German Conservatives Push Von der Leyen on EU Deregulation at Berlin Meeting

BERLIN — German conservative leaders and Ursula von der Leyen downplayed frictions over deregulation on Monday — even as Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right bloc pushed for the European Commission president to slash red tape behind the scenes. Von der Leyen met with leading conservative politicians in Berlin Monday to discuss EU regulations they view as weighing on German business. In the run-up to the meeting, parliamentarians in Germany's conservative bloc piled pressure on von der Leyen to aggressively simplify and cut EU rules in a strategy paper dubbed "agenda for sustainable reduction of bureaucracy at EU level." The draft paper, seen by POLITICO, lays bare the increasingly hardball tactics German lawmakers are deploying to get their way and includes a list of 27 far-reaching demands directed at the Commission. Alongside German conservative leaders in Berlin Monday, however, von der Leyen sought to present a united front with her conservative ideological counterparts in Germany, saying the Commission's goals on deregulation aligned with theirs. "We are deeply committed to this issue," von der Leyen said. "This is also evident in the document before us, which incorporates many of our considerations," she said of the German strategy paper. "We are determined to bring about change so that in Europe and in the member states we can more quickly and effectively create an environment where companies can grow and develop the global competitiveness they need," von der Leyen added. Two key EU files up for discussion are the Commission's Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) — which would define a "Made in EU" preference in green public procurement — and the AI Act — both of which Berlin has actively tried to water down. Jens Spahn, one of the leaders of the conservative parliamentary group, said German lawmakers were eager to debate the exact terms of these initiatives. "We want free, open markets," Spahn said. "But we also recognize that we must respond when other economies, such as the U.S. and China, take a different approach. And that is why measures to strengthen and protect our industry are fundamentally the right thing to do. Of course, we are wrangling over exact details."