1. 🇩🇪 GERMANY DOUBLES DOWN ON GREEN FAILURE

The German parliament has approved a sweeping new climate law requiring oil companies to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 65% by 2040, exceeding even the government’s own initial proposal of 59%. The government’s estimates project additional costs of €2.7 billion by 2030, alongside increased bureaucracy and regulatory burden on businesses and households.

Germany already gutted its energy base by phasing out nuclear power and several other sources. A planned 9,000 kilometer hydrogen pipeline network won’t be complete until 2032 at the earliest. Domestic biomass and green hydrogen capacity remains severely underdeveloped. Berlin is mandating a transformation it cannot yet build, and increasing energy import dependency in the process.

2. 🇫🇷 FRANCE CRACKS DOWN ON NICOTINE POUCHES

France has made it a criminal offense to possess a product that is perfectly legal in the country next door, and now Brussels is being forced to decide what the EU actually stands for.

This month, France banned the sale, possession, and use of oral nicotine pouches, meaning a traveler who legally purchased the product in Sweden or Germany faces criminal penalties the moment they enter France. Members of the European Parliament have formally asked the Commission to investigate whether Paris has violated the EU’s free movement of goods.

The logic doesn’t hold up either. Cigarettes remain legal in France. Vaping products are still available. The ban targets a category widely used across the EU as a smoking alternative.

This is Europe’s regulatory state at its most incoherent, member states inventing their own rules, contradicting the bloc’s founding principles, and leaving consumers and businesses caught in the crossfire.

🇪🇺 THE BRUSSELS’ BLAME GAME

While Brussels and national governments argue over who is to blame for Europe’s red tape catastrophe, European businesses are drowning, and no one is throwing a lifeline.

According to Politico EU, the European Commission unveiled a regulatory overhaul promising a “deep cleaning” across 12 priority areas, with a target of cutting administrative costs by €37.7 billion a year by 2029. But rather than lead with action, the Commission opened with a blame game, using the word “gold-plating” 20 times to point fingers at member states for piling extra requirements on top of Brussels mandates.

Here’s the truth: both are guilty. And while they argue, European companies fall even further behind U.S. companies. As German MEP Christian Doleschal put it: “Turning a blind eye is not an option.”

Stop the finger-pointing. Start cutting the red tape! European businesses need relief now, not a bureaucratic blame war.