FDP on the economy

The FDP calls for an immediate three-year halt to new bureaucratic burdens on businesses and a bureaucracy brake in the constitution. In its view, red tape weakens the economy, and cutting it is a stimulus program that costs nothing.

The FDP says companies have too much paperwork. For three years there should be no new rules for companies. The only exception is when other rules are removed first. The constitution should get a brake on bureaucracy.

During the moratorium, new burdens would be allowed only if an equal amount had been removed beforehand. Businesses would get one year with no reporting duties at all. Each year, a relief act would cut unnecessary rules. Companies' compliance costs are to fall by a net six billion euros or more per legislative term. The FDP sees small and mid-sized firms, family businesses and start-ups as especially burdened.

The FDP wants to consolidate federal law and repeal outdated or contradictory statutes. Applications should normally count as approved if an authority does not respond in time. The aim is to cut red tape and strengthen competitiveness.

The FDP wants to remove old and unneeded laws. Offices should decide faster on applications. If an office does not answer in time, the application counts as approved. Businesses should have less paperwork.

Laws would more often carry a sunset clause, meaning they expire unless actively renewed. The FDP wants wider use of deemed approvals and fixed cut-off dates. The receipt requirement (Bonpflicht) would be scrapped without replacement, written-form requirements would become the exception, and the retention period for accounting records would drop to five years. In data protection, the 17 federal and state supervisory authorities would act uniformly; a constitutional amendment would let the Data Protection Conference adopt binding decisions.

The FDP wants to greatly simplify the rules for public contracts. In the program's view, complex procedures burden authorities and especially small and medium-sized businesses.

The state buys many things from companies. There are many rules for this. The FDP wants to make these rules much simpler. Small companies should get contracts more easily.

Contracts worth up to 100,000 euros could be awarded directly. Reporting, documentation and proof requirements would be cut sharply. The FDP rejects award criteria unrelated to the contract itself (so-called non-procurement criteria).

The FDP wants to scale back financial aid and tax breaks for individual industries and companies. Government stakes in companies are to be sold because, in the party's view, private investors run businesses better.

The FDP wants less state money for single companies and industries. The money should go to education instead. The state should sell its shares in companies. The FDP says private owners run companies better.

Subsidies are to be in reasonable proportion to economic value added; the money would be better invested in education over the long run, the platform says. Existing and new programs are to be time-limited, decline over time and be reviewed by outside evaluators. To sell federal holdings, the FDP also wants to change federal budget law.

The FDP wants the EU to conclude as many free trade agreements as possible and calls for immediate ratification of the Mercosur agreement. More trade with more partners is meant to make Germany less dependent on single countries such as China and to secure jobs.

Germany sells many goods to other countries. The FDP wants more free trade deals. The deal with South America should take effect quickly. This should make Germany depend less on China.

Ongoing talks with Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia are to be concluded quickly. With the US, the FDP seeks at least sector-specific agreements, for example on industrial tariffs, and a permanent Trade and Technology Council. Where comprehensive deals stall, as with India, partial agreements should be possible. Partnerships on investment, raw materials and green technologies are to be built with middle powers. The EU single market is to be deepened for labor, energy, capital and digital services.