Grüne on the economy

The Greens want a hotel development plan that defines where new hotels and hostels may still be built in Berlin. Tourism is to be spread more evenly across the city so that individual places are not overloaded. Heavily visited neighborhoods are to get relief.

The Greens want a plan for hotels. The plan says where new hotels are allowed and where not. Tourists should spread out better across the whole city. Crowded neighborhoods should get help.

New hotels are to be judged by their compatibility with the city and by the number of existing businesses; the party wants to review sites already planned because the land could be used for schools or affordable housing, for example. A concept for managing tour buses in the inner city is to be drawn up. Tourist hotspots are to receive more money for cleanliness, while pilot projects in outer districts create new visitor routes and better information. The citizens' advisory board on Berlin tourism is to be made permanent and given a real say. The existing tourism strategy will be updated.

The Greens want to revive the "Ökologischer Tourismus" (ecological tourism) fund to support investments by hotels, restaurants and other providers. Short-term rentals to tourists are to be monitored more strictly so they do not worsen the housing shortage.

The Greens want tourism that is good for the environment. Hotels and restaurants get money if they save energy. Vacation apartments should be checked more strictly. This should keep homes for people in Berlin.

The fund is to support investments in energy efficiency, sustainability and accessibility. The measures of the Tourismuskonzept 2018+ are to be carried out in full, supplemented by coordination across Senate departments and updated with a focus on sustainability. For short-term rentals, the party relies on data-based tracking and strict enforcement of the Zweckentfremdungsverbot, the ban on using housing for other purposes.

The Greens want to introduce a regional welfare index that makes progress and people's well-being measurable. It is meant to serve as the basis for Berlin's economic policy. According to the program, growth alone does not secure the city's future.

The Greens want a new measure for Berlin. It should show how well people are doing. Economic policy should follow this measure. The party says growth alone is not enough.

The program aims for a strong economy with stable growth that does without ecological and social exploitation. The index is meant to support an economic policy that is guided by data and socially fair. At the same time, the Greens want to strengthen the city's innovative power and competitiveness and promote a "city of short distances" with mixed-use neighborhoods. The program regards culture, science and a startup-friendly administration as key location factors.

The Greens want to simplify permits and administrative procedures and remove more rules than they add. Standards are not to be lowered; the program explicitly sets itself apart from deregulation. Small and medium-sized businesses in particular are to be relieved.

The Greens want less paperwork. Offices should decide faster. More rules should go than new ones come. But important protection rules should stay. This helps small companies most of all.

An independent panel of experts is to decide which processes get simplified first. In practice checks, people from businesses and public offices are to review selected procedures together, both existing and new ones. On top of that comes the once-only principle: anyone who has already given the state a piece of information should not have to provide it again. This requires secure data exchange in line with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and the explicit consent of those affected. The Greens want to use the momentum of the administrative reform for this.

The Greens want to reduce and digitize many documentation and reporting requirements for businesses. Standards, sustainability and fair competition are not to suffer. At the same time, close inspections and tough penalties are meant to target rule breakers.

Companies have to write many reports today. The Greens want to reduce these duties. Many reports should be possible online. People who break the rules should face tough penalties.

Every requirement is to be checked to see whether it still serves its purpose. The reduction is to be combined with close inspections and tough penalties for violations. In this way the party wants to relieve the vast majority of business owners and focus on criminal actors.

The Greens want to invest heavily in public infrastructure and link this to making state-owned companies climate neutral. The party sees this as an opportunity for Berlin's economy, especially for skilled trades and mid-sized firms. The funding programs of Investitionsbank Berlin (the state development bank) are to be aligned with climate goals.

The Greens want to invest a lot of money in Berlin. The money should go to energy, transport and schools, for example. Companies owned by the state should become climate neutral. That means they no longer emit harmful gases. Skilled trades firms should also get work from this.

The money is to go into sustainable infrastructure, with mobility, energy, digitalization, educational facilities and urban development named. Mid-sized trades businesses are to be strengthened because the party considers them important for training, jobs and the energy and heating transition. The platform treats decarbonization and a circular economy as preconditions for growth and innovation. Investitionsbank Berlin is to gear its funding consistently toward climate goals and resource efficiency.

The Greens want to promote self-employment and ease the burden on small and mid-sized businesses and solo self-employed people in particular. Self-employed people and freelancers are to get better social protection. More affordable work and production spaces are to be created for creative workers.

