Endlich weniger Bürokratie: Diese Forderung steht ganz weit vorn auf der Wunschliste von Industrie und Wirtschaft vor der Bundestagswahl. „Die in den letzten Jahren weiter gewachsenen Bürokratielasten sind eine enorme Wachstumsbremse“, klagt der Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) in seinem „Grundsatzpapier zur Bundestagswahl“. Unternehmen beziffern die Bürokratiekosten in Deutschland mittlerweile im Schnitt auf rund sechs Prozent ihres Umsatzes, ergab eine Umfrage des Münchener Ifo-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung.
Die neue Bundesregierung müsse gegensteuern, um den Standort Deutschland wieder wettbewerbsfähig zu machen, fordert BDI-Präsident Siegfried Russwurm. Sonst würden Unternehmen verstärkt ins Ausland abwandern, mahnt Marie-Christine Ostermann, Präsidentin des Verbandes Die Familienunternehmer. Die „alles erstickende Bürokratie“ sei mitschuld daran, dass Unternehmen gezwungen würden, „Investitionen in Deutschland und in Jobs neu durchzurechnen“.
Die geschiedenen Ampelpartner hatten sich im Kampf gegen Bürokratie rhetorisch gegenseitig überboten. Man habe das „größte Bürokratieabbau-Programm in der Geschichte unseres Landes auf den Weg gebracht“, betonte der zurückgetretene Justizminister Marco Buschmann (FDP) immer wieder. Um 3,5 Milliarden Euro im Jahr würden die Betriebe dadurch entlastet.
Bürokratiekosten steigen trotz „Bürokratieabbau-Ministers“
Buschmann hatte sich für diese Großtat selbst den inoffiziellen Titel des „Bürokratieabbau-Ministers“ verliehen. Allerdings seien die direkten Bürokratiekosten mittlerweile auf 65 Milliarden Euro im Jahr geklettert, heißt es in einer Studie des Ifo-Instituts. Die Kosten durch entgangene Wirtschaftsleistung sind demnach noch viel höher: Sie liegen bei 146 Milliarden Euro im Jahr.
Wirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck hat sich hemdsärmelig für weitere Entlastungen stark gemacht: Man müsse „die Kettensäge anwerfen“ und das deutsche Lieferkettengesetz mit seinen umfassenden Berichtspflichten für Unternehmen „wegbolzen“, hatte der Grünenpolitiker bei einer Veranstaltung mit Unternehmern gefordert. „Das (Lieferkettengesetz) kommt weg“, hatte auch Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (SPD) im Sommer auf dem Arbeitgebertag versprochen.
Grüne markieren Lieferkettengesetz als ein Projekt von CSU und SPD
Die Grünen machen dafür ihren verbliebenen Ampelpartner und die oppositionelle CSU verantwortlich, die im Wahlkampf besonders heftig gegen den grünen Kanzlerkandidaten Habeck und seine Parteifreunde austeilt. „Das Lieferkettengesetz ist ein Projekt des SPD-Arbeitsministers Hubertus Heil und des CSU-Entwicklungsministers Gerd Müller“, sagte Grünenvorsitzende Franziska Brantner im F.A.Z.-Interview. Im Zuständigkeitsbereich des Wirtschaftsministeriums habe man viel getan, um Gesetze zu entrümpeln und Verfahren zu beschleunigen. Die Genehmigung einer Windkraftanlage dauere heute nur noch sieben Monate und nicht mehr sieben Jahre.
Habeck's ministry relies on so-called practical checks to reduce bureaucracy: Together with representatives from companies, authorities and interest groups, it is checked which practical obstacles stand in the way of a project, such as the expansion of photovoltaics, and how the hurdles can be eliminated. However, the checks are very complex. Conversely, laws that are not very practical take up a lot of time and personnel. A survey by the Ifo Institute among managers in Germany revealed that employees would have to spend 22 percent of their working time on bureaucratic tasks.
The managers surveyed attributed the increasing time expenditure to, among other things, the fact that legal regulations have become increasingly complex over the past ten years. Around 75 percent of those surveyed rated the practical suitability or implementability of laws as poor to very poor. The managers also complained about the excessive reporting and reporting requirements. Almost 80 percent of the companies that took part in the survey commissioned external service providers in order to be able to meet the bureaucratic requirements.
