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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany do not complain. They work. They adapt to external circumstances and are successful with their products against all odds. Many of them worldwide. This is the secret of their success. But the current economic situation gives cause for concern. We launched our DATEV SME Index a year ago. Our index provides up-to-date, fact-based and broad insights into German SMEs in a way that has not been available before: it is based on the advance VAT returns of more than one million SMEs and the payroll accounts of more than eight million employees. As an IT service provider for the tax consulting profession, this effectively lets us look directly into the engine room of German SMEs. But this detailed view is not very pleasant at the moment. The figures we publish each month based on data from tax advisors paint an almost worrying picture. The increase in the minimum wage that has already been decided is likely to exacerbate this situation for small and micro-enterprises. Sales are falling, wages are rising The German economy is in a difficult situation. Since September 2024, we have observed declining sales in SMEs. Concurrently, wages are increasing. Our latest statistics show that this trend is continuing — in all German federal states, industries and company sizes. There is currently no indication of a change in this trend. As previously described, SMEs rarely voice dissatisfaction. Instead, they seek pragmatic solutions. This challenging situation is no different. There are in fact a number of ways to resolve this issue. Many SMEs are looking to the federal government with high expectations. They expect it to pursue business-friendly policies to strengthen the backbone of the German economy. Small and medium-sized companies represent 99 percent of it and employ around half of the workforce in Germany. Without relief and incentives, the existence of many SMEs is increasingly at risk. Above all, we need to reduce bureaucracy and implement a bureaucracy moratorium: meaning the standardization and reduction of documentation and retention requirements. > Above all, we need to reduce bureaucracy and implement a bureaucracy > moratorium: meaning the standardization and reduction of documentation and > retention requirements. Financial incentives for greater productivity The regulatory frenzy of recent decades in Germany and in the EU makes it difficult for companies to catch their breath. It not only costs SMEs time and money, but it also hinders innovation. But there are now initial indications that something is being done about this. The importance and necessity to modernize the administration has been recognized and will be supported financially. A separate ministry for digital transformation and state modernization is a positive first step. > The German government has also already decided on the so-called investment > booster. However, this will only help to a limited extent The German government has also already decided on the so-called investment booster. However, this will only help to a limited extent. The investment booster allows for declining balance depreciation of up to 30 percent, which enables companies to write off higher amounts, especially in the first few years. This is intended to accelerate investment and secure liquidity for businesses. However, this only helps if there is still enough substance or capital available for further financing. And in many cases, this is no longer the case for SMEs. In order to boost productivity, financial incentives must be provided as quickly as possible. It is our hope that there will be extensive investments in infrastructure and the digitalization of administration as well. Artificial intelligence creates greater efficiency Another encouraging sign: new technological advancements facilitate operations for business. Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a buzzword. As Germany’s second largest software company, we are dedicated to developing innovative products and solutions for tax firms, so that they can provide even more exceptional counsel to their clients — mostly small and medium-sized businesses. For me, it is evident that AI will positively transform work in tax consulting firms, creating significant opportunities. AI helps to simplify monotonous, repetitive tasks, allowing for more efficient workflow. It is a valuable tool for supporting individuals rather than replacing them. This is especially important in a time of pressing issues such as skilled worker shortages. The use of AI thus also offers new opportunities for all companies that wish to prioritize their core business over bureaucracy. Digital and AI-supported processes with tax advisors will provide sustainable support in this. The acceptance and use of AI tools is steadily increasing in tax consulting firms. Among the most widely used industry-specific offerings, the DATEV appeal generator and specialist research tools are highly regarded. It is clear that we have only just begun to see the full extent of the situation. We are working