What the German press has revealed should be a wake-up call for Switzerland. While Brussels was promising to reduce bureaucracy, the production of standards reached an all-time high. If even German industry is denouncing a technocratic drift and growing legal uncertainty, why would Berne consider anchoring our law more firmly in this mechanism? Before any irreversible decisions are taken, we need to face the facts. Here's why.
Source : Die Welt (Germany), 3 February 2026 - Based on a study by the German industrial organisation Gesamtmetall, revealed by Welt am Sonntag.
The article is crystal clear: while the European Commission was promising an «unprecedented» reduction in standards, it was also promising a "unprecedented" reduction in standards, 2025 saw the adoption of 1,456 legislative acts, a record since 2010.
In detail: 21 directives, 102 regulations, 137 delegated acts and 1,196 implementing acts.
In other words: four new acts per working day.
For German industry, already subject to intense global competitive pressure (from the United States, China and emerging countries), the regulatory burden is becoming structural. And it's no longer just a question of volume - it's a question of governance.
1. The heart of the matter: delegated acts
The most worrying point raised by Die Welt concerns delegated acts.
These instruments enable the Commission to supplement or clarify existing legislation without another full parliamentary vote.
The former German European Commissioner Günter Verheugen speaks of a «grey zone» that largely escapes democratic control.
In concrete terms :
- Technical decisions become politically substantial
- Standards evolve without real public debate
- Companies must constantly adapt to changing rules
For German industry, this creates permanent legal uncertainty.
2. What this means for Switzerland
The crucial point is here:
Berne plans to incorporate into Swiss law mechanisms for the dynamic adoption of European law in several areas of market access.
However, if the flow of European legislation intensifies and becomes less predictable, Switzerland will not only be adopting rules - it will be importing them:
- Regulatory instability
- The logic of accelerated normative production
- A system in which the European executive strengthens its technical power
This raises a central question of legal sovereignty:
Is it possible to preserve the security of Swiss law while at the same time aligning with a normative order that is evolving at the same pace and using the same mechanisms?
3. Bureaucracy and competitiveness
The German article does not come from a fringe Eurosceptic circle:
It reflects concerns in the heavy manufacturing industry, the historic pillar of the German economy.
Here are a few structural elements to bear in mind:
- Germany is going through a phase of partial deindustrialisation.
- Energy costs remain higher than in the United States.
- Companies are already moving investment outside the EU.
In this context, constant standards inflation becomes a negative competitive factor.
For Switzerland - an open economy with strong exports, but founded on institutional stability - the question is not ideological. It is pragmatic:
The strength of the Swiss model lies in the predictability of the law.
4. The strategic paradox
The official European discourse speaks of simplification.
The figures show the opposite.
While even the German industry - which is integrated into the heart of the European system - is critical of this approach, Switzerland needs to think carefully before adopting the mechanisms.
Stabilising a commercial relationship for a few months cannot justify :
- Dilution of democratic control
- Exposure to external regulatory inflation
- Dependence on procedures over which the Confederation has no control
Conclusion: stability doesn't matter
Switzerland has never built its prosperity on the quantity of standards, but on their clarity and stability.
Die Welt shows that the Brussels system is moving towards greater regulatory production and a greater role for technical mechanisms outside the traditional democratic debate.
It would be a mistake to import this model in the name of «legal certainty».
The real question is not whether we are for or against Europe.
The question is simple:
Why adopt a mechanism that its own members denounce as unstable and bureaucratically excessive?
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