Many people in Berlin work for themselves. But their number is going down. The Greens want to ease the load on them and on small companies. Self-employed people should be better protected, for example when sick or old. Artists should get more affordable rooms to work in.

The platform points to more than 200,000 self-employed people in Berlin and to their declining number. The party sees self-employment as a path to upward mobility, especially for people with a migration background. In tackling bogus self-employment, it wants to push for reliable rules that do not make founding a business harder. Work, rehearsal and presentation spaces for creative workers are to be expanded, especially for the independent arts scene and solo self-employed artists. To this end, state-owned properties are to be used more and for the long term, and temporary-use and cooperative projects are to be supported.

The Greens want a state law that allows real-world laboratories, experimentation clauses and faster procedures. New technologies and business models could then be tested under real conditions. Protective standards are to remain untouched.

The Greens want a new law for Berlin. It should make it easier to test new ideas and technology. Companies should be able to try new things faster in everyday life. Protection for workers and the environment should stay the same.

The law is meant to get innovative solutions tested and implemented faster, above all in energy, climate, mobility, digitalization and industry. Real-world laboratories are test settings limited in time and place where new approaches are tried under real conditions. Social, environmental and labor standards as well as transparency and diversity requirements are not to be restricted. The party also wants to fund real-world laboratories so ideas can be tested with legal certainty.

The Greens want to reform procurement law so that more small, young and Berlin-based companies win public contracts. Social and environmental standards are to be kept and enforced. Sustainability and fair work are to be binding foundations of contract awards.

The state of Berlin gives many contracts to companies. The Greens want to make the rules for this simpler. Small and young companies from Berlin should win contracts more easily. Rules on fair pay and the environment should stay.

Planned are simpler procedures, more flexible value thresholds, an innovation clause, easier eligibility checks and more splitting of contracts into lots. Rules on collective-agreement compliance and the minimum wage are to apply without restriction. Splitting into lots is to remain the norm but be handled more flexibly, while protecting the interests of mid-sized firms in subcontracting. In purchasing, reusable and circular products that meet international labor and social standards such as the ILO core labor standards are to be favored.

The Greens want to strengthen Berlin's Zukunftsorte (designated innovation sites) and turn them into model regions for climate-neutral business. The conversion of the former airport building in Tegel into the Urban Tech Republic is to happen as fast as possible. Conventional commercial areas are also to become more sustainable.

Berlin has special places for research and companies. They are called Zukunftsorte. The Greens want to strengthen these places. They should show how business can work without harming the climate. The old Tegel airport should be converted quickly.

The Zukunftsorte are to stand more for research, industrial innovation and technology transfer and be better linked with universities, start-ups and existing firms. Production sites such as the CleanTech Business Park in Marzahn are meant to attract manufacturing companies. In Tegel, the Berliner Hochschule für Technik (a university of applied sciences) and many companies are to move in; the site is also to offer housing and recreation. The party calls the conversion a key economic policy project that must not be delayed.

The Greens see a sustainable world's fair in Berlin in 2035 as an opportunity but attach conditions. The Expo must demonstrably advance the city's climate-friendly and socially just development. All funds are to benefit the city in the long run.

Some people want a world's fair in Berlin in 2035. The Greens support this under conditions. The Expo must help Berlin with climate protection and building. The money should still help people in Berlin afterward.

The platform welcomes the initiative by businesses and NGOs for an Expo committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The condition is measurable progress on the construction and transport transitions plus an effect on innovation. The fair is also to address the imperial and colonial history of world's fairs, especially the Berlin exhibition of 1896. Money from the federal government, the state and business is to be invested so that residents still benefit after the Expo ends.

The Greens want to appoint a state start-up commissioner and examine setting up a state-owned innovation agency. Research results are to turn into new companies and business applications faster. Successful start-ups are to grow in Berlin instead of moving away.

The Greens want one person to look after young companies. This person should help government offices work together better. Research should lead to new companies more often. The Greens are also looking at a state agency for innovation. Young companies should stay and grow in Berlin.

The agency would be modeled on SPRIND (the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation) and bring innovations into practice faster, especially in climate protection, resilience, digitalization and public services. The commissioner is to work across departments and identify hurdles between government, science and business; benchmarks include environmental impact, worker participation and collective agreements. The party wants to mobilize private capital for sustainable innovation, support networks such as UNITE and expand transfer programs for small and mid-sized firms. The creative industries are to be included more in start-up funding. In the health sector, innovations are to reach use faster through better transfer and targeted funding.

