Overview

• Ursula von der Leyen promised a 35% reduction in administrative burden for small and mid-sized firms as part of a competitiveness push.
• She said the EU aims to conclude a free-trade agreement with India this year, noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares the goal, though negotiations remain ongoing.
• She proposed giving preference to products made in Europe in public procurement to strengthen domestic industry.
• She endorsed outside critiques of internal EU market barriers, citing the IMF and German reporting, and blamed legislative holdups in the European Parliament and Council for slow progress.
• Germany’s leading business groups issued a joint warning on eroding competitiveness and called for bureaucracy cuts, affordable energy, skilled‑worker policies, new trade deals, and relief for the Mittelstand.