欧盟缓慢的决策程序严重阻碍了其对全球动态做出反应的能力，2025年7月与美国签署的一项不对等贸易协定就说明了这一点。当华盛顿在9月前完成了相关手续时，欧盟却花了十个月的时间，在欧盟委员会提案、欧洲议会报告、成员国谈判以及“三方会议”的复杂官僚迷宫中穿梭，才于5月初步批准，随后是投票并翻译成24种官方语言。这种缓慢的节奏是欧盟倡导项目的典型特征；例如，航空旅客权利的修改花了13年的立法审议，拟议的“资本市场联盟”自2015年以来一直处于停滞状态，而1988年首次提出的公司注册计划尽管在2025年和2026年的达沃斯论坛上再次被推动，但仍未制定。

这种官僚机构的迟钝也削弱了欧盟财政措施的有效性，其他国家在数月内就发放了刺激资金，而欧盟的新冠肺炎复苏资金在多年后仍在分配中。此外，欧盟的预算每七年才制定一次，需要三年半的时间谈判，而该笔资金仅占该联盟GDP的1%左右。该系统在结构上就是为了延迟而设计的，依赖于正式和非正式的否决权、强制性的影响评估，以及平均为期两年的法律通过时间，随后各成员国还需要另外两年时间将欧盟指令转化为国内法。此外，司法裁决慢得令人痛苦，反垄断案件需要43个月才能做出初审判决，这使得贸易救济机制在很大程度上失去了作用。

虽然支持者认为欧盟深思熟虑的方法可以防止立法错误，但在快速变化的地缘政治格局中，这种缓慢的共识是该大陆再也承受不起的奢侈。该大陆的迟缓引起了国际社会的嘲笑，例如美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特嘲讽“可怕的欧洲工作组”，而中国在欧洲领导人仍在仅仅辩论的贸易战中占据主导地位。尽管欧盟在2022年入侵后以相对较快的速度援助乌克兰，但它起步仍然缓慢。为了加快决策速度，欧盟领导人正试图通过较小的成员国子集来推进陷入僵局的项目，这比试图改革欧盟宪法更为现实，因为后者将需要另外十年的谈判。

The European Union’s sluggish policymaking processes severely hinder its ability to respond to global developments, as illustrated by a lopsided trade deal signed with the United States in July 2025. While Washington completed its paperwork by September, the EU spent ten months navigating a complex bureaucratic maze of Commission proposals, Parliament reports, member-state negotiations, and "trilogue" meetings before tentatively signing off in May, followed by voting and translation into 24 official languages. This slow pace is characteristic of EU initiatives; for example, a revision of air-passenger rights took 13 years of legislative deliberation, the proposed "capital-markets union" has languished since 2015, and a corporate registration scheme first introduced in 1988 remains un-enacted despite renewed pushes in Davos in both 2025 and 2026.

This bureaucratic torpor also blunts the efficacy of the EU's financial measures, as shown by the fact that Covid-19 recovery funds are still being distributed years after other nations dispersed their stimulus. Additionally, the EU’s budget is established only once every seven years, requiring three and a half years of negotiations for a sum representing just 1% of the bloc's GDP. The system is structurally designed for delay, relying on formal and informal vetoes, mandatory impact assessments, and an average law-adoption timeframe of two years, followed by an additional two years for individual member states to transpose EU directives into national law. Furthermore, judicial resolution is painfully slow, with antitrust cases taking 43 months for an initial ruling, rendering trade-remedy mechanisms largely ineffective.

While proponents argue that the EU's deliberate approach prevents legislative errors, this crawling consensus is a luxury the continent can no longer afford in a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape. The continent's sluggishness has drawn international derision, such as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mocking "the dreaded European working group," while China dominates a trade war that European leaders are still merely debating. Although the EU acted with relative speed to aid Ukraine following the 2022 invasion, it still began slowly. To accelerate policymaking, EU leaders are attempting to advance gridlocked projects through smaller subsets of member states, a more practical path than attempting to reform the EU's constitution, which would require another decade of negotiations.

Source: The EU is just too damn slow

Subtitle: Why Brussels needs to pick up the pace

Dateline: 6月 25, 2026 03:29 上午