Eurobloat #0182 • June 2025
June was the month the rule factory abruptly decided that red tape was a menace, though only the red tape standing between the Union and €800 billion of new defence spending, while still finding time to lay down the law on the breeding of dogs and cats.
Folly of the Month: red tape is terrible, says the body that makes it, when it wants tanks
On 17 June the Commission unveiled a Defence Readiness Omnibus to "simplify" rules and clear away the administrative hurdles slowing defence investment. The same institution that buries every farmer, factory and start-up in paperwork has discovered, the moment it wants to rearm, that paperwork is a terrible burden after all. Red tape, it turns out, is only ever a problem when it inconveniences Brussels.
1. A turf war over who may veto your investments
On 11 June the Council pushed back on the new foreign-investment screening rules, resisting the Commission's attempt to pull the power up to Brussels. Even the Union's own organs cannot agree which of them should get to vet the continent's money.
2. Now harmonising the dog and the cat
On 19 June the Parliament adopted its position on the first EU-wide minimum standards for the breeding, housing, sale and traceability of dogs and cats, mandatory microchips and all. No corner of life, not even the basket by the fire, lies beyond the reach of a Brussels standard.
3. The finance rules it clamped down, now unclamped
The Commission proposed easing the securitisation framework it had bolted down after the last crisis. Lighter rules may well be sensible, but the whiplash, tighten hard and then quietly loosen, is the mark of an institution that regulates by mood rather than judgement.
4. Scanning the deepfake, and your messages with it
On 17 June the Parliament adopted its position on the recast Child Sexual Abuse Directive, raising penalties and criminalising AI-generated abuse material. The cause could hardly be more sympathetic, which is precisely why it makes such a convenient battering ram for the wider campaign to reach inside every private message.
5. Extending the roaming writ to a non-member
On 17 June the Commission proposed folding Ukraine into the EU roaming area from 2026. The Union's rules now reach across borders it has not yet enlarged to include.
6. Harmonising the ballot box, too
On 24 June the Council adopted rules to standardise how mobile EU citizens, those living in another member state, vote and stand in European Parliament elections. Even the act of voting must now be brought into line with a common template.
7. Grading the homework of all twenty-seven
On 18 June the Parliament adopted its take on the Commission's 2024 rule-of-law report, sitting in judgement on prisons, media and rights across every member state. The Union that struggles to balance its own books appoints itself examiner of twenty-seven democracies.
8. Eight hundred billion, and rules bent to spend it
The defence drive sits within a ReArm Europe plan to mobilise up to €800 billion, with procurement and permitting rules loosened to move the money fast. When the cause is grand enough, the famous caution simply evaporates.
→ defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu
9. A 90% target, loaded and ready
By month's end the Commission was poised to propose a binding 90% emissions cut for 2040, complete with the foreign carbon credits that make the figure survivable. The number is for the headlines; the credits are for the accountants.
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