Stunning Findings from Brussels: Consumption of Paragraphs is Impossible
Amidst Germany's heated debates on immigration, another subject has been skipped over: how to revive our economy again.
This week, while Germany's coalition and opposition engage in a bitter fight over immigration in Berlin, a bridge named Carola, located 195 kilometers south, reaches its breaking point and partially collapses.
Just like any event during a tense moment, the debris of the Carola collapse in Dresden is immediately used as ammunition between political opponents. Lighter-hearted interpretations blame the outcome of Saxony's election - hasn't everyone felt a bit shattered lately? Serious discussions try to rekindle the debate about the debt brake.
Green faction leader Katharina Dröge argues that "clinging to the debt brake" has essentially caused the bridge to fail. Over half a trillion euros are needed for German infrastructure, an amount that the traffic light coalition cannot currently afford. However, FDP transport minister Volker Wissing counters that Carola is a local issue, not a federal one, and therefore has nothing to do with the debt brake. A stalemate, for now.
The Italian's Criticism
Meanwhile, in the shadows of expelling foreigners, another topic has collapsed this week: Europe's belief in happiness through regulations. Mario Draghi presented his report on the EU's competitiveness in Brussels, which he had been working on for years and spans almost 70 pages.
The report contained fuel for plenty of decay and debt-related issues, which was commissioned by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Draghi was supposed to identify investment gaps, and he showed that 800 billion euros should now be invested jointly by EU member states - with "jointly" being the key word. Draghi's opinions carry weight in Brussels, coming from his time as head of the European Central Bank during a period when the banking system was as dilapidated as bridges in Dresden, and as the recent Prime Minister of Italy.
The economist Draghi also dismissed a popular EU fantasy either by stating that one cannot create a glowing economic area with fine-tuned paragraph values and stringent regulation. Instead, Draghi expressed that regulation is the obstacle, especially for technology companies.
He criticized the EU for having around 100 technology-related laws and over 270 regulatory authorities active in all member states in the digital networks sector, and alleged that this excessive regulation advantageously impacts large corporations and foreign corporations while overwhelming smaller ones. Draghi even diagnosed a certain hypocrisy within the EU: "We claim to promote innovations, but we continue to impose regulatory burdens on European companies," he said. The EU should retreat where possible and only regulate what is necessary at EU level.
This report from Brussels is truly a shock study - you can't eat paragraphs, after all!
Something we haven't heard before. On the contrary, Brussels bureaucrats and politicians are driven by a sense of pride in their ability to create complex, lengthy, and intricate regulations. The more convoluted, extensive, wordy, and cautious a regulation is, the more agencies, officials, and stakeholders it produces, and the more NGOs, think tanks, and professors it attracts, the better it seems to be. Politicians and their aides proudly boast about their all-nighters spent on mountains of paper with hundreds of considerations and countless delegated legal acts.
When the EU recently announced a hastily put-together AI regulation, outgoing and incoming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) actually called this mess "a blueprint" for the whole planet to follow. Instead, recently, the European AI hopeful Aleph Alpha's dream of competing with ChatGPT using its own language model was shattered - game over.
Even though AI products will remain unaffected, the economic future of every country depends significantly on how well it can boost its productivity with AI. Regrettably, many German companies still shy away from the strongest applications because data protection officers are hovering over them. And it's about to get even scarier, as AI commissioners will soon be joining them. If technology fails, we can always open a shop for concerns and objections.
When will we finally say, "It's about the economy, stupid"?
So far, collapsing bridges and economic errors haven't led us to talk about the economy, except for talking about the debt brake. Why would we, virtually every poll indicates that Germans fear migration more than anything else. Let's just keep talking about it, even if it's just to keep right-wing extremists at bay - a misguided form of xenophobia.
Regulating migration won't solve the issue of right-wing extremists. Instead, a solid promise that things will get better for us someday is the cornerstone of any effective anti-populist policy, not mimicking xenophobia. Not calmly dismissing foreigners who happen to be in the sights of several knife-wielding attackers will lead to economic or political success.
For the Bundestag election campaign, one can only hope that the migration issue will somehow be resolved by 2025, one way or another. Berlin doesn't seem to be heading that way. The CDU wants to keep the migration issue alive, just to keep it away from the right-wing extremists, and is sabotaging talks with the traffic light coalition. The traffic light coalition, for its part, cannot bring itself to declare a state of emergency due to migration according to EU law - it would be political suicide and a tightrope walk.
Neglecting the Economy is a Mistake when Discussing Immigration
The issue continues to be a hot topic. Not too long ago, the Netherlands declared an emergency situation, which was something the Union had been pushingly seeking from the chancellor, and perhaps other EU countries will follow suit. Such display of "solidarity" is what Draghi envisioned for a competitive Europe.
If we're still fiercely debating immigration in 2025, let's not overlook this fact: Carola didn't succumb due to the large number of Ukrainians, Afghans, and Syrians on the bridge.
The Federal elections in 2025 could provide an opportunity to address the country's economic revival, as current debates are predominantly focused on immigration. Despite the partial collapse of the Carola bridge, the debate around the debt brake remains stalemated.
The report presented by Mario Draghi in Brussels highlights the EU's excessive regulation in the digital sector, which is disadvantageous to smaller companies and contributes to an obstacle for technological innovation. This indicates that Europe's focus on regulations might be a hindrance to economic growth, and it's essential to evaluate whether such regulations are necessary.
