What do the parties in North Rhine-Westphalia say on the economy?

The AfD wants to strengthen the Mittelstand (small and mid-sized businesses) through technology support, less bureaucracy and faster permits. It sees the coal phase-out and the move away from combustion engines as a threat to prosperity in North Rhine-Westphalia and wants to reverse that trend.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be fewer rules. Permits should come faster. Researchers and companies should work together more closely. The AfD sees the end of coal as a mistake.

The AfD wants to end the mandatory membership of businesses in the chambers of industry and commerce (IHK). It considers this incompatible with freedom of association and accuses the chambers of no longer representing small firms.

Anyone who starts a business today must join the IHK. The IHK is the chamber of industry and commerce. The AfD wants to end this duty. It says the chambers no longer speak well for small firms.

The AfD wants to support the skilled trades with more Meister-BAföG (aid for master craftsman training) and a higher start-up bonus for master craftsmen. Trade businesses should only be opened by people with a master certificate or years of journeyman experience, and exceptions should become rarer.

The AfD wants to support skilled trades. People training to become master craftsmen should get more money. Only well-trained people should be able to open a trade business. Exceptions should be rarer.

The AfD wants to strengthen city centers against online retail, including through longer shopping hours on weekends. Easy access by car, cleanliness and safety are to complement this.

The AfD wants more people to come back to city centers. Stores should be allowed to open longer on weekends too. There should be enough parking. City centers should be clean and safe.

The CDU wants North Rhine-Westphalia to remain an industrial state and to keep the existing relief rules for energy-intensive companies. In the party's view, industry should contribute to climate protection through new technology rather than move abroad.

The CDU wants to keep industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. Some companies need a lot of energy. Today they get relief on their costs. The CDU wants to keep this relief. Research should help factories emit less CO2.

The CDU wants to draw up a state strategy for a circular economy. It also wants the economy to become more crisis-proof and less dependent on fragile international supply chains.

The CDU wants a plan for a circular economy. That means raw materials get used more than once. The state then needs fewer new raw materials. Supply routes from abroad should also become safer.

The CDU wants to scrap two old rules for every new one. Permitting and planning procedures should become the fastest in Germany, and public tenders should be simpler.

The CDU wants less red tape. For every new rule, two old rules should go. Permits should be faster than anywhere else in Germany. Getting contracts from the state should also be easier.

The CDU wants to launch a skilled-worker drive for the skilled trades and strengthen dual vocational training. Those who complete master craftsman training are to receive a bonus of 3,000 euros.

The CDU wants more skilled workers for the trades. Training in companies and schools should get stronger. People who become master craftsmen should get 3,000 euros. Women who want to become masters should get special support.

The CDU wants to expand funding programs for digitalization and innovation in small and midsize companies. The skilled trades are to get investment incentives for digital equipment, and university spin-offs are to receive more support.

Small and midsize companies should get more help with going digital. The trades should get incentives to invest in digital technology. The CDU also wants to give more support to new companies that come out of universities.

The CDU wants to support energy-intensive companies in shifting to climate-neutral production and calls for federal help to do so. In the Rhenish coal region, existing jobs are to be kept and new ones created.

Many companies must change how they produce to protect the climate. The CDU wants to help them. The federal government should give money too. Coal mining is ending in the Rhenish region. Jobs there should stay, and new ones should come.

The CDU wants to make tourism in North Rhine-Westphalia a leader in sustainability. It plans a quality label with a funding program, a shared digital platform and a tourism app.

The CDU wants vacations in North Rhine-Westphalia to be easy on the environment. There should be a new label for that. It is called "Nachhaltig NRW!" (Sustainable NRW). A funding program comes with it. The CDU also plans an app for tourists.

The CDU wants to preserve savings banks, public-sector banks and cooperative banks as lenders to small and mid-sized businesses. Banking regulation is to be tiered by size because, in the party's view, European rules do not suit small institutions.

The CDU wants to keep savings banks and cooperative banks. These banks lend money to small companies. The CDU thinks small banks face too many rules. Small banks should have fewer rules than big ones. Their own safety systems should be enough.

The CDU wants to give stronger support to people founding companies in North Rhine-Westphalia and to attract more venture capital. Young companies should be able to grow faster and stay in the state once they have grown.

