Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz launched a direct attack on Brussels bureaucracy this week, declaring that the European Union has become "the world champion of overregulation" in a stark admission that threatens to reshape the EU's regulatory approach.
"The single market was once created to form the most competitive economic area in the world," Merz told reporters. "Instead, we have become the world champion of overregulation. That has to end."
The statement, coming from the leader of Europe's largest economy, carries particular weight. Germany has historically been both architect and enforcer of many EU regulations—from data protection to financial services. When Berlin's most powerful voice says there's too much red tape, Brussels listens.
What makes this significant: Merz isn't a Brussels-bashing populist. He's a former European Parliament member and CDU veteran who spent decades in EU institutions. When he calls for deregulation, it signals a fundamental shift in German thinking about how Europe should operate.
The timing matters. Europe faces mounting economic pressure from a newly protectionist United States and an industrial juggernaut in China. The EU's regulatory ambitions—particularly its pioneering AI Act and Digital Markets Act—have positioned Brussels as a global standard-setter. But they've also sparked business complaints about compliance costs while American and Chinese competitors operate with fewer constraints.
Merz's intervention could herald a deregulation push from the EU's most influential member state. The question is whether this creates productive reform or friction with Brussels' regulatory apparatus.
The European Commission has not yet responded to Merz's comments. But several Northern European capitals have quietly expressed similar concerns about regulatory burden on European businesses.
What happens next depends on whether Merz follows rhetoric with concrete proposals—and whether he can build a coalition of like-minded states to force Brussels to pare back its rulebook. The Chancellor's complaint is familiar. Whether he can actually change anything is the real story.
