The Bureaucratic Tumor Killing Europe
4th August 2025
Bureaucracy is flourishing in Germany and the EU like never before. Budget planning in Berlin and Brussels offers a clear glimpse into the state of the public sector—and at the same time, points toward the end of the economic cycle.
A saying is making the rounds on social media that captures the European relationship with the state: Europeans love to be governed so much, they’ve even installed a government for their governments in Brussels. It’s a reference to the European Union’s bureaucracy—a sprawling administrative apparatus that is gradually disempowering national governments and shifting the burdens of centralization onto the citizenry.
The latest example: a ruling by the European Court of Justice that weakens the definition of a “safe country of origin,” effectively removing any effective legal instrument EU states might use to stop the overwhelming wave of illegal migration.