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Europe wrapped itself in a web of new rules. Can it reverse course?

European Commission Headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Getty Images

With Donald Trump promising more deregulation in the US and businesses upset about red tape, the EU is now searching for balance.

20 December, 2024 by Paola Tamma and Alice Hancock in Brussels

The rules were meant to give certainty. To ensure Europe’s car industry hit the EU’s ambitious green goals, in 2021 lawmakers in Brussels set strict emission standards and an effective ban on new combustion engines by 2035.

But since then, “quite