“Germany in trouble”
Family entrepreneurs have ten wishes at the traffic light
8/26/2023 4:52 am
Reducing bureaucracy, protecting against EU over-regulation, lowering corporate taxes: German family businesses are submitting a ten-point to-do list to the federal government. Without a bold political change of course, the business location is threatened with extinction.
In order to strengthen Germany as a business location, family businesses have presented a ten-point plan. According to a paper by the Foundation for Family Businesses and Politics, an agenda to improve competitiveness is urgently needed. The deindustrialization and the already ongoing exodus of companies must be stopped. Rainer Kirchdörfer, head of the Foundation for Family Businesses and Politics, said that not only small-scale repair measures were needed, but a courageous political change of course. The foundation proposes a “Pact for Germany” to make the location fit again. In Germany there are 2.9 million family businesses, which are 90 percent of all companies. Many entrepreneurs did not feel heard by politicians.
The ten-point plan specifically includes the demand to stop the EU “over-regulation” and to push ahead with the reduction of bureaucracy as quickly as possible. Corporate tax must be lowered and so-called loss offsetting expanded. When it comes to climate protection, there must be security of supply and planning. Labor costs would have to be reduced, productivity boosted and administration relieved of its core tasks.
“Even Switzerland is cheaper”
“Germany as a business location has been in trouble for a long time and is currently in danger of tipping over,” says Natalie Mekelburger, CEO of Coroplast. Politicians must finally relieve companies of bureaucracy, taxes and energy costs. Nikolas Stihl, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Stihl Holding, said: “We still stand by our location in Germany. But today you have to be able to afford a location in Germany.” It is now even cheaper to produce in Switzerland. “This shows the absurdity of the German wage cost landscape.”
The CEO of the Marquardt Group, Harald Marquardt, said: “Many companies are losing customer orders or not calling them up. The already low margins are under even more pressure. The companies now need quick relief, tax incentives and not more and more costs more complex reporting requirements.”