How the German government plans to cut red tape

Since coming to power in May this year, Chancellor Merz has spoken repeatedly about his desire to cut bureaucracy and red tape in the country in order to boost the economy. 

Germany's black-red government coalition – comprised of the conservative Christian Union parties (CDU/CSU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) – held closed-door meetings at Villa Borsig on Lake Tegel in north-western Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday to draft plans for modernising the country’s administration and cutting bureaucracy.

The plans were written up in a 40-page paper, which has since been made public.

Five months after the creation of a separate ministry for digital affairs and state modernisation, the goal now is to decide on and prioritise the concrete projects which ministers believe will turn government aspirations into reality.

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In total, the paper contains around 80 suggested measures for reducing bureaucracy and accelerating digitisation in the federal administration.

According to the paper, the government plans to reduce bureaucratic costs by 25 percent, which is expected to amount to around €16 billion in savings.

The paper also imagines an eight percent reduction in the size of the federal government's workforce.

Other initial goals include:

• Centralising online vehicle registration. In theory this would mean that 400 separate registration authorities would be combined in one central portal.
• Making it easier for people to start businesses. The government says it wants to make it possible to set up a business in Germany within 24 hours, via a central web portal.
• Providing training and AI tools for ministry staff responsible for drafting legislation, with a view to creating laws which are simultaneously more practical and less bureaucratic.
• The 1:1 implementation of EU law “without bureaucratic over-compliance”. The implication being that German administrators have been guilty of adding extra and unnecessary requirements to EU laws in the past.
• Allowing fewer exceptions to the so-called bureaucracy brake. The plan is to apply Germany's "one-in-one-out" rule more consistently in future. If companies are burdened by new regulations in one area, the government wants to ensure they're given relief elsewhere.

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With reporting by DPA.