EU overregulation is constraining business, a steel magnate and a Gulf sovereign wealth chief warned.
ArcelorMittal’s executive chairman wrote in the Financial Times that emissions trading rules hurt energy-intensive industries, while the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said the regulatory environment prevented international investors from pouring more capital in the bloc.
Neither figure is impartial, but they echo a 2024 report by former ECB President Mario Draghi that called for Europe to slash legislative restrictions on business.
Foreign direct investment into the EU fell 7% in 2025, EY analysis found, with a growing share of companies identifying overregulation as a risk to business. Brussels appears to be adding rather than removing layers, tightening screening of foreign direct investment in March.