The CDU wants to help new companies. These companies are called start-ups. They should get more money from investors. They should stay in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The CDU wants to redo the state development plan and give municipalities clear, simple guidelines. Land for commerce and industry should be easier to designate, and designating new land should remain possible. New business areas are to be developed as climate-protection zones with as close to zero CO2 emissions as possible.

A plan says where building is allowed in the state. The CDU wants to make this plan new. Towns should get land for businesses more easily. New business areas should protect the climate.

The CDU wants to expand the state initiative for downtown areas and continue the support measures begun during the COVID-19 pandemic. Changing the use of buildings is to become easier so that city centers offer a mix of shopping, housing, culture, crafts and restaurants.

The CDU wants to strengthen downtown areas. They should have shops, homes, culture and restaurants. Empty buildings should be easier to use in new ways. A digital list should record empty shops.

The CDU wants to cement North Rhine-Westphalia as a leading location for video games and in the future also fund game production. Esports is to become more professional and be treated like sports under tax law.

The CDU wants to strengthen the video game industry. The state should also support the making of games. Esports should be treated like other sports. Esports means: people compete against each other in video games.

The FDP wants to continue and expand the state's founder stipend. At least 1,000 founders a year are to keep receiving support. The state's start-up policy as a whole is meant to grow and become more visible internationally.

The FDP wants to help people who start a company. The state gives them money and advice. At least 1,000 people should get this help every year. The FDP wants to make this help even bigger.

The FDP wants to introduce young people to entrepreneurship earlier and make it easier to found a company from age 16. New companies should pay no chamber fees in their first two years. Social entrepreneurship is also to be strengthened.

The FDP wants young people to start companies more easily. This should be simpler from age 16. New companies should pay no chamber fee for 2 years. Chambers are groups that companies must be members of.

The FDP wants better conditions for private backers such as business angels and venture capital funds. This is meant to give start-ups financing beyond public channels in their founding and growth phases. They should also find it easier to take part in public tenders.

Young companies need money to grow. The FDP wants more private investors to put money into them. The state should become more attractive for such investors. Young companies should also get public contracts more easily.

The FDP wants private and public spending on research and development to reach 3.5 percent of economic output by 2030. To get there, the state's innovation strategy is to be implemented. Alongside this, the platform calls for a fiscal policy that keeps tax burdens low and lowers them where possible.

The FDP wants more money for research. By 2030, the state and companies together should spend 3.5 percent of economic output on it. The state has a plan for this. The FDP wants to carry out that plan. Taxes should stay as low as possible.

The FDP wants to keep North Rhine-Westphalia an industrial hub and make its industry climate-friendly. It relies on better framework conditions, less red tape, faster permits and equal support for all new technologies. Companies are to shape the transition on their own.

The FDP wants industry in the state to stay strong. Industry should also become climate-friendly. The state should simplify rules and approve projects faster. It should not favor any one technology. Companies should find the best way themselves.

The FDP wants to strengthen the automotive and supplier industry during its structural change and secure jobs. It backs battery-electric drives, hydrogen drives and synthetic fuels alike.

The car industry is changing a lot. The FDP wants to help it. It wants to support electric cars. It also wants to support hydrogen and man-made fuels. This should keep good jobs in the state.

The FDP wants to advocate at the federal and EU level for open markets and a rules-based trading order, including with difficult partners. At the same time, the state is to expand its international location marketing and attract more investors.

Companies in the state sell a lot abroad. So the FDP wants free trade with clear rules. This also applies to difficult partner countries. The state should promote itself more abroad. Then more companies should invest here.

The FDP wants to continue the red-tape reduction of the previous deregulation packages and create a cap on bureaucracy. The core is a mandatory one-in, one-out principle: when a rule is added, an outdated one must be removed. EU requirements are to be transposed one-to-one only.

The FDP wants less red tape. Red tape means many rules and forms. For each new rule, an old rule should go. The state should not make EU rules stricter. Laws should be easier to understand.

The FDP wants to slim down the state development plan considerably and leave more decisions to regions and municipalities. In its view the plan still contains too many restrictions, especially for commercial and industrial land. A land pool is meant to make investment easier.

A state plan sets where building is allowed. The FDP thinks the plan has too many small rules. It wants to remove many of them. Cities and regions should decide more themselves. This should create more land for companies.

The FDP wants to support small and