every day on new solutions that make it easier for tax consulting firms to better advise their client companies to improve their successes. We also use our detailed knowledge that we generate from our DATEV SME Index. > The smart use of AI can also enhance the success of German SMEs and strengthen > their ability to compete globally — despite existing regulatory challenges, > bureaucratic hurdles and complicated tax systems. Ultimately, it depends on how we deal with the challenges in our daily work. How we successfully shape the path to the digital future with the possibilities offered by AI. We have learned from major American software providers over the past 20 years that those who best understand the data business enjoy great economic success. Now comes the second chance. The smart use of AI can also enhance the success of German SMEs and strengthen their ability to compete globally — despite existing regulatory challenges, bureaucratic hurdles and complicated tax systems. So, enough whining. Let’s proceed! Robert Mayr, tax advisor, auditor and doctor of business administration, is CEO of DATEV eG since 2016. From 2014 to 2016, he was on the board of the Nuremberg-based data processing cooperative, responsible for finance and purchasing, and had already been responsible for internal data processing and production since 2011. After studying business administration at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, he began his professional career as a consultant at Treuhandanstalt Berlin. Mayr worked for Deloitte from 1994 to 2001, after which he spent nine years as managing partner of Solidaris Revisions-GmbH in Munich. Since 2012, Mayr has been vice president of the Nuremberg Chamber of Tax Consultants. DATEV eG is a data processing cooperative with more than 850,000 customers. Founded in 1966, it now employs a staff of about 9,000, working at its headquarters in Nuremberg and 22 branch offices throughout Germany. Its legal structure as a cooperative guarantees continuity, meaning no investor can buy DATEV. For more information on the DATEV Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Index, please visit mittelstandsindex.datev.de (in German).

Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech is one of the big set-piece events in the EU political calendar — and what better way to mark the occasion than to play a fun game? So switch on EBS, pour yourself a strong coffee (maybe with a shot of rum in it), and enjoy a game of State of the Union bingo. If you get a full line of correct answers, please stand on the roof of your office block/house and shout “bingo!” really loudly.

Get comfortable with failure, create a local startup ecosystem and build regulation to support business success, says Lithuanian entrepreneur Tomas Okmanas of NordVPN. Despite having access to an abundance of talent, European tech companies often struggle to achieve the global scale enjoyed by competitors in the U.S. and China. Kicking against the trend is Tomas Okmanas, co-founder of several highly successful international businesses in his native Lithuania. These include cybersecurity group Nord Security, valued at more than $3 billion and best known for virtual private network provider NordVPN. His latest venture, nexos.ai, is a secure, all-in-one AI platform for enterprises and governments. Tomas Okmanas, co-founder, Nord Security Okmanas tells POLITICO Studio how the EU can help startup founders compete on the world stage — and why institutions and enterprises in the EU should be concerned about cybersecurity vulnerabilities. POLITICO Studio: Despite enjoying worldwide success, your companies remain firmly rooted in Lithuania. Have you ever been tempted to move them to the U.S.? Tomas Okmanas: It’s been a long journey since we bootstrapped our first business in 2012. Those were early days for the startup scene in Lithuania, and we didn’t have the luxury of big checks from Silicon Valley VC firms. Along the way, I’ve met lots of people who told me we should open an office in the U.S., arguing that’s where the best management talent is. But all our management is based in Lithuania, and we’ve shown that global tech companies can be built out of this country and Europe. Today, Nord Security employs more than 2,000 experts across our offices in Vilnius, Kaunas, Berlin, Warsaw and Amsterdam. All the big U.S. investment firms have now opened offices in Europe, so access to capital is here. And talent is also certainly here, which can compete and win globally, as Nord’s 400 international patents secured in fewer than four years demonstrate. PS: When you launched NordVPN in 2012, virtual private networks were a niche market, but today you have millions of global users. What’s the secret to growth on that scale? TO: The simple answer is that if you create products that people love and that are very effective, success comes naturally. In the early days, we were fortunate enough to spot the emerging market trends. At that time, viruses were usually spread by floppy disks or CD-ROMs or USBs, but we realized that the threat would ultimately come from the web. Today, if