The Federal Minister of Justice now likes to talk about belly fat that has to go, also about bureaucratic burnout and dispensable state ballast. “Authorities, companies, citizens – they are all groaning under more and more laws and regulations,” said Marco Buschmann (FDP) on Wednesday in Berlin. The cabinet had previously approved a draft of the bureaucracy relief law; it is the fourth legislative proposal of its kind.
Buschmann wants to abolish unnecessary documentation requirements and regulations and accelerate planning processes in companies. Citizens should also be supported in the “fight against paperwork”. The relief volume for the economy is estimated at a good 944 million euros per year, with a total of four billion euros saved. “This is the largest de-bureaucratization package that has existed in the history of the Federal Republic,” said Buschmann.
Deadlines are shortened and legal transactions are made possible via email
For example, it is planned to shorten the retention periods for copies of invoices, bank statements, but also payroll lists in companies from ten to eight years. The obligation for companies to issue each individual power of attorney to tax advisors for the respective social security institutions should also be eliminated. A general power of attorney should be sufficient in the future. Hotel registration on a registration form will be abolished, albeit only for people with German citizenship. In the future, a number of legal transactions will be able to be concluded by email, which previously required a signature on paper. Airlines should be allowed to read travel documents digitally.
A number of business associations still consider the project to be inadequate. The chairwoman of the startup association, Verena Pausder, called the law a good, 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.” A “little bit of spring cleaning” isn’t enough, said Gesamtmetall managing director Oliver Zander. Buschmann’s law falls well short of expectations.
Criticism also came from the German Association of Judges, saying that Buschmann was building up bureaucracy instead of reducing it. “The cannabis law pushed by Marco Buschmann turns out to be a bureaucratic monster, the Minister of Justice wants to make the criminal process even more cumbersome with unnecessary recording and protocol requirements, and according to Buschmann’s plans, a new bureaucracy of fines with notices will intervene in the future against fare evasion on buses and trains,” said Federal Managing Director Sven Rebehn.
Draft also against transactions with junk properties
The cabinet also approved a draft on Wednesday that aims to legally prevent abusive transactions with junk properties to the detriment of tenants and municipalities. It stipulates that municipalities will in future be able to apply for judicial administration for foreclosed buildings until the property has actually been paid for. Even in his home country, the Ruhr area, it often happens that shell companies buy junk properties at auction, “sometimes at ridiculous prices,” said Buschmann. The properties would then not be paid for, but would fall into disrepair and would later be auctioned off again without the purchase price ever being paid. In some cases, people are housed in such houses “in the most deplorable conditions” and financially squeezed, especially those from southeastern Europe. This practice must be stopped, also because the problem properties caused trouble in residential areas. There is currently no effective antidote.
Buschmann also presented a draft that would regulate the employment of informants and so-called informants who are used in investigations against suspects and criminals. This is also about monitoring private individuals and their basic rights, says Buschmann. “A judge’s reservation will be introduced for operations by informants, and the operations will be subject to regular judicial control,” says the draft. It provides for a maximum period of ten years for the use of an informant and more control.