430 recommendations remained in the relief law without implementation
Of the more than 430 recommendations from business associations to reduce bureaucracy, barely a dozen made it into the traffic light coalition's bureaucracy relief law. According to an evaluation by economist Klaus-Heiner Röhl from the employer-related Institute of German Economics (IW) in Cologne, the majority of the relief is due to “very few measures that relate to threshold increases, flat rates and digitalization”. So what can the economy expect from a new federal government?
In the draft of its election program, the SPD tiredly assures that it will consistently continue on the path of “less bureaucracy for more economic growth”. The countless discussions and meetings on the topic of reducing bureaucracy are to be followed by another conference between a Social Democratic Chancellor and representatives from business and administration. The Social Democrats are already setting limits for this: they will ensure that “employee rights, consumer rights and the goals of ecological change are not jeopardized.”
The Greens also emphasize that no social or ecological protection standards will be dismantled. There is no longer any talk of abolishing the Supply Chain Act. Habeck's pithy words about bolting away with a chainsaw seem to have been forgotten. Rather, the Greens want to use the supply chain law to strengthen the competitive position of farmers compared to the food industry.
Union parties are clearly against the supply chain law
There is also nothing in the SPD election program about the Chancellor's announcement that the supply chain law will be abolished. The CDU and CSU now want to do their best to achieve this. The supply chain law must go “in order to cure our country of bureaucratic madness,” says the Union parties’ election manifesto. They want to return to a “culture of doing, not avoiding mistakes”.
The AfD also wants to reduce the “strangulating bureaucracy” by, among other things, disappearing the supply chain law. The FDP also has far-reaching plans, ranging from an immediate three-year moratorium on bureaucracy to a bureaucracy brake in the Basic Law. The Liberals do not comment on the German supply chain law in the draft of their election manifesto. However, shortly after the break of the traffic light coalition in the Bundestag, the FDP parliamentary group requested the repeal of the law, which “does not lead to a better world, but only burdens companies”.
Even if the German supply chain law were eliminated, the extensive EU requirements for environmental and social standards would still remain. Last summer, the European Supply Chain Directive came into force, which will replace the German law anyway. Its requirements will come into force gradually from mid-2027. In this respect, the debate about abolishing the German supply chain law is a sham battle anyway.
According to the FDP, the flood of bureaucracy should be reduced simply for cost reasons
The FDP parliamentary group criticizes the fact that the EU supply chain directive alone would burden German companies with additional bureaucratic costs of 100 million euros per year. Companies and business associations therefore expect the future federal government to work hard to stem the flood of bureaucracy from Brussels.
57 percent of the bureaucracy costs in this country are caused by requirements of the European Union (EU). In fact, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already promised to at least bundle the reports that various EU laws require companies to submit. For the end of February, von der Leyen announced a proposal for an “omnibus” law that would combine the reporting requirements of at least three laws. Companies should be able to document compliance with the requirements for sustainability reporting, taxonomy and the Supply Chain Act in one form. How much this will relieve companies is unclear.
Von der Leyen also promised before the European elections to reduce reporting requirements by 25 percent, and for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by as much as 35 percent. However, it is unclear what exactly these percentages refer to.
Von der Leyen distinguishes between reducing bureaucracy and regulation
The extent to which the European Commission is serious about reducing bureaucracy also depends on how much pressure Berlin – and thus the new federal government – exerts on this issue. The German business associations have also submitted long lists of concrete suggestions to the EU Commission on how companies could be relieved.
However, there was no shortage of such lists in the past. What is central is the political will to implement them. There is a lot of perseverance in the commission. In the influential civil service, the desire for less regulation is manageable. In the European Parliament, the Greens and Social Democrats in particular are opposed to “streamlining” EU laws.
Because von der Leyen's majority in the European Parliament is thin, she has to take this into account. Accordingly, at the start of her second term in office in December, she repeatedly assured that cutting bureaucracy does not mean deregulation. The big question is whether and how this balancing act can work.
