
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