you use a VPN, it’s your ultimate network guardian. Over the years, we’ve blocked billions of scams and phishing and malware attacks. Just in the past three months, we’ve blocked 103 million malware attacks in the U.K., 72 million in the Netherlands and 34 million in France. > If you create products that people love and that are very effective, success > comes naturally. Today, Nord Security is a fully fledged cybersecurity company, guarding users and organizations against all kinds of threats. Our products provide network security, threat visibility, smart password management and secure data roaming with Saily, our eSIM solution. PS: How do you perceive the current state of cybersecurity readiness in Europe? TO: Our research shows that companies tend to be better prepared for cyber threats than governments. We analyzed publicly available data from around 400 major companies and public institutions across the EU, and the overall picture is not great. Sectors such as aviation and oil and gas performed reasonably well, but others, including public institutions, less so. We identified multiple vulnerabilities, ranging from stolen credentials and email spoofing risks to critical system weaknesses. That’s something that needs to be addressed urgently. PS: A new security risk has arrived in the form of generative AI. How does your latest venture, nexos.ai, aim to mitigate that risk? TO: More and more critical data is leaving companies and other organizations, ending up with large AI companies that are mostly based in the U.S. For instance, someone in the European Parliament can upload a confidential document to ChatGPT, which would immediately be processed on OpenAI’s servers in the U.S. Essentially, nexos.ai enables an organization to harness large language models while keeping security and cost management front and center. We provide a choice of using multiple LLMs, including on-premise models for handling sensitive information. The platform can also detect and block any unauthorized sharing of sensitive documents, which further reduces security and compliance risks. PS: GenAI is one of several new technologies in which Europe is perceived as lagging behind other parts of the world. How can Europe become more competitive in the tech sector?  TO: In Europe, we create regulations and then try to build businesses around them. But in, say, the U.S., they first build great products and then the government creates regulations — and helps businesses to grow. If you think about the Stargate Project or any other AI infrastructure initiative in the U.S., I don’t think they’re going to be worried about getting permits to build big data centers. In Europe, you would be looking at a minimum of a year or two to get building permits. It’s the same with AI regulation — the U.S. does whatever it can to support its businesses. We need more of this mindset in Europe. Cyber City HQ of Nord Security and nexos.ai That’s why I support regulatory simplification across the board, from GDPR to the AI Act. I’m certain that we can maintain the same levels of consumer protection with far less bureaucracy. As a startup founder, you want to hire engineers, not lawyers. PS: Do you have any specific directives or initiatives in mind? TO: I’m in favor of establishing the 28th regime — a new European legal framework that would enable seamless online incorporation, harmonize commerce rules across Europe and introduce favorable taxation for stock options. Creating the Scaleup Europe Fund, as proposed by the European Commission, would also be a step in the right direction. Let’s think big — why not establish a European NASDAQ and give our scale-ups the opportunity to go public here in Europe? > The U.S. does whatever it can to support its businesses. We need more of this > mindset in Europe. Another factor is the way we think about failure in Europe. If an entrepreneur fails once or twice, it can be hard to get investment. But in the U.S., there’s a belief that even if you burn through eight companies, the 9th or 10th will be a success. We need to allow people to experiment and fail. We failed with more than 30 projects before we launched NordVPN. PS: You’ve played a major role in establishing a thriving startup scene in Lithuania. What lessons could other European cities and countries learn from your experience? TO: If companies in a local ecosystem are operating global businesses out of Europe, they need to support each other. There are great global companies here in Vilnius, such as Vinted, the secondhand clothes marketplace, and Hostinger, the web hosting platform. We have regular meetups and go on vacations together. And we’re angel investors in a number of local companies with global ambitions. New companies are being built all the time, which creates more jobs. If you love the place where you were born, you want it to grow, and it’s great if we can all grow together. The same is true for Europe. Founders like me want the continent to succeed in the global race, and we’re willing to contribute our share. What we need is more public-private collaboration and dialogue that leads to real change.

