CDU/CSU on the economy

The CDU and the CSU want to pass a law cutting red tape every year and to strike two old rules for each new one. Documentation and reporting duties for companies are to shrink. The platform sees cutting red tape as giving back freedom and wants to relieve small and mid-sized firms in particular.

The CDU and the CSU want less red tape. Every year a law should remove old rules. For one new rule, two old ones should go. Companies should have to hand in fewer records and reports.

Where it makes sense, laws are to get an expiration date, and red-tape checks with affected firms are to happen more often. The National Regulatory Control Council and responsibility for cutting red tape are to return to the Chancellery. In skilled trades, retail, restaurants and hotels, the burden of proof for documentation duties is to be reversed. Statistical duties are to shrink because firms may point to data the authorities already hold. Small and mid-sized companies are no longer to have to appoint company officers for areas such as waste or fire safety. In addition, written-form requirements in labor law are to be reviewed, EU worker postings simplified, and the procedure for determining self-employed status adjusted.

The CDU and the CSU want to abolish Germany's Supply Chain Act and to stop burdens from the taxonomy and sustainability reporting at the European level. EU law is no longer to be implemented in Germany more strictly than required.

The CDU and the CSU want to end the German supply chain law. This law makes companies watch over their suppliers. Fewer rules for companies should come from the EU too. Germany should not make EU rules stricter than needed.

Besides ending the Supply Chain Act, the parties want to curb the EU rules on sustainable investment and on sustainability reporting. An "EU forechecking" is to ensure that Germany takes part in European legislation earlier and more strategically. An "anti-gold-plating law" is to roll back rules that go beyond EU law and prevent future over-implementation. The parties reject duplicate regulation at the national and European levels.

The CDU and the CSU want to make the economy more resilient to crises, takeovers by systemic rivals and cyberattacks. At the same time, interventions by the Federal Cartel Office are again to require a breach of law. The platform points to growing geo-economic risks.

The CDU and the CSU want to protect the economy better. Rivals from other countries should not simply buy important companies. Small companies should get help against attacks from the internet. The cartel office should step in only when a law is broken.

Security-relevant technology and critical infrastructure are to be shielded from takeovers. New instruments are to be created for crises and against subsidies that distort competition. Small and mid-sized firms are to get tax advantages and cheap financing for cybersecurity measures, and Germany is to become the world market leader in secure IT solutions. European competition law is to take the global market as its benchmark. Producers and suppliers are to be better protected from unfair practices by powerful buyers, and brand and product piracy is to be fought harder.

The CDU and the CSU want to support free trade and conclude new trade agreements as well as energy and raw material partnerships. International cooperation is to be geared to Germany's strategic economic interests. The platform points out that one in four jobs depends on exports.

The CDU and the CSU want free trade with other countries. There should be new deals on trade, energy and raw materials. Aid for poorer countries should also help German business. Many jobs in Germany depend on exports.

Foreign trade promotion and development cooperation are to be linked more closely. German companies are to have a larger share in publicly funded development projects, which the parties also want to push for in the OECD. Trade agreements are to be designed pragmatically at the European level. The export economy is to be better cushioned against global risks such as supply bottlenecks and protectionism.

The CDU and the CSU want the Mercosur agreement to take effect quickly and back further EU trade deals. They consider tariffs generally the wrong approach. Exporting companies are to get easier access to guarantees and export licenses.

The CDU and the CSU want more free trade. The deal with South America should start soon. It is called the Mercosur agreement. Companies should sell goods abroad more easily. The parties mostly think tariffs are wrong.

Besides Mercosur, the parties back new EU agreements with India and the ASEAN countries and a closer economic partnership with the United States. On Mercosur, they want to watch for fair competitive conditions for agriculture. Against distorting subsidies by other countries, they rely on the EU anti-subsidy procedure and World Trade Organization dispute settlement. The climate-related sector guidelines for state export guarantees are to be reversed, because the parties reject sorting foreign business into wanted and unwanted activity. Export licenses are to be issued much faster.

The CDU and the CSU want to keep close economic ties with China as long as they rest on reciprocity. At the same time, critical dependencies are to shrink, for example in raw materials, supply chains, semiconductors and battery cells.

Germany should keep trading with China. But Germany should depend less on China. For this, there should be more trade partners. Europe should make more computer chips and batteries itself. More raw materials should also come from Germany.

Sales markets, raw material sources and supply chains are to be diversified, and critical infrastructure and security-relevant technology protected. The parties want to boost semiconductor and battery cell production in Europe through the European Chips Act and the semiconductor alliance ESRA. Economic ties with Africa, the Global South and the Asia-Pacific region are to grow, partly so that China and Russia do not gain influence there alone. On raw materials, the parties rely on domestic mining, recycling and a tax reserve that encourages private stockpiling.

The CDU and the CSU want to launch a high-tech agenda for research, innovation, technology and transfer. An innovation freedom act is to relieve research institutions of funding bureaucracy. Mid-sized companies and spin-offs are to get easier access to funding.

The CDU and the CSU want to strengthen research. Researchers should have to fill out fewer forms. There should be a new law for this. Small and mid-sized companies should get funding more easily. Germany should be a leader in new technology.

The program names aerospace, quantum computing, AI, fusion energy, biotechnology, battery cells and microelectronics as future fields, along with a new space strategy. The Wissenschaftsfreiheitsgesetz (academic freedom act) is to be revised and also apply to nonprofit and mostly state-funded institutions. Basic research is to get more weight in the budget, federal research funding is to be bundled, and the research tax allowance further developed. Programs such as ZIM, IGF, INNO-KOM and KMU-innovativ are to be strengthened. The ban on paying staff better than public-sector employees is to be lifted for nonprofit research institutions, and the parties commit to the EU funding tools IPCEI and the Chips Act.

The CDU and the CSU want to make it easier to start a business. Founders are to be exempt from many rules in the early phase, and venture capital is to get more attractive tax treatment.

The CDU and the CSU want more people to start a company. At the start, founders should face fewer rules. Only one office should handle the founding. New companies should get money more easily.

A single office is to handle founding, re-registering and closing a business. A national strategy for patents and spin-offs, along with model contracts, is meant to speed up startups coming out of science. Researchers are to keep the usage rights to their inventions if they turn them into a company. Startup financing and the Zukunftsfonds (future fund) are to be expanded so that companies have enough capital while growing. More women should found companies, and self-employment should fit better with family life.

The CDU and the CSU want to expand the European capital markets union quickly and make Germany Europe's leading financial center in the long run. Banks should not be overburdened, and the EU taxonomy is to be watered down. The platform expects growth, jobs and prosperity from this.

The CDU and the CSU want to strengthen the market for investments in Europe. Germany should become the most important place for finance in Europe. Banks should not carry too many burdens. Rules for shares should become looser.

Financial regulation is to be checked continuously for competitiveness against major financial centers outside Europe. The three-pillar system of private, public and cooperative banks is to be preserved. In stock corporation law, capital increases are to be made easier and the minimum par value of shares lowered. Product information sheets are to become easier to understand. In the platform's view, the EU taxonomy, the rulebook for classifying sustainable investments, is out of touch with reality. Fee-based and commission-based advice are both to remain available.