According to Friedrich Merz, 13,000 new EU regulations with extensive reporting and documentation obligations were introduced during von der Leyen's first term.

Omissions

• The sources corroborate 13,000 new EU laws/regulations for 'the past five years' (2019–2024), but they do not explicitly tie the figure to 'von der Leyen's first term' — that linkage is an inference from the period.
• The qualifier 'with extensive reporting, documentation and verification obligations' is not supported: the 13,000 figure counts all new EU laws/regulations, whereas the same Handelsblatt piece identifies only 25 major EU reporting obligations that burden companies.
• No primary official source (EUR-Lex/European Commission count of legal acts) was located within the search budget; both supporting sources are secondary press reports.
• The available excerpts do not explicitly attribute the calculation to Friedrich Merz himself; they report the 13,000 figure as a description of EU lawmaking.
• Publication dates of both articles could not be established from the search results; their content refers to the 2019–2024 period, i.e. before the session date of 21 October 2026.

Sources

• SecondaryHandelsblatt — 'Diese 25 Berichtspflichten der EU belasten Unternehmen''Die EU hat in den vergangenen fünf Jahren 13.000 neue Gesetze erlassen.' — the article's subject is the list of 25 EU reporting obligations burdening companies, distinct from the 13,000 total laws.
• SecondaryFAZ — 'EU: Bürokratie aus Brüssel bedroht die Existenz von Unternehmen''In den vergangenen fünf Jahren hat die EU 13.000 neue Regulierungen erlassen, die USA im gleichen Zeitraum „nur“ 5000.'