BRUSSELS — Europe’s most famous technology law, the GDPR, is next on the hit list as the European Union pushes ahead with its regulatory killing spree to slash laws it reckons are weighing down its businesses. The European Commission plans to present a proposal to cut back the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, in the next couple of weeks. Slashing regulation is a key focus for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as part of an attempt to make businesses in Europe more competitive with rivals in the United States, China and elsewhere.  The EU’s executive arm has already unveiled packages to simplify rules around sustainability reporting and accessing EU investment. The aim is for companies to waste less time and money on complying with complex legal and regulatory requirements imposed by EU laws. The GDPR is seen as one of Europe’s most complex pieces of legislation by the technology sector — and by businesses far and wide beyond tech — for how it forces companies doing business in Europe to manage their data and to handle the requests and rights of data subjects to that personal data. Its introduction in 2018 drew a deluge of desperate emails from firms asking for people’s consent to use their data. Seven years later, Brussels is taking out the scissors to give its (in)famous privacy law a trim. There are “a lot of good things about GDPR, [and] privacy is completely necessary. But we don’t need to regulate in a stupid way. We need to make it easy for businesses and for companies to comply,” Danish Digital Minister Caroline Stage Olsen told reporters last week. Denmark will chair the work in the EU Council in the second half of 2025 as part of its rotating presidency. The criticism of the GDPR echoes the views of former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who released a landmark economic report last September warning that Europe’s complex laws were preventing its economy from catching up with the United States and China. “The EU’s regulatory stance towards tech companies hampers innovation,” Draghi wrote, singling out the Artificial Intelligence Act and the GDPR. For small and cash-strapped businesses, the reams of documentation the GDPR asks companies to produce has long been a gripe. Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath said the key takeaway from a review of the GDPR last summer “is the need for greater support [for] businesses, especially SMEs, in their compliance efforts.”  McGrath confirmed last week that a proposal to simplify the GDPR is due in the “coming weeks.” The Commission had planned to agree on a so-called simplification package for small and medium-sized businesses on April 16, according to the Commission’s diary, but that date has since been bumped to May 21. A Commission official, granted anonymity to discuss ongoing planning, told POLITICO that the date is “only indicative” and that it has not been decided whether the GDPR will feature in the package — but that the proposal to simplify privacy rules will definitely be delivered “by June.” Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath said the key takeaway from a review of the GDPR last summer “is the need for greater support [for] businesses, especially SMEs, in their compliance efforts.” | Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images The Commission said previously that the simplification plan will focus on reporting requirements for organizations with less than 500 people, but will not touch the “underlying core objective of [the] GDPR regime.”  Adjustments could include limiting requirements to keep records of data processing activities, or reforming how businesses provide data protection impact statements — two rules seen as overly cumbersome to smaller firms. PANDORA’S BOX OF LOBBYING The GDPR was a landmark piece of legislation when it took effect in 2018 and has been heralded as an example of the Brussels Effect, having set an international standard for the protection of personal data.   Negotiations on the privacy law triggered one of the biggest lobbying efforts Brussels had ever seen. Tech companies beefed up their Brussels operations and poured millions into trying to influence the rules during the drafting process. The proposal drew over 3,000 amendments in the European Parliament — a record. The danger in the EU’s revising the law is that it could start a lobbying war between Big Tech companies and privacy advocates, two of the strongest public affairs forces in Brussels. Some fear that if the GDPR is called into question, the law could crumble under the lobbying pressure. “Reopening the GDPR for simplification is risky, no matter how well-intentioned and targeted the proposal may seem,” said Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal, policy advisor at digital rights group EDRi.   The EU is already finalizing a new law on the procedural rules for privacy regulators to coordinate on major GDPR cases. According to Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, the GDPR is still a “huge target” for lobbyists, but its core rules can’t easily be scrapped since the protection of personal data is enshrined in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights as an inalienable freedom.   “A Court of Justice would annul a GDPR that doesn’t have these core elements,” Schrems said. “So if it’s where [lobbyists] want to spend their energy, be my guest, but they’re not going to get there.”   Pieter Haeck contributed reporting.

