On the eve of the EU summit, leaders of 19 European countries including Germany, France, Italy and Poland jointly wrote a letter to European Council President Costa,Call on the EU to push forward "thorough institutional reform" to comprehensively enhance Europe's competitiveness in the global market¡£

In a joint letter released on October 22, German Prime Minister Martin Schulz and other signatories pointed out that Europe would face the risk of ¡°loss of competitiveness¡± if the EU continues to follow the current rough regulatory model.

According to the joint letter, the European Commission needs to conduct a "thorough review" of existing EU regulations before the end of the year and propose plans to simplify or abolish outdated and redundant regulations. Subsequently, once conditions are ripe, a special EU competitiveness summit may be held in February next year to launch a new round of institutional restructuring. The joint letter emphasized that strengthening Europe's competitiveness is not only related to economic development, but also related to freedom, security and prosperity:¡°If we don¡¯t change our course, Europe will lose its competitiveness in global competition.¡±

The letter also calls for a more enabling environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, including reduced reporting and information obligations, relaxed merger controls and state subsidy reviews, improved access to finance, and accelerated approval processes for new products, plant construction and energy networks. Signatory leaders argued that the new legislation should be a comprehensive clean-up of burdensome regulations.

Analysts believe that this initiative shows the change of Germany's role within the EU: from focusing on following rules in the past to actively demanding rule reform to adapt to the increasingly fierce global market environment. As the EU summit approaches, the reform plan advocated by Mertz is expected to become one of the main topics of the meeting, and its progress has attracted much attention from the outside world. (Headquarters reporter Ruan Jiawen)