In September 2026 the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, the DIHK, published 20 examples of Gold-Plating. The term means transposing EU directives into national law with requirements that go beyond what EU law demands. Among the DIHK’s examples is the German duty for companies to appoint a data protection officer. In December 2025 a study by the Centrum für Europäische Politik found that recent federal governments had hardly managed to avoid gold-plating, despite clear promises.
european union
Declared Done Too Early
The European Union and the South American Mercosur states negotiated a free trade agreement from 1999. After an EU summit in October 2025, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told journalists: Es gibt aus den Mitgliedstaaten jetzt keine Vorbehalte mehr. Es ist erledigt. Es ist durch. There are no more reservations from the member states. It is done. It is through. The President of the European Council, António Costa, contradicted him: Wir haben darüber nicht diskutiert. Wir haben keine Entscheidungen getroffen. We did not discuss it. We made no decisions. A German news report ran the headline Vorschneller Merz, hasty Merz. A majority of EU member states approved the agreement on 9 January 2026.
Beyond Its Competence
On 30 June 2009, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the Treaty of Lisbon. The Basic Law, it said, forbids the transfer of the Kompetenz-Kompetenz, the power of a body to decide its own powers. The European Union may act only where powers have been conferred on it, one by one. On 5 May 2020, the court applied this to the European Central Bank’s bond purchase program. The headline of its press release called the ECB’s decisions kompetenzwidrig, contrary to its competence. The court also held that a 2018 ruling of the European Court of Justice on the program had been made ultra vires, outside that court’s powers. The Bundesbank received a transition period of no more than three months.
The Greek Debt Crisis. Europe’s Emergency Plan. Made in Germany.
In Brussels, the eurozone countries have agreed on an emergency rescue plan for Greece. The plan involves International Monetary Fund assistance supplemented by loans from individual countries.
What effect will it have on Germany? What do economists and entrepreneurs say about the compromise – and what do German voters think? Our reporter Kerstin Schweizer went to find out.