Seven European Union countries including Italy and Spain have joined France in calling for a “critical chemicals act” to protect Europe’s struggling chemicals sector. The call builds momentum behind France’s original proposal, obtained by POLITICO last month, which called on the European Union to declare about 15 key chemical compounds “strategic.” The idea is to protect the sector to ensure Europe remains self-sufficient in chemicals used in everything from fertilizer production to plastics, imitating similar rules for critical raw materials and medicines — the latter of which the European Commission released on Tuesday. The Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia have also backed the latest chemicals proposal. Germany, the EU’s biggest chemical producer, has not signed up. The latest proposal, first reported by POLITICO on Tuesday, adds a few more “strategic molecules” to the previous list, including toluene and xylene. Phenol and styrene also make the cut as key substances across a range of industries, from pharmaceuticals and adhesives to plastics and detergents. “Low carbon footprint molecules, that can characterize sustainable chemicals and substitute any of the above strategic molecules … should also be considered strategic,” the text suggests. It acknowledges, though, that since those molecules are still in “early stages of research and development, it remains difficult to foresee which ones will be the fossil-free molecules of the future” and, as such, EU support “should not be restricted to specific alternative molecules.” The new proposal lays out a “tentative” list of bio-based molecules that could replace fossil-based ones, including bio-based glycerol and bio-based ethanol. The idea is to protect the sector to ensure Europe remains self-sufficient in chemicals used in everything from fertilizer production to plastics. | Raul Bravo/Getty Images The countries say investing in biofuels, plastic recycling, bioplastics, downstream chemical chains would also be a “strategic” move. The proposal was put forward by EU member country ministers in the Competitiveness Council on Wednesday.

When United States President Donald Trump announced he would tariff Denmark if the country didn’t relinquish control of Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen turned to a coterie of CEOs for advice. But rather than the fist-pumping tech bros or mixed martial arts fighters that made up Trump’s circle at his inauguration, Frederiksen went instead to a rather more reserved character: a softly spoken 58-year old, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen. In person the Dane is quiet, polite and understated. But he inspires enough fear in fast food giants that they call him up in a panic about the threat he poses to their businesses. He’s the CEO of Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk — best known as the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs-turned-cultural phenomena that have single-handedly prevented Denmark from falling into a recession. But how did the self-confessed introvert who “needs his quiet time” become the man to advise Denmark on how to handle the American president? THE AMBIVALENT BOFFIN In the helix-shaped headquarters half an hour from central Copenhagen, Jørgensen was at pains to explain to POLITICO his rise to the top of Novo Nordisk — until recently, Europe’s most valuable firm — was never his intention. As a young graduate he applied to four companies — and accepted the first offer he got. Joining Novo Nordisk as an economist in 1991, Jørgensen said he had “no ambition, no clue.”  From the company’s offices overlooking the city, Jørgensen spoke in December about his anxiety from that time.“In the early years of my career I did not talk a lot about that I grew up on a farm, that I’m the first one to go to high school and business school … because I felt I was less good,” he said. “Others came from academic families and I felt they were better.” He had no great desire to one day run the company — “I think nobody saw that early on” — but Novo put all the levers in place for a young Jørgensen to learn and succeed. He said he just made the most of them. “[They] kind of threw me into stuff I had no clue about. You learn the art of quickly trying to assess: ‘OK, what is actually the problem? What’s going on? What am I supposed to do?’” It took him a while to feel fully comfortable; being more open about his farming roots was a big part of it, he said. “I think that has made me more authentic and also it resonates with many other people who have the same upbringing.” Jørgensen didn’t fully shed that insecurity until he was made CEO, he said, a role which has thrust him blinking into the spotlight — and now sees him having to reassure a panicked prime minister. Frederiksen summoned Danish business leaders, including Jørgensen, for crisis talks in January after Trump refused to rule out military or economic action to take control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen turned to a