Thousands of laws and regulations, tens of thousands of standards: companies groan under bureaucracy. Entrepreneurs and associations warn that bureaucracy threatens to choke off the economy in Germany.
Middle-class and self-employed people are particularly affected. New rules now lead to follow-up costs of more than 25 billion euros per year, a good five times as much as ten years ago. Unlike large corporations, small companies in particular cannot hire additional staff to cope with the growing flood of paper. Almost half also fear that their competitiveness will suffer.