2028-2034 budget: cuts, and still no deal. On 10 October the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU presented its revised «Negotiating Box»: a budget of €1,620 billion, with savings of 8% (€141 billion) on the Commission's proposal. According to BusinessEurope the cuts would fall mainly on competitiveness (-€67 billion), and the new «Core» own resource would be a levy on company turnover even when no profit is made. The European Council of 15-16 October reached no agreement, and the goal of closing the deal by December now looks distant.
Simplification: the «emergency brake» and gold-plating. Giorgia Meloni, Friedrich Merz and Bart De Wever asked European Council President António Costa for a mechanism allowing member states to halt new legislative proposals that are too burdensome for business. Ursula von der Leyen proposed to the 27 a «Pact against gold-plating», so that member states do not add to EU directives when transposing them: every added element should be identified, justified and assessed for its impact on business and the single market.
Critical raw materials: 46 new strategic projects. The Commission selected 46 projects in 16 member states, nine of them in Italy, to move closer to the 2030 benchmarks of the Critical Raw Materials Act: 10% of EU consumption from domestic extraction, 40% from processing, 25% from recycling. The countries involved include Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Many projects concern the battery value chain, with lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite, others defence, aerospace and permanent magnets.
Faster technical standards, more open to SMEs. The Commission proposed to modernise the European standardisation system: clearer deadlines for requested standards, effective representation of small and medium-sized enterprises in standardisation bodies and a new Competence Centre. Harmonised standards are how companies demonstrate compliance with EU law, from batteries to construction products.
Artificial intelligence: already used by 42% of SMEs. According to the latest Eurobarometer, 42% of European SMEs and mid-caps already use AI, mostly on a limited and experimental basis, and a further 21% plan to do so. The main obstacles remain investment costs (50%), legal uncertainty (49%) and lack of skills (48%). 61% of the companies using it say that AI helps them make decisions.