coterie of CEOs for advice. | Johannes Simon/Getty Images The United States president has also suggested he would impose tariffs on Danish goods if Copenhagen turns down his offer to buy the Arctic island — no empty threat given he’s already following through with tariffs on goods from Canada, China and Mexico. NOVO’S RISE It’s difficult to overstate the recent success of Novo Nordisk, which boasted a turnover of €38.9 billion in 2024 — of which €13.5 billion was profit — and accounts for nearly half of Denmark’s gross domestic product growth. The Scandinavian company has long been a leader in diabetes medicine but hit the jackpot with its GLP-1 class of drug for diabetes that also caused weight loss. Although Ozempic has become synonymous with a shrinking waistband, it’s Novo’s drug Wegovy, which is licensed for weight loss and clinical trials showed patients lost on average 15 to 16 percent of their body weight after just over a year. Both drugs contain semaglutide, which mimics a hormone released after eating, tricking the brain into feeling full. Wegovy’s approval — in 2021 in the U.S. and 2022 in Europe — was a game changer for the company.  Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Trump’s “efficiency czar” Elon Musk have boosted its profile (the latter describing himself as an “Ozempic Santa”), while Senator Bernie Sanders — who hauled Jørgensen in front of his U.S. Senate health committee last year — said semaglutide “may end up being one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products in the history of humanity.” One in eight people have taken Ozempic, Wegovy or one of its competitors in the U.S. Scientists are already questioning whether their rapid adoption is causing obesity rates to fall in America. That stratospheric rise in profile has come during Jørgensen’s reign as CEO, a position he has held since 2017, when he became only the fifth person to lead the company in its 100-year history. It also makes Novo a rare European success story at a time when businesses and investors pivot to the U.S. and China. Despite that success, Jørgensen doesn’t have a reputation as a ball-breaker, nor a political animal in his home country. “He’s seen more as a civil servant than a CEO,” one Danish diplomat, granted anonymity like others in this article to speak candidly, said.  And he remained diplomatic when POLITICO asked him at the end of last year about Trump’s controversial picks for top jobs, such as vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary. “Let’s just see how they play out,” he said. That kind of response is typical of Denmark’s approach to diplomacy, said Lars Sandahl Sørensen, head of the Confederation of Danish Industry and former deputy CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, who has known Jørgensen for years. It’s difficult to overstate the recent success of Novo Nordisk, which boasted a turnover of €38.9 billion in 2024. | Claus Rasmussen and Ritzau Scanpix/Getty Images “Standing up and shouting contests is not our style,” Sørensen told POLITICO over the phone last year. Nor is it to be “very flamboyant or show off, or show strength,” he said. “I understand that’s part of other cultures and that works there, but here it would work negatively.” Jørgensen is also unfazed by the success of Mounjaro, a drug produced by Novo’s U.S. rival Eli Lilly, which has demonstrated greater weight loss compared with Wegovy. “I welcome competition,” he said. “We have a 100-year history of competing with Eli Lilly and we tend to take turns about who has a product that’s ahead.” CRISIS MODE Trump’s threat of tariffs against Denmark is perhaps the biggest headache the CEO has had to deal with in his time as head of the organization. Last year, 58 percent of Novo’s sales came from the U.S. — 79 percent of Wegovy and 70 percent Ozempic sales. Asked about tariffs at a press conference in February, Jørgensen said Novo was “not immune, but we are confident our business is in a good position to meet the demands of the new [U.S.] administration.” The other major crisis was the Covid-19 pandemic; though not a vaccine-maker the company still had to navigate disrupted supply chains. His instinct was to let other people take over. “If I have to solve the problems, that’s a problem,” Jørgensen told Bloomberg last year. The company set up a crisis response team but Jørgensen didn’t initially attend and let others lead it. “I knew if I put myself into that I’d become a bottleneck,” he said. His attitude to leadership is one of consensus. “I was born with a big nose and big ears and I use the attributes of that each day to collect opinions from the company. Then it’s my role to combine it into an opinion together with my team,” he said. That goes as far as taking advice on running the company from his two environmentally conscious kids, who encouraged him to reevaluate Novo’s policy on flights. But that approach means that when the spotlight is on him, he’s out of his comfort zone. His reticence hasn’t always gone down well with policymakers.Senator Sanders said his committee “reached out time and time again” to schedule Novo Nordisk’s voluntary appearance at a hearing, without success. It wasn’t until he threatened the Dane with a subpoena that he turned up in person. Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs against Denmark is perhaps the biggest headache the CEO has had to deal with in his time as head of the organization. | Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images When he did, the Senate report into Novo’s pricing accused the company of “greed, greed, greed.” Jørgensen nonetheless was accommodating, promising to sit down with pharmacy benefit managers — middlemen who negotiate medicine rebates with manufacturers on behalf of insurers — to “collaborate on anything that helps patients get access and affordability.” SOFT POWER Jørgensen is not someone who schmoozes in Brussels either, preferring to spend his time in Denmark, ideally in the garden or on the tennis court, he said. Despite being current president of Europe’s pharma lobby EFPIA, he goes to the European Union capital only two or three times a year in that capacity, his press secretary told POLITICO. Nonetheless, Novo’s presence looms large over discussions on a major overhaul of European laws for the pharmaceutical industry — because of the ferocious loyalty Denmark and its lawmakers show to Novo in Brussels.  The country is the most vocal supporter of the pharma industry in the EU, where countries are currently negotiating their position on the legislative reform. One European Parliament official said that Novo is practically “in the room” during these talks, such is the extent Denmark mirrors the pharma position. Assistants for Danish members of the European Parliament had tried to insert amendments into the Parliament’s text to make it more favorable to the industry, the official said, adding that the company’s lobbyists would be “welcoming the new MEPs off the train in Strasbourg,” the seat of the Parliament. Nevertheless, those who have met Jørgensen in such a capacity say he is thoughtful and respectful. “Polite and quiet, like he had a genuine interest in what his staff and I were saying rather than in hearing himself talk,” said another Parliament official. “He appeared very knowledgable.” That’s a very Danish approach to leadership, pointed out Sørensen. “We like to be fact-based. We like to be honest. We like to be trustworthy,” he said. It’s a style that will surely go down well with the U.S. president, who calls himself “perhaps the most honest human being” God ever created. Right? This article has been updated to clarify the effect of GLP-1s on weight.

KYIV — Divisions flared in Kyiv on Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree sanctioning a former president and several wealthy businessmen. Chocolate baron and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a political opponent and longtime nemesis of Zelenskyy, was sanctioned on suspicion of “high treason” and assisting a terrorist organization — prompting criticism and allegations of a “politically motivated” witch hunt. Zelenskyy first announced the intention to impose sanctions on the ex-president and politically connected businesspeople in a video published Wednesday evening. “I just held a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, the decision has been made, it will be published tomorrow. We are protecting our state and restoring justice. Everyone who destroyed the national security of Ukraine and helped Russia must be held accountable,” Zelenskyy said. “The billions that were earned by actually selling Ukraine and Ukrainian interests, Ukrainian security, must be blocked and used to protect Ukraine and Ukrainians. This will be mandatory,” he added. Along with Poroshenko, oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk — an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been waging all-out war on Ukraine for years — Kostyantyn Zhevago, Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholyubov were all sanctioned too, according to the document. The sanctions freeze the targets’ assets in Ukraine and block them from conducting financial transactions, among other measures. Poroshenko — who was accused by Ukraine’s security service of making deals that pushed Ukraine into energy dependence on Russia — said in a video that the sanctions “were not news to him” and that they are “unconstitutional” and “politically motivated.” “There are many accomplices in this crime: Zelenskyy’s entire team, the Cabinet of Ministers, which was forced to submit to an absurd proposal, members of his National Security and Defense Council. But the customer, executor, and signatory is one — Zelenskyy personally,” said Poroshenko. Poroshenko served as Ukraine’s president from 2014 until 2019 before losing the election to Zelenskyy, sparking a long-term feud between the two men. Following Zelenskyy’s victory, more than 20 cases criminal cases were opened against Poroshenko, including one where he was accused of treason.