Ursula von der Leyen calls for a pact against gold-plating

The push to stop gold-plating

Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs on September 16 that member states must step up to prevent gold-plating, the practice of adding national requirements to European law. In her letter to EU leaders, she wrote that a rule agreed at the European level should not become more complex when a country transposes or implements it at the national level. She asked leaders to begin work on a "pact against gold-plating" at their October 15-16 summit, aiming for a declaration before the end of the year. While the summit conclusions called for Commission initiatives to avoid the practice, the summit did not mention the pact itself. Poland faces significant pressure to reduce its regulatory burden. In February 2025, Rafal Brzoska, the founder of the parcel-locker company InPost, launched the SprawdzaMY deregulation drive at the invitation of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. A report by DZP lawyers published in May 2025 listed 100 examples of gold-plating in Polish sectors including banking, public procurement, telecoms, and transport. In each case, Polish legislators had widened the scope or tightened the rules beyond what EU law required. The authors called for unjustified additions to be removed and new ones to be identified before bills become law.

Economic freedom and regulatory burdens

Poland ranks last among the 27 EU member states for economic freedom, according to the Fraser Institute. The October 6 report shows a wide gap between Poland and its post-communist neighbors. Because Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia all rank in the top 30, Poland’s 65th position is stark.

Poland struggles with regulatory compliance and speed. It was early with the DAC6 directive, applying its own rules from January 1, 2019, a year and a half before the July 2020 deadline. These rules extended to domestic arrangements and carried penalties that could reach tens of millions of zloty. The domestic obligation ended on October 1 this year. Grant Thornton counted 12,400 pages of new Polish legislation in 2025, which was 12 percent fewer than in 2024 and the fewest in 19 years. By the end of 2025, 11 laws based on the SprawdzaMY proposals had been passed and signed. According to the Commission’s Single Market Scoreboard, Poland had 21 single market directives overdue for transposition at the end of November 2025. It was one of nine member states with high deficits in both transposing EU law on time and transposing it correctly.

The path for former Soviet republics

Georgia and Armenia outrank most of the Union’s post-communist members in economic freedom. Georgia holds the 26th rank overall and the 19th rank for regulation, placing it four places ahead of Germany. Georgia is 26th in the Fraser ranking, behind only Estonia, Lithuania, and Czechia among the EU’s post-communist members. Armenia holds the 38th overall rank, although its regulation rank is 101st. Georgia has brought much of its economic law into line with the EU since its 2014 association agreement. Between 2004 and 2008, economy minister Kakha Bendukidze abolished more than 80 percent of its licenses and permits. The EU considers the Georgian accession process de facto halted, and the government in Tbilisi said it will not seek to open negotiations before 2028.

Armenia’s agreement with the EU, which has been in force since 2021, contains no free trade area. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in August that Yerevan would soon begin the process of applying for membership. Armenia also belongs to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, and Pashyan acknowledged that it cannot be a member of both. Tallinn and Warsaw took over the same rulebook in 2004, but they now stand 50 places apart in the Fraser ranking. The Commission is now favoring exhaustive regulations that apply directly over directives in single market matters where the law allows. This would narrow the space for gold-plating because national administrations still license, inspect, and design their own procedures.