According to the federal government, bureaucracy has increased significantly over the past ten years. The Ministry of Justice wants to take action against a further increase. The economy will also soon be relieved.
In Germany, bureaucracy has increased enormously over the past ten years. As statistics from the federal government show, both the number of federal laws and the number of individual standards increased significantly during this period. A list available to the dpa news agency shows the increase in the density of regulations: While on January 1, 2014 there were still 1,671 laws with 44,216 individual standards, at the beginning of this year there were already 1,792 laws consisting of a total of 52,155 individual standards.
However, the thicket of regulations has become thicker not only at the level of the laws passed by the Bundestag, but also in the legal regulations with which the executive regulates the details. According to the federal government, as of January 1, 2014, there were 2,720 federal regulations with 38,192 individual standards. Ten years later, the 2,854 federal legal regulations in force as of January 1st consisted of 44,272 individual standards.
| 2014 | 2024 | Increase in percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
Federal Laws | 1,671 | 1,792 | 7.24 |
… therein individual standards | 44,216 | 52,155 | 17.96 |
Federal regulations | 2,720 | 2,854 | 4.93 |
… therein individual standards | 38,192 | 44,272 | 15.92 |
Ministry wants Simplifications
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Justice pointed out that the number of laws cannot be equated with the burden of bureaucracy. After all, you also need a law to reduce bureaucracy. Nor does every individual standard or law trigger bureaucratic costs.
Nevertheless, the aim of the Federal Ministry of Justice is to counteract the further increase in the number of individual standards by “making the legislation simpler and more understandable”.
“We have a thicket in parts”
When asked whether it was still possible for craftsmen, private landlords, volunteers and other people without legal training in Germany to behave in accordance with the law in any case, the legal policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sonja Eichwede, admitted: ” We have a fairly high level of regulation in Germany.” It is also not good if you have to hire a specialist or a lawyer for too many processes.
But the situation is not hopeless, the MP added: “We have a thicket in parts, but we also have the opportunity to change that.” At the same time, she emphasizes: “Reducing bureaucracy must not lead to the dismantling of legitimate protection interests.”
Burdens on the economy
Too many bureaucratic requirements and extensive reporting requirements, along with high energy prices, have recently been cited as a burden by business associations. They welcomed the relief proposed by the federal government in 2023, which includes shorter storage requirements for tax-relevant documents and the possibility of regulating some things by email instead of a letter with a signature, but were criticized overall as not being sufficient.
The so-called bureaucracy relief law recently presented by Justice Minister Marco Buschmann is expected to be passed by the cabinet in March. According to the one-in-one-out rule that has been in effect since 2015, for every burden imposed by law on the economy, at least the same amount of relief must be achieved by the end of the legislative period at the latest. However, since there are exceptions here – for example for effects due to EU law and for a time-limited compliance effort – the effort still increases.
For example, the switch from the written form requirement to the text form is not always desirable, says SPD legal politician Eichwede. For example, when terminating a residential rental agreement, an email is not sufficient. She says: “It may be different with a commercial lease, for example, because you could assume that someone is constantly checking the mailbox.”
Rules and regulations are hard to understand
The Greens in particular are often said to have a penchant for overly complex regulations in the service of individual justice. Driven by the desire not to ignore any case constellation, rules are sometimes created that are difficult for legal laypeople to understand.
The desire for laws that are as easy to understand as possible and that leave a certain amount of leeway is understandable, says Baden-Württemberg’s Justice Minister Marion Gentges (CDU). Unfortunately, there are two “probably fundamentally German concerns” that stand in the way of this: the great desire to have every individual case regulated as precisely as possible in the law – although “the question is whether this really represents justice”.
In addition, the pursuit of the greatest possible security. “And if I can’t guarantee safety, then at least the liability of someone who has to be responsible for something not being safe at the back end.”