The leaders of 19 European Union members have urged the bloc to cut red tape.
Those backing the demand include French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In a letter sent to Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, they say the supranational body must “review, reduce and restrain” legislation that is preventing it from being economically competitive.
It has been sent in advance of an EU summit that will be held in Brussels on Thursday.
The letter said: “We want to preserve the European Union for what it stands for – freedom, security and prosperity. To do this, we must change its course. Not just a little but substantially.”
According to Politico, it also called for “a systematic review of all EU regulations to identify rules that are superfluous”.
The document added: “Simplification is key for competitiveness.”
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The leaders have also called for a special meeting of the European Council on competitiveness to be held in February of next year.
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The EU has historically prided itself on being a “regulatory superpower” that has the ability to set standards around the world, but some in the bloc believe that it has not gone far enough.
Five days ago the head of the Association of German Banks told Reuters Europe’s fragmented regulatory framework is holding them back.
“Many are holding back because Europe is still a patchwork of different national regulations,” Heiner Herkenhoff said at the International Monetary Fund gathering. “We urgently need to address this.”
Some in favour of Brexit had hoped that the UK leaving the EU would enable Britain to gain an economic advantage by ditching many of the bloc’s standards and regulations but last year the government was forced to admit it would have to retain thousands of European Union laws for at least the next two years.
Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose punishing tariffs on the EU, amid claims the US suffers from the impact of the bloc’s standards.
Last month, he threatened to reverse a trade deal he had struck with the body.
The president said: “We made a deal with the European Union where they’re paying us almost a trillion dollars. And you know what? They’re happy. It’s done. These deals are all done,” he said. “I guess we’d have to unwind them.”
Earlier this year, The European Commission began a sweeping review of planned rules on corporate disclosures amid concerns they were holding back European companies from competing with other regions, and the EU Commission proposed changes that would exempt thousands of smaller European businesses from sustainability rules.