The Greens want to strengthen social, solidarity-based and public-benefit enterprises with a master plan. A dedicated funding tool modeled on Hamburg and Bremen is also planned. The party sees these enterprises as drivers of change and innovation.

Some companies mainly want to help society. The Greens want to strengthen these companies. There should be a plan for this. A special funding program is also planned. Hamburg and Bremen are the models for it.

The master plan is meant to anchor social and solidarity-based enterprises as part of Berlin's economy. A dedicated economic cluster is to be added, either for Berlin alone or jointly with Brandenburg within the capital region's innovation strategy. The party wants to give these enterprises more room as places of democratic and alternative business.

The Greens want to create affordable state-owned commercial space and give commercial tenants more protection. At the federal level, the party advocates a rent cap, a rent index and protection against eviction for businesses. In Berlin, Milieuschutz (neighborhood preservation rules) is to cover commercial tenants too.

Many businesses can hardly find affordable space. The Greens want to create low-cost commercial space owned by the state. Rents for businesses should be limited. Businesses should be better protected from losing their lease. Delivery vans should get more loading zones.

State-owned housing companies are to offer space for public-benefit uses and businesses at risk of displacement. The cooperative building land model is to cover affordable commercial space as well, and temporary uses are to be strengthened. For commercial traffic, the party plans more delivery and loading zones that can be reserved digitally and a better distribution of space. Logistics are to become more climate friendly through zero-emission vehicles, micro-depots, and rail and waterways.

The Greens want to develop shopping centers so that they host cultural, educational and health services and government offices alongside stores. This is meant to prevent vacancies and keep neighborhood centers lively. The party also calls for fair competition with international online retail.

Many stores in Berlin are struggling. The Greens want to change shopping centers. They should also offer culture, education and doctors. This way fewer spaces would stand empty. Online sellers from abroad should be checked more closely.

Mixed uses, flexible rental models and temporary uses are to be promoted. On Sunday shopping, the party wants to make full use of the existing legal framework while protecting employees who need Sunday to rest. In the platform's view, the growing number of parcels from international online retail burdens local stores and the environment. Stronger market surveillance in Berlin is meant to counter this.

The Greens want to push Berlin's industry toward climate neutrality and a circular economy. To do this, science, companies and start-ups are to work together more closely, backed by expanded state business development support.

The Greens want to change industry in Berlin. It should no longer harm the climate. Materials should be used again. Research and companies should work together more closely. The state should support this more.

The platform relies on renewable energy, the circular economy and energy efficiency and wants to shape the shift together with companies, workers, unions and researchers. The focus is mainly on the chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors. Business development support is to be expanded and should coordinate networking and advice across sectors at the state level. The chemical industry is meant to benefit from the buildout of hydrogen infrastructure. The platform names resilient supply chains, diversification and closer European integration as preconditions. Plants are to be tested and scaled up in industrial parks in Brandenburg.

The Greens want results from Berlin's research to flow more strongly into innovation and new companies. Berlin is to grow as a location for start-ups. The Charité university hospital is to be strengthened so that research findings reach patients faster.

A lot of research happens in Berlin. The Greens want more new companies to come out of it. Berlin should be a good place for young companies. The Charité hospital should get stronger. New findings should help sick people faster.

The Start-up Factory UNITE, the FUBIC innovation center, the Institut für angewandte Forschung Berlin (institute for applied research) and the Science & Startups network of the Berlin University Alliance are to be supported and developed further. At the Charité, the party wants to support translation, meaning the transfer of research into treatment. Research on methods that do not use animal testing is to be expanded. According to the platform, this should help develop new treatments in a more targeted way.

The Greens want to build up the innovative strength of Berlin's economy and make the city the number one location for innovation. To do this, they plan to strengthen the Zukunftsorte (designated innovation hubs) and further develop projects that link research and start-ups.

The Greens want many new ideas to come from Berlin. Berlin should become the best place for this. They want to strengthen the Zukunftsorte. These are places where research and companies work together. Projects for young companies should also get more support.

The platform names creative people, the city's international character and its research landscape as the basis of Berlin's economy. The Greens see the Zukunftsorte as the backbone of knowledge-based economic development and want to keep strengthening them. The party sees potential to turn them into model regions for climate-neutral business. It specifically names the start-up factory UNITE, the innovation center FUBIC and the Science & Startups network of the Berlin University Alliance. The goal is to make better use of research for technological, digital and social innovation.