German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is on a roll against European regulation. At every possible occasion, he lashes out at “overregulation,” claiming that it hampers economic growth on the continent, making the European Union unattractive for investment and giving European entrepreneurs a disadvantage compared to Chinese and U.S. competitors. During press conferences at home and abroad, Merz has ardently called for “a true deregulation mindset.”

Merz does the same behind closed doors at European summit meetings with other heads of state and government; according to insiders, he sometimes attacks the European Commission so fiercely that other national leaders step in to defend it. And he does it, of course, when speaking to the German business community that is the bedrock of his center-right Christian Democratic Union.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is on a roll against European regulation. At every possible occasion, he lashes out at “overregulation,” claiming that it hampers economic growth on the continent, making the European Union unattractive for investment and giving European entrepreneurs a disadvantage compared to Chinese and U.S. competitors. During press conferences at home and abroad, Merz has ardently called for “a true deregulation mindset.”

Merz does the same behind closed doors at European summit meetings with other heads of state and government; according to insiders, he sometimes attacks the European Commission so fiercely that other national leaders step in to defend it. And he does it, of course, when speaking to the German business community that is the bedrock of his center-right Christian Democratic Union.

As is no doubt Merz’s intention, his message resonates with audiences across Europe: Journalists get strong quotes, Eurosceptics feel reassured that the bureaucratic EU monster is everybody’s main problem, and some of Merz’s colleagues even join the crusade—like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did at an informal European summit in February, when both she and Merz promised to shake up a Brussels machinery that churns out rules and proposed an “emergency brake” on new EU regulation.

But how many Europeans know that it often is not Brussels but the EU’s 27 member states themselves that call for more regulation? And how many realize that collective regulation is one of the strongest defensive weapons that Europe has to fend off geo-economic threats from foreign companies and........

© Foreign Policy