Thorsten Gerber: Why Brussels Breaks Think Small First

16 September 2026 – Thorsten Gerber, CEO of the Gerber Group, is back in Strasbourg this week. Without an association, without an agency, acting on his own behalf. In this interview, the Gerber CEO explains why Brussels is breaking its own ‘Think Small First’ commitment, placing a tenfold burden on SMEs and preferring to subsidise large corporations.

“Because There Are So Many of You, We Cannot Spare You.”

Thorsten Gerber, founder and CEO of the Gerber Group, is back in Strasbourg for this plenary week. No association, no agency, at his own expense. Since October 2024, he has held more than 70 meetings with Members of the European Parliament on the most pressing problems facing SMEs.

Mr Gerber, why does a stainless steel trader from Riegel am Kaiserstuhl put himself through this?

Because otherwise nobody goes. For more than 20 years, we have supplied exclusively small and medium sized enterprises. And those are precisely the companies that have no real voice in Brussels and Strasbourg. Corporations have associations and lobbying departments. The steel processor with 20 employees has nobody. So I go myself.

What is placing the greatest burden on SMEs?

The cumulative effect. CBAM, steel tariffs, quotas, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Together, they are suffocating SMEs. The Commission’s own expert group puts regulatory costs for SMEs at ten times those borne by corporations. The corporation has a compliance department. The SME pays twice: for the more expensive steel and for the consultant who declares the additional cost.

The Commission has been promising “Think Small First” for years. What remains of that?

A slogan. The European Parliamentary Research Service counted it: in almost half of the impact assessments between 2020 and 2022, SMEs were not assessed at all. In 2025, the Commission’s own Regulatory Scrutiny Board rejected 56 per cent of impact assessments at the first attempt. It speaks of problem analyses being constructed backwards to justify preferred options. That is a method.

You quote a response from Commissioner Šefčovič dated 1 September.

The most honest justification I have ever read from Brussels. No SME exemption from the Steel Regulation because SMEs account for a significant share of market participants. Translated: because there are so many of you, we cannot spare you. That is what they tell 34 million companies with 106 million employees.

Evidence? None. No impact assessment, no SME test, supposedly because of time pressure. Yet Brussels had known since 2019 that the safeguard measure would expire under WTO rules in June 2026. Self inflicted urgency does not justify simply failing to assess, or deliberately ignoring, the consequences for 99.8 per cent of all EU companies.

Small importers were subsequently exempted from CBAM. Is Brussels learning?

It only proves that it can be done. The Commission itself knew that CBAM costs were disproportionate for SMEs, but it misjudged the number of companies affected so badly that it had to remove nine out of ten CBAM declarants from the system again. If it can be done with CBAM, it can also be done with steel tariffs.

But Brussels has not learned. The CBAM rulebook has now grown to more than 3,500 pages and is feeding a consulting industry that produces nothing except compliance and costs.

How do you assess the Public Procurement Act?

A disaster foretold, according to the Commission’s own figures. €331 million in benefits for the large steel and aluminium producers, €1.6 billion in additional costs in the construction sector alone, which is dominated by SMEs. One euro of benefit, five euros of damage. And yet the press conference was told that no price increases were expected. Either Stéphane Séjourné has not read his own paper, or he is hoping nobody else will.

What are you calling for?

Five things. No more Regulation without a full SME impact assessment, including the cumulative effect. Real reduction of regulation instead of deregulation rhetoric. During von der Leyen’s first term alone, 13,000 legal acts were added. An independent EU SME representative with practical business experience within 90 days. A legally robust Stop the Clock for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, PPWR, which can cost smaller traders up to €54,000. And an SME exemption from steel tariffs and quotas. CBAM has proved that it can be done.

The steel corporations say that without protection the blast furnaces will shut down.

Protection for large corporations that is paid for by SMEs effectively protects nobody. The large producers have received free CO₂ allowances since 2005, in addition to electricity price compensation and, soon, an industrial electricity price as well. In Germany alone, more than €6 billion in additional funding commitments for the steel corporations have been added since 2023.

If a mill threatens to close, a Commissioner arrives immediately. If thousands of businesses face closure because of poor EU rules, nobody comes. Yet SMEs alone account for 21 million jobs in Germany. Anyone who breaks this backbone in order to support a handful of corporations will ultimately lose both. I cannot and will not accept that.

The interview was conducted by the editorial team of The Stainless Espresso.

Latest news

• PPWR: Labels from Brussels, but No Stop the Clock
• Cost Explosion Looms: EU Parliament Votes on CBAM Expansion
• Buy European: The Damage Would Be Immense, but Séjourné Denies It

Gerber Group

We at the Gerber Group have been trading in stainless steel worldwide for over 20 years. We are your experts when it comes to purchasing, import, logistics and services. Information is a vital part of this. Because only then can you and we make the right decisions. Do you have any questions? Contact us now.

Disclaimer: Many things here represent our opinion. Others are information from the Internet. We can therefore never claim to be correct or complete. And never base a business decision solely on the news you receive from us.