Europe Could Lose What Makes It Great

EU may agree to make concessions to Washington to ease trade tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump .

The EU 's market size, its high regulatory standards, and its resolve to enforce them grants the union an extraordinary amount of global regulatory influence.

EU regulations in areas such as data privacy, content moderation, environmental protection, and product safety have become a template that many governments around the world emulate.

From 2004 to 2018 , the number of cases that the commission brought against member states at the European Court of Justice plunged by 87 percent and have not rebounded since.

This decline occurred even while the EU nearly doubled in size and as many governments failed to comply with EU laws.

By eroding the enforcement of the EU ’s high regulatory standards, forbearance already weakened one of the pillars of the Brussels effect.

The EU can revive and strengthen its regulatory powers and their outsized global influence.

Trump launched an all-out war on the EU ’s rights-based regulatory model.

EU has no need to raise the white flag: it can revive and strengthen its regulatory powers.

EU should focus its drive for reform on cultivating tech entrepreneurship through completing the digital single market and creating a true capital markets union.