CDU on the economy

The CDU wants more industrial value creation in the state and relies on the surplus of renewable electricity as a locational advantage. Selected sectors are to be strengthened as clusters through state programs and together with universities.

The CDU wants more industry in the state. This industry should not harm the climate. Schleswig-Holstein has a lot of wind power. New factories should use this power. The state should give special support to certain industries.

The focus is to be on the energy sector, the maritime economy, the food industry, medical technology and pharmaceuticals, and a sustainable chemical industry. Energy policy, research, and industrial sites are to be linked in order to build up sector coupling and use electricity that currently goes unused. This is meant to bring in new industries, for example in climate-neutral mobility. Innovation zones are planned especially on the west coast to enable knowledge and technology transfer locally.

The CDU wants to support shipyards and the maritime industry and give them planning certainty. It calls on the federal government to extend the protection of key technologies in naval shipbuilding to partial contract awards, so that contracts need not be tendered across Europe.

The CDU wants to help the shipyards in the state. Shipyards build ships. Orders for navy ships should go to local companies where possible. The shipyards should also build clean ships. They should also be able to remove old munitions from the sea.

The CDU welcomes the federal government's classification of all naval shipbuilding as a key technology, which makes it easier to forgo Europe-wide tenders. In major tenders it intends to use its influence on behalf of companies from Schleswig-Holstein. Shipyards are to be supported in shifting to climate-neutral, digital, and sustainable ships and propulsion. The CDU sees the shipyards' offer to dispose of old munitions in the North Sea and Baltic Sea on an industrial scale as an opportunity. The state is to share the costs so that cleanup can succeed jointly with the federal government.

The CDU wants to use the Fehmarnbelt fixed link and the Jutland route along the A7 highway to create new economic areas. The state is to make commercial land available there and actively court companies.

Soon there will be a tunnel to Denmark. The CDU wants new companies to settle along this route. The same goes for the route along the A7 highway. The state should promote itself as a place for business. A database should show free land for companies.

In the CDU's view, the Fehmarnbelt link should not be merely a transit route. State planning is to support new commercial land in these areas. Location scouts are to promote the state at trade fairs at home and abroad, and a statewide database is to show available commercial and industrial sites. Advice services for cross-border commuters in the German-Danish border region are to be expanded. Local administrations are to be trained to focus more on attracting businesses.

The CDU rejects additional state-level rules for businesses that go beyond national, European, or international standards. Permits are to be issued faster and administrative requirements cut.

The CDU wants no extra rules for companies only in Schleswig-Holstein. The rules of Germany and the EU should be enough. Permits should come faster. Offices should use their leeway to help small companies.

According to the platform, state-specific rules, for example in public procurement, have made bureaucracy in Germany more fragmented. Where regulations leave room for judgment and discretion, the CDU wants to use it in favor of mid-sized businesses. Permit procedures are to be sped up, among other things through shorter deadlines. The CDU points out that it has already simplified procurement through self-declarations and by dropping mandatory non-procurement criteria.

The CDU wants to eliminate competitive differences between brick-and-mortar retail and online retail. Its reasoning is that large online platforms on average bear a markedly lower burden of taxes and levies.

Shops in town struggle against big online sellers. The CDU says online sellers often pay less in taxes and fees. That should change. The same conditions should apply to both.

The platform describes retail, with its small and mid-sized structure, as a pillar of the German economy. The burden of taxes and levies and the bureaucratic requirements are to be brought into line. The CDU says it will advocate for this alignment.

The CDU wants to continue the Meistergründungsprämie (start-up bonus for master craftsmen), fund master craftsman training, and make business successions easier. Municipal companies should not create additional competition for the skilled trades.

The CDU wants to help the skilled trades. Master craftsmen will keep getting money when they start or take over a business. Training to become a master craftsman should also get support. Companies owned by towns should not become new rivals for the trades.

A Meister-BAföG modeled on student aid is planned, which the CDU also wants to push for at the federal level, so that people with low incomes can earn the master qualification too. Because many businesses face a generational handover, advisory programs on succession are to be strengthened and the bonus paid for takeovers as well. The DigiBonus II funding program for digitalization in small businesses is to be reviewed and continued. Municipal companies should operate only where the task cannot be done better and more economically in another way.

The CDU wants to keep and expand the existing support facilities for founders. It will examine a central start-up competence center, and every university is to get at least one start-up adviser. Sector-specific accelerators are to be set up at university locations.

The CDU wants to help people who start a company. One central place should show all the help on offer. The CDU is checking whether to set it up. Every university should get at least one adviser for founders. Children should already learn about starting a business at school.

