CDU on the economy

The Urban Tech Republic is to be built on the former Tegel airport as a digital and sustainable model district, including an experimentation zone where investment should face hardly any bureaucratic requirements. Other urban development plans include a concept for City-West and open city data.

The old Tegel airport should become a new city district. Research and companies should work there together. There should be a zone for testing new ideas. Companies there should face few rules. The city should also share more data openly.

The former terminal is to be converted for the Berliner Hochschule für Technik (BHT) to bring research, teaching and companies together. In an experimentation zone, the CDU aims to largely waive bureaucratic requirements for investments to speed up approvals. A development concept for City-West is to be drawn up with the Senate and the districts, based on the "Charta City West 2040". City data is to be made widely available as open data, and the city's digital twin is to show plans in 3D and serve as a platform for public participation. Allotment gardens should be recognized as ecological compensation areas for large construction projects.

The CDU wants the eight legally permitted shopping Sundays to actually take place and wants districts to be able to add two more per year. Late-night convenience stores (Spätis) are to get legally secure rules, and a strategy is to revive shopping streets and reduce vacancies.

Shops should open on Sundays more often. Districts should be able to add two extra Sundays a year. Spätis should get clear rules. Spätis are small shops that stay open late. Empty shops should be used again.

Sunday opening is to be put on a legally secure footing, and all eight possible Sundays are to be used. Together with districts, retailers and restaurants, neighborhood plans are to be drawn up for every shopping street, and the "Lebendige Zentren" program is to be expanded with the federal government. Plans include a program to convert retail properties, a digitalization program for retail and hospitality, and a review with Deutsche Bahn of commercial use of S-Bahn arches. To fight vacancies, there is to be systematic monitoring of office and commercial space and a central allocation office at BIM for empty state-owned buildings, open to start-ups and the creative industries.

The CDU wants to cut red tape under a "one in, two out" rule and abolish, as a matter of principle, all state-level reporting and documentation requirements for businesses as of a set date. Only obligations that are explicitly justified would remain.

The CDU wants fewer rules for companies. For each new rule, two old rules should go. Companies often must write reports for the state. Most of these duties should end on one set day. Only well-justified duties should stay.

New regulations are only to be created if at least two existing ones are dropped. Following the example of North Rhine-Westphalia, the burden of proof is reversed: departments must justify necessary obligations by the deadline and have them confirmed by ordinance, otherwise they lapse without replacement. Procedures are to be digitalized and approval times shortened, including through deemed approvals, under which a permit is automatically granted once a deadline passes.

The CDU wants to abolish Berlin's own public tendering and procurement law (BerlAVG) and apply federal procurement law instead. The goals are less red tape, lower costs and more freedom for businesses. The training-place support fund is also to be reviewed and scrapped if necessary.

Berlin has its own rules for public contracts. These rules should go away. Then the federal rules apply. This should save companies work and money. A fund for training places will also be checked.

The BerlAVG is to be fully replaced by federal procurement law to reduce bureaucracy and costs. The training-place support fund is to be evaluated promptly for its effectiveness and its effects on companies, training capacity and bureaucracy. If the hoped-for effects fail to materialize or the burdens outweigh them, the CDU will abolish the fund.

The CDU wants to fully digitalize business registration so companies can be founded within 24 hours. New businesses are to receive tax relief, and business successions are to be secured.

Starting a company should be fast. It should work within 24 hours. Registration should be fully digital. New companies should pay less tax. Companies should also find successors more easily.

In digital business registration, all relevant authorities are to be involved automatically. New networking options with the succession center (Nachfolgezentrale) are to support generational change in companies. Federal and state funding programs are to be better coordinated and payouts sped up. Business networks are to be supported, and the SME offices evaluated and continued with outreach formats.

Berlin is to become a leading location for security and defense technologies. The CDU wants to build a defense tech (DefTech) ecosystem and bring a TechHub SVI Ost to Berlin.

