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Germany is not suffocating from crises - but from documentation

In a guest article in "Handelsblatt," Lutz Goebel, Chairman of the National Regulatory Control Council (NKR), and DIHK Chief Executive Officer Helena Melnikov outline what is crucial for reducing bureaucracy now.

Bureaucracy has become one of the main brakes on growth, investment, and confidence in Germany. In their joint article, titled "Germany is not suffocating from crises - but from documentation," published in "Handelsblatt," DIHK Chief Executive Officer Melnikov and NKR Chairman Goebel comment on the German Government's current modernization agenda.

Directly, companies in Germany incur bureaucracy costs of around 64 billion euros per year, calculate Melnikov and Goebel. Taking into account the lost economic output, the figure is even around 146 billion euros annually. At the same time, bureaucracy represents "the blockade that the state can most easily remove," they diagnose.

Shifting the burden of proof as a "true paradigm shift"

At the second "cabinet of relief" in mid-July, there was backing for reductions, the two authors recall. Of the fundamentally decided but not yet finalized package of measures, they praise the planned shift of the burden of proof in reducing bureaucracy as a "true paradigm shift": Until now, businesses had to justify why a requirement was unnecessary; in the future, the state must justify why a reporting or documentation requirement is necessary. However, Melnikov and Goebel also emphasize that binding "reporting obligation brakes" and a systematic integration of the NKR and businesses are needed to ensure that requirements, once eliminated in a "one-time cleanup," are not reintroduced.

"EU regulations must no longer be complicated with German thoroughness," demand the two. "With the acceleration pact concluded in November 2023, the federal and state governments could significantly speed up if they finally boldly removed the well-known braking blocks." But: "Everyone has to pull together to make it happen."

Mindset must change "everywhere and permanently"

For the ambitious plans to result in tangible changes in everyday life, the mindset across all departments must change permanently. "Radical simplifications must not be watered down again or relativized through new exceptions," warn the authors. They admonish, "Those who seriously want to relieve must be ready to question and change existing structures." They caution, "Germany cannot afford to lose time in announcements while other locations become faster and more innovation-friendly."

The detailed article is available as part of the "H+" offering on the Handelsblatt website (only available in German).