The competence center is meant to be a single point of contact that presents funding and advice in a uniform, easily accessible way; cooperation between the state's business development agency WTSH and the chambers of commerce is also under review. University services so far paid for with project and third-party funds are to be made permanent. The platform names more start-ups by women as a priority, along with possible sectors such as agriculture and food, life science, energy, maritime technology, medical technology, or tourism. Accelerators, meaning support programs for young companies, are to be built together with businesses. Schools are to teach entrepreneurial thinking.

The CDU wants to cut red tape for new businesses and mobilize more private capital for start-ups. A patent fund is meant to help protect inventions from universities early on and increase the number of usable patents.

The CDU wants to make starting a company easier. There should be less paperwork. Experienced business owners should give money to young companies. A new fund should help inventors. It lets them protect their inventions with patents.

Established companies and business figures are to be won over as venture capital providers or business angels who back start-ups in the early and growth stages with money, knowledge, and contacts. The CDU wants to use business development funding to promote cooperation between existing companies and start-ups. The state's patent and exploitation agency (PVA) is to help inventors secure patents and receive the patent fund for this work. The CDU will examine whether the PVA should be merged into the WTSH.

The CDU wants to link science and business more closely so that research results turn into products and services faster. An innovation agency is to be set up for this purpose. Companies and other private institutions are to be able to contribute to the financing of universities.

The CDU wants research and companies to work more closely together. Research should turn into new products faster. There should be an innovation agency for this. Companies should also be able to give money to universities.

The basis is the recommendations of the German Science and Humanities Council from its review of the state's university system, which the CDU intends to implement. The innovation agency is meant to help the state respond in time to new future technologies and breakthrough innovations. Private contributions to university funding are meant to create incentives for closer transfer ties. Non-material support of universities with private capital is also to become possible.

The CDU wants to strengthen knowledge and technology transfer between universities and companies. Companies are to be able to contribute to university funding. So-called hub structures are meant to enable cooperation in further research fields.

The CDU wants universities and companies to work together more. Companies should be able to give money to universities. There should be shared centers for research. Art schools and creative companies should also work together more closely.

In hubs, universities, research institutes, companies and civil society actors are to work together across disciplines. Besides money, companies are also to be able to provide non-financial support. The CDU wants to promote exchange between artistic and creative degree programs and the creative industries through projects such as transfer parks, modeled on the Muthesius Transferpark. Creative professionals and companies are to be attracted from big cities to Schleswig-Holstein, including rural areas. Within the state administration, science and business are to be tied together more closely.

The CDU wants to guarantee the continued existence of all commercially used ports in the state and develop them further. Shipping is to become more sustainable, for example through more shore power and cheaper berths for low-emission ships. The port development plan is to be updated.

The CDU wants to keep all ports that matter for the economy. Ships in port should use power from land more often. Cleaner ships should pay less for a berth. The CDU also supports cruise ships.

State subsidies are to lower berth fees for low-emission ships. Unused port infrastructure such as rail tracks is to be kept where it makes sense. The CDU wants to press the federal government to adapt shipping channels quickly to larger vessels. It commits to cruises, coastal tourism and tourist RoRo shipping. A multi-energy terminal for importing and exporting sustainable energy sources is to be supported.

The CDU wants to update the state's tourism strategy together with associations, municipalities and businesses. New funding is to strengthen tourism in inland areas. Youth tourism, angling tourism and accessible tourism are to be added to the strategy.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism in the state. Places away from the coast should also get more guests. There should be new funding for this. Beaches should also be reachable for people who have trouble walking.

Because of the shortage of skilled workers, the CDU wants to study how the industry can keep staff and attract new workers. The tourism agency TASH is to receive continued support, while regional tourism organizations are to stay independent. Fast cycle routes are to be expanded further for bike tourism, and sustainable tourism and health tourism are to be strengthened. For the tourism levy, the CDU wants to promote statewide digital models and offer visitors attractive bus and train tickets. From 2025, the window across which the German states stagger their summer school vacations is to use the full 90 days possible.

The CDU wants to keep the current Bäderregelung (resort rule) for places with heavy tourism. The rule lets shops there open on Sundays as well. The party sees no need for changes.

In vacation towns, shops may also open on Sundays. This is called the resort rule. The CDU wants to keep this rule as it is. It does not want to change anything.

The rule applies to tourist-oriented places in the state. The CDU favors continuing it in its present form. The statement is tied to the goal of strengthening the state's position as a vacation destination.

The CDU wants to keep expanding sustainable tourism and health tourism in Schleswig-Holstein. This includes making full use of the summer vacation window, EU funding for tourism, and keeping the Bäderregelung (special Sunday shopping rules for resort towns).

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism in the state. Vacations should be kind to the environment. Health vacations should also grow. Summer school breaks in Germany should be spread over 90 days. The Bäderregelung should stay. This rule lets shops in resort towns open on Sundays.