Berlin should become an important place for defense technology. Companies and research should work together there. The CDU wants to bring a new hub to Berlin.

The CDU backs Berlin as an industrial location with more than 750 companies and about 100,000 employees. The development and use of innovative security and defense technologies are to be strengthened in Berlin. In particular, the CDU is pushing for a TechHub SVI Ost in Berlin.

The CDU wants to give more support to Berlin's pharmaceutical industry and medical device makers. In its view, this should attract investment, strengthen research and create high-quality jobs. Berlin is also meant to become a hub for environmental and climate technology and to grow its industrial output.

The CDU wants to support companies that make medicine and medical devices. This should bring money and good jobs to Berlin. Berlin should also develop technology for the environment and climate. Industry in Berlin should grow.

The program plans to examine how suitable sites can be provided for the pharma sector and how specialized innovation clusters can be supported. Regulatory sandboxes, meaning real-world test spaces, are to be enabled for new energy and heating technologies. Small and mid-sized firms, start-ups and academia are to cooperate more closely. Cluster management is to be expanded, and modern infrastructure for existing and newly arriving industrial firms is to receive special support.

The CDU wants Berlin to remain Germany's start-up capital and a place where young companies can grow and scale internationally. To that end, venture capital structures are to be strengthened, new financing tools created and a Berlin Fund set up with the state investment bank IBB.

Berlin should stay the city of new companies. Young companies need money to grow. The CDU wants to start a Berlin Fund for this. A fund is a pot of money for companies. Other kinds of help should grow too.

Existing venture capital structures are to focus on areas such as technology, deep tech and the creative industries, especially firms building European alternatives to existing technology. The CDU backs further state subsidies for loan guarantees in Series A/B rounds. The Berlin start-up scholarship is to double the number of funded teams on the same terms. Scale-ups are to get support beyond the founding phase, including better rules for micro-investments and founder-friendly guarantees. A cloud credit program for CreativeTech start-ups and a state program brokering partnerships with established companies are also planned.

The CDU wants to strengthen hotels, restaurants and tourism as economic sectors. It backs the permanently reduced VAT on restaurant food and wants a training campus for the hospitality industry and more international conferences.

Hotels, restaurants and tourism matter for Berlin. The CDU supports the lower tax on restaurant food. It wants a training campus for hotel and restaurant jobs. More big events from around the world should come to Berlin.

The cut in VAT on restaurant food from 19 to 7 percent has applied since January 1, 2026, and the CDU says it pushed it through at the federal level. Together with the industry, a HOGA campus is to be built as a hub for training and innovation. Cooperation with Messe Berlin and visitBerlin is to expand capacity for mid-sized and large events. The conference fund is to continue and be extended to international formats.

The CDU commits to the Messe master plan and wants to expand the state-owned trade fair company Messe Berlin as an international venue. Private investment in Messe Berlin is to be made possible. The ICC congress center is to be put to multiple uses.

The state owns the Berlin trade fair. The CDU wants to make it bigger and better known. Private investors should be allowed to put money in. The old ICC congress center should be used again.

The aim is to attract significantly more national and international visitors again, especially trade visitors. Besides trade fairs and conferences, the ICC is to host culture, creative businesses and new event formats. In the CDU's view, this would upgrade the whole site.

The CDU wants Berlin's more than 60 state-owned companies to be run more efficiently and their oversight professionalized. The six state-owned housing companies are to be merged into no more than three, to eliminate duplicate structures and use investment funds more effectively.

Berlin owns more than 60 companies. The CDU wants them run better. Experts should oversee these companies. Berlin has six city-owned housing companies. They should become three at most.

The administrations for holdings and for company operations are to be merged again. Supervisory boards are to be staffed with proven experts and supported by independent structures. The CDU rejects political steering at the expense of profitability and wants modern corporate governance standards, clear targets, and regular performance reviews. Investment to protect critical infrastructure against crises, outages, and hybrid threats is to rise sharply. The climate pact with state companies is to become a pact for sustainability and resilience.