Relieve craft businesses of noticeable bureaucracy

The National Regulatory Control Council (NKR) has presented its report for 2019. Holger Schwannecke, Secretary General of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), misses any noticeable relief for small and medium-sized businesses in this context.

This article is part of the special feature on bureaucratic madness in the skilled trades.

The National Regulatory Control Council (NKR) has published its report for 2019. It criticizes the insufficient efforts to reduce bureaucracy . The draft legislation for the Third Bureaucracy Relief Act is a start, but ultimately insufficient. While the " One in One out" rule has achieved a positive impact on reducing the burden, new EU legislation is creating additional burdens, resulting in over €500 million in extra costs for German companies.

Download the NKR annual report as a PDF!

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Therefore, the NKR calls for the regulation to be extended to Europe . It also criticizes the fact that the timeframes between the completion of draft legislation and its passage in the Bundestag are too short. Furthermore, it demands the introduction of uniform standards for assessing the burden of legislation , thus enabling a consistent evaluation.

Crafts must be relieved of unnecessary bureaucracy

Holger Schwannecke, Secretary General of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) , laments the lack of tangible relief for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this context . "What's needed now is bold and decisive action from the federal government and the Bundestag together. Craft businesses must be relieved of unnecessary bureaucracy as quickly as possible ," says Schwannecke. He does, however, praise the SME strategy of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs: " The recently presented SME strategy of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs points in the right direction ." Nevertheless, much more needs to be done as soon as possible so that craft businesses can actually feel the relief.

About the NKR : One of its main tasks is to monitor legislation in Germany and the resulting burden on citizens. Compliance costs arise from the time and financial resources required to comply with legislation. The goal is to reduce the compliance burden for businesses and citizens. This is to be achieved through the so-called " one in, one out" principle . This means that every increase in costs is offset by an equal reduction. In the long term, the reductions should outweigh the increases.