The EU Regulatory Observatory’s latest assessment gives the European Commission’s SME Relief Package a lukewarm 6.57/10 for liberalisation. Despite promises of a 25% cut in reporting burdens via sandboxes and voluntary measures, Brussels Report highlights new bureaucratic layers and a failure to tackle the 729% regulatory explosion since Maastricht. The analysis warns that cosmetic tweaks and selective exemptions fall far short of the bold deregulation Europe needs to close the competitiveness gap with the US and China.