More and more laws and standards
Germany is more bureaucratic than it was ten years ago
February 27, 2024, 7:49 a.m
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Cutting bureaucracy is now the mantra of many associations and politicians. However, according to a report, there is actually something to the paralyzing confusion of files. The number of laws and standards in Germany has increased significantly within ten years.
The density of regulations in Germany 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 rose sharply during this period. The list available to the German Press Agency shows: While there were 1,671 laws with 44,216 individual standards in effect on January 1, 2014, 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 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.
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”.
“Do not dismantle legitimate protective interests”
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 admitted: Sonja Eichwede: “We have a fairly high density of regulations 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. Eichwede said: “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 protective interests.” Too many bureaucratic requirements and extensive reporting requirements, along with high energy prices, were recently cited particularly frequently by business associations as a burden.