---
title: Germany, Italy and Belgium Want an Emergency Brake on the Kind of EU Laws They Voted For
description: Merz, Meloni and De Wever want a brake on costly EU laws, yet all three countries voted for the packaging rules now hitting Europe's smallest businesses.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-10-14T08:40:03.401Z
updated: 2026-10-14T08:40:03.411Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/eu-emergency-brake-merz-meloni-de-wever
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/eu-leaders-alden-biesen-retreat-434109.webp
categories: EU Focus
content_type: Analysis
region: Europe
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Friedrich Merz, Giorgia Meloni and Bart De Wever want EU governments to have an "emergency brake" to stop new EU laws that cost business too much. Governments already have one, because every EU law needs their votes, and Germany, Italy and Belgium voted for the packaging rules that since August have made a one-person business register in every EU country it ships to. None of them voted against the methane rules for energy importers that they now want revised.

The German chancellor and the Italian and Belgian prime ministers sent the proposal to European Council President António Costa on 12 October, first reported by [Euronews](https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/13/germany-italy-and-belgium-call-for-emergency-brake-on-eu-legislation), ahead of an EU summit on 15 and 16 October. Nine months after Germany and Italy first floated the idea, the letter still does not say who would pull the brake or how. It also asks for fewer reporting duties for companies, for any new one to be justified before it is imposed, and for some rules to be suspended to speed up investment in energy, AI and defence.

## The EU's Biggest Red Tape Cuts Undo Laws It Passed Since 2022

The Commission says its 12 "omnibus" packages since January 2025 will save companies €14 billion a year. The largest saving it claims, €4.5 billion, comes from cutting back [the sustainability reporting directive (CSRD)](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/practical-eu-rules-lessons-from-the-frontline-of-european-sustainability) of 2022 and the due diligence directive (CSDDD) of 2024, two laws it proposed itself. Thousands of companies with as few as 250 staff had been due to report on 2025 under the CSRD, and the EU halted that in April 2025, more than three months into the year they were collecting data for. The due diligence directive was cut back before any company had to comply with it, and the AI Act's high-risk rules were delayed by a law that took effect six days before they were due to start.

For businesses, the CSRD now applies only to companies with more than 1,000 staff and €450 million in turnover, and smaller suppliers can refuse customers' requests for sustainability data beyond a voluntary EU standard. Due diligence applies only above 5,000 staff and €1.5 billion in turnover, from 2029. Importers of less than 50 tonnes a year of steel, aluminium, cement or fertiliser are out of the carbon border charge, and the AI Act's high-risk rules now start in December 2027.

## For All the Talk of Cutting Red Tape, the EU Keeps Adding More

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) was adopted in December 2024 with the votes of 25 governments, Germany, Italy and Belgium among them (Germany and Belgium under their previous governments), and has applied since 12 August. Any business that ships packaged goods to customers in another EU country must register with that country's packaging register, report what it sends and pay into its recycling scheme, and must appoint a paid local representative wherever it has no base. There is no minimum volume and no exemption for micro-businesses. A one-person workshop selling across the EU needs 26 registrations and 26 representatives, at €600 to €2,000 a year each according to lawyers quoted by Brussels Signal, and Germany's online retail association, Händlerbund, says small traders have stopped shipping to other EU countries.

> ""We cannot ask small companies selling small quantities across several Member States to set up authorized representatives in each national market.""
> — Jessika Roswall, EU environment commissioner

Jessika Roswall, the EU environment commissioner, told MEPs that in September, a month after the law started doing exactly that. The Commission proposed suspending the representative requirement in December 2025, eight months before it applied, and governments shelved the fix in June. Its answer since then has been to ask governments to ["abstain from sanctioning operators"](https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/packaging-waste/extended-producer-responsibility-packaging-small-businesses_en), which leaves the law exactly as it is. German authorities can still fine up to €200,000 per breach, and competitors can still take a seller to court.

The methane rules, adopted in 2024 with only Hungary voting against, have had the same treatment. From 1 January 2027 they require companies importing oil, gas or coal to show that their suppliers measure, report and verify methane emissions to EU standards. Italy now says that will make it harder and more expensive to switch suppliers, a study for the refiners' association FuelsEurope found the rules could exclude up to 87% of the crude oil and 43% of the gas the EU imports, and the 19-government group led by the three named them on 6 October as the first EU rule it wants removed or revised. Instead of changing the law, the Commission asked governments in July not to fine importers for breaches before 2030.

## A Brake on Future Laws Does Nothing for Businesses Already Caught

The emergency brake would apply only to laws that have not been passed yet. It would do nothing for the small sellers already paying for representatives in every country they ship to, or for the importers facing methane checks from January. The European Parliament's environment committee backed the packaging fix on 5 October, and governments, Germany, Italy and Belgium included, still have no position on it.

The brake would itself be another EU rule, one that would need new Council procedures, and possibly a treaty change, before it could stop anything. Germany, Italy and Belgium already have a simpler way to keep costly laws off the books, which is to weigh their votes properly the first time. They used those votes to put the packaging rules on Europe's smallest businesses, and they can use them now to agree the fix governments shelved in June. Until they do, their letter is more talk about cutting red tape from the governments still adding it.

## In case you were wondering.

**Q: What is an EU omnibus package?**
It is a single Commission proposal that rewrites several existing laws at once. The Commission has proposed 12 since January 2025, several of them cutting back laws adopted as recently as 2024. The sustainability reporting, CBAM and AI Act changes are law, while the packages on the GDPR, the environment, cars, food, tax and energy are still being negotiated.

**Q: What are the EPR laws in the EU?**
Extended producer responsibility makes the business that first sells a product into a country pay for collecting and recycling it. For packaging, that means registering and reporting in every EU country a business ships to and, since 12 August, appointing a local representative wherever it has no base.

**Q: What are the latest updates on the EU's methane regulation?**
The obligations for importers start on 1 January 2027. In July the Commission asked governments not to fine importers for breaches before 2030 except in cases of fraud, and on 6 October 19 governments named it as the first EU rule they want removed or revised.