The platform says the state will keep pushing for a summer vacation window that uses the full 90 days possible from 2025 on. Tourism is to be a priority in the state during the new European Union funding period. The CDU wants to keep the current Bäderregelung. It also wants to support maintaining and adding berths for shipping and water sports tourism.

The CDU wants to overhaul and simplify planning and permitting procedures at state and federal level. In the program's view, long planning periods hold back innovation and put climate targets at risk.

Big building projects often take a very long time. The CDU wants to make planning faster. Procedures should become simpler and digital. This should also help protect the climate.

Multi-stage regional planning and approval procedures are to be merged so that nothing is reviewed twice. Digital options are to be used throughout; the CDU wants to change state law for this and press the federal government for shared digital workspaces for everyone involved. Major projects are to be approved by dedicated laws, as is done in Denmark. The levels of court review are to be examined, for example with a view to leapfrog appeals. The federal government is also to create a cut-off date rule: authorities fix the ecological status of an area in a binding way, and later changes are only taken into account during construction. EU law is to be adjusted accordingly.

The CDU wants to make laws and regulations clearer and reduce bureaucracy. Those affected are to be involved earlier when rules are drafted, and regulations are generally to be time-limited.

The CDU wants less red tape. Red tape means many rules and forms. People affected should have a say early on new laws. Many regulations should apply only for a set time.

The expertise of those affected is to feed in before ministry drafts are finalized; the new approach is to be tested in pilot projects. The CDU will examine bundling state law into codes for each major legal field, standardizing deadlines and procedural rules. Regulations without an expiry date and extensions of time-limited ones are to require a justification, based on evaluations by the issuing authority. Whenever laws are revised, there is to be a regular check for provisions that can be dropped. The CDU will also examine a "one in, one out" rule for the state government, under which new burdens on business are allowed only if existing ones are cut to the same extent.

The CDU wants to work out a regional innovation strategy with Hamburg that brings overlapping initiatives together. Research and business settlement around the large research facilities XFEL and DESY are to be promoted. The party intends to take up the recommendations of an OECD report on the metropolitan region.

Schleswig-Holstein should work even more closely with Hamburg. Both states should make a shared plan for new ideas and research. Companies should settle near large research sites. Both also want to advertise tourism together.

Funds and resources are to be focused on shared strengths, including planning, innovation, education, digitalization, renewable energy, and culture and tourism marketing. Around XFEL and DESY, researchers are to be recruited and companies attracted. Joint spatial planning for housing and commercial zones is to aim at denser building and sparing land use, based on shared needs analyses. A joint marketing campaign for cultural and natural attractions is also planned.

The CDU wants to make town and village centers more attractive by turning vacant commercial space into housing or social facilities. A state program is to help retailers set up regional online shops.

The CDU wants livelier town centers. Empty shops should become homes or daycare centers. Local stores should get help with online shops. Towns should use land more carefully.

Urban development funding is to focus on clean, safe public squares and traffic concepts. The platform regards converting vacant space as sustainable because no additional land is sealed. The CDU wants to consult with stakeholders on how the state development plan should evolve on retail, giving municipalities more decision-making power. Funding programs and incentives are meant to improve municipalities' land management.

The CDU wants economically weaker regions in Schleswig-Holstein to benefit more from funding programs. A new competence center is to help municipalities obtain federal money. Co-financing shares in funding programs should depend on the financial strength of states and municipalities.

Some regions in the state are economically weak. The CDU wants to help them more. A new office will help towns apply for funding. Poorer states and towns should have to add less of their own money.

Funding programs are to be bundled and to create incentives for business succession and start-ups in crafts, services, tourism, and agriculture. The CDU wants to press the federal government to allow unused money from the GRW regional development scheme to be used for regional policy beyond the budget year. The competence center for obtaining funding is to be set up with the municipal umbrella associations and link politics, administration, business, and volunteers. The Königsteiner Schlüssel, a formula for sharing burdens among the states, should take the states' financial capacity into account. Businesses should also be able to expand or settle in every municipality.

The CDU wants everything to be reachable from the village, either on site or digitally. To that end, village shops, country inns, multi-purpose community buildings, and the MarktTreff concept are to be supported and regional value creation strengthened.

People in villages should be able to get what they need. The CDU wants to keep village shops and country inns. Where they are gone, there should be buildings with several uses. Pickup stations for online orders should help too.

Municipalities are to get help in providing pickup stations for digital retail and services; mobile pickup and delivery services, mobile or autonomous sales points, and digital lockers are also mentioned. The MarktTreff, which combines retail, food service, services, and culture in one place, is to be strengthened and developed further. Regional brands are to receive continued support, and retail and service businesses are to get help expanding their digital offerings. The CDU plans dedicated programs for restaurants, culture, and tourism in rural areas. Medical care should also remain within reach for everyone in the countryside.