Three EU countries call for mechanism to suspend EC decisions — Politico

BRUSSELS, October 12. /TASS/. The leaders of Germany, Italy, and Belgium have sent a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa proposing the creation of an "emergency brake" mechanism in the EU to suspend the application of European norms and decisions of the European Commission if they hinder competition and industrial development, Politico, which reviewed the document, said.

"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever also called to ‘significantly accelerate planning and approval procedures," suspend ‘certain regulatory areas for a specified period’ under a new 'priority rule'," the publication noted.

The leaders also called for a swift reduction in the administrative burden on small and medium·sized businesses in the EU.

This letter was sent to the head of the European Council ahead of the EU summit on 15-16 October, where the reduction of the European Commission’s budget requests for 2028-2034, the European energy crisis, the future EU expansion, and arms supplies to Ukraine will be discussed.

Politico does not specify that, in practice, the approval of such a mechanism is highly unlikely, since the European Commission is using all its resources without exception to block this initiative. It is much more likely that it will be used to put pressure on the European Commission during the upcoming heated discussion at the summit about the size of the EU’s seven·year budget. The European Commission proposed this 1.76 trillion euro budget with a significant increase in military spending, while reducing spending on agriculture and support for the EU’s depressed regions. EU countries are insisting on reducing it by 141 billion euros.