AfD co-leader Alice Weidel has accused Brussels of “suffocating Europe with directives and regulations without considering the consequences” after a new study suggested the European Commission assesses the impact of only a small fraction of the legislation it produces.
The comments came after a previously unpublished study by Germany’s powerful metal industry association Gesamtmetall found that the Commission completed just 25 impact assessments last year despite processing 123 directives and regulations and adopting more than 1,000 legislative acts.
The findings are likely to fuel a broader debate over Brussels’ regulatory culture. As European industries complain about rising compliance costs and falling competitiveness, critics argue that the EU is continuing to produce new rules without adequately examining their real-world effects.
Gesamtmetall Director General Oliver Zander warned that the findings point to a troubling lack of scrutiny in Brussels. Impact assessments “are necessary and useful, especially in the EU, where regulations affect 27 different legal systems,” he said, describing the current approach as “surprising, wrong, and dangerous.”
Commission officials rejected the criticism, arguing that the figure of 25 should not be compared directly with the total number of legislative acts. According to a spokesman, most EU measures concern technical matters and do not impose significant burdens, meaning full impact assessments are unnecessary.
The criticism is not coming solely from the EU’s nationalist opponents. Liberal MEP Moritz Körner also said, “Those who preach regulation must prove its effect. Good intentions are not enough.” Every rule, he added, costs freedom, time, and money, and must therefore deliver a demonstrable benefit. Without assessment, policy becomes paternalistic and disconnected from reality.
The debate comes as Brussels faces mounting pressure to reduce the regulatory burden on European businesses. Concerns about competitiveness have intensified since the publication of the report by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, which warned that excessive bureaucracy was undermining Europe’s economic performance, while several member state governments have called for a reduction in regulatory burdens.
The controversy comes at an awkward time for Brussels. The Commission has spent months advancing its own “regulatory simplification” agenda, driven by pressure from the Draghi report and several member state governments. The European Council reaffirmed this in October 2025, calling for an end to “regulatory overload.”
For Weidel, however, the issue goes beyond questions of administrative efficiency. “Brussels is suffocating Europe with directives and regulations without considering the consequences. The AfD wants to reform the EU and place it on a new foundation: instead of bureaucratic centralism, a confederation of free and sovereign nation states.”
