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Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann: “This is the largest bureaucracy relief package ever in the history of this country.” © Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Laws, regulations, obligations: The bureaucracy in Germany is immense.
The federal government is announcing a clearing out in big words.
The economy says: That's still far from enough.
Berlin - Fewer regulations and more digital: The federal government wants to reduce the bureaucratic burden for companies, administration and citizens.
To this end, the cabinet introduced a bureaucracy relief law in Berlin on Wednesday.
For example, German citizens should no longer have to fill out registration forms in hotels within Germany.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said: “Reducing bureaucracy is one of the federal government’s major tasks, one of our major projects.
And today we have taken a big further step forward.” However, the business community called for significantly more and more far-reaching measures to reduce bureaucracy.
“Beaty fat” in terms of bureaucracy doesn’t go away overnight
The individual measures in the law are based on proposals from the federal ministries for their respective areas, but also on an online survey by associations that submitted 442 proposals for reducing bureaucracy.
The cabinet had already approved the basic principles at its retreat at Meseberg Castle last summer.
At that time, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann spoke of “bureaucratic burnout” in many companies.
Now the FDP politician showed understanding for those for whom the new law does not go far enough.
Despite the planned relief, “the people in business are right because we have of course achieved a world championship in terms of bureaucracy in Germany,” he said in the ARD morning magazine.
“It's a bit like eating a lot of belly fat for years.
You can’t get rid of it overnight with the push of a button.”
The planned law is one of three components of a package that is intended to provide relief of more than three billion euros per year.
“This is the largest bureaucratic relief package ever in the history of this country,” said Buschmann.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) described bureaucracy as one reason why Germany is currently not internationally competitive.
Bill with many detailed measures
The planned law still has to be discussed and passed in the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
It provides for the following points:
Shorter retention periods: The commercial and tax law retention periods for copies of invoices, bank statements, and payroll lists are to be shortened from ten to eight years.
Companies can therefore dispose of them earlier than before.
Power of attorney database for tax advisors: Companies should no longer have to issue their tax advisors with numerous written powers of attorney for the respective social security providers.
A general power of attorney should be sufficient, which can be entered electronically and accessed by all social security providers.
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Reporting requirements for hotel overnight stays: They will be abolished for German citizens - hotels no longer have to record and pass them on.
Farewell to written form requirements: If the written form is required today, a handwritten signature is required.
In the future, text form should be sufficient in many regulatory areas of the Civil Code - for example via email, SMS or messenger message.
For example, club members should in future be able to declare their consent to a resolution that was passed without a general meeting in text form.
Public auctions: They should also be possible online or in a hybrid form, i.e. on site and online at the same time.
Passenger processing: Manual checks of airline tickets or travel documents should be further replaced by digital forms - especially during check-in, when checking in baggage and when controlling access to the security area.
Support for the abolition of the reporting requirement for German hotel guests
The German Hotel Association IHA particularly welcomed the planned elimination of the registration certificate for domestic overnight guests.
General manager Markus Luthe demanded in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that the registration certificate should also be no longer required for foreign hotel guests.
In addition, the reporting requirements for spas and health resorts due to tourist taxes would also have to be canceled.
For the chairwoman of the startup association, Verena Pausder, the law is a good step, but only a first step.
“I think we need to clean out collectively, so to speak,” she said on Deutschlandfunk.
“We simply find it incredibly difficult to abolish things in Germany that we once introduced, even if they no longer make sense.” She also mentioned the Skilled Immigration Act: “If the visa procedures take so long, then that’s what’s good for us “Not so much, because people will still wait forever until they get a job.”
“A little spring cleaning” isn’t enough
Total metal managing director Oliver Zander criticized that the planned law fell well short of expectations and what was necessary.
The general manager of the Federation of German Industries, Tanja Gönner, sees it similarly: “The federal government is missing out on the bureaucratic liberation.” The planned measures are far too small-scale.
The Central Association of German Crafts explained that the measures were far from sufficient to provide overall and noticeable relief to craft businesses.
According to Managing Director Wolfgang Große Entrup, the Association of the Chemical Industry is still waiting for the government's “big hit” to reduce bureaucracy: “Germany has a basement full of unnecessary laws,” he stated.
“We have to clear out.
A little spring cleaning isn’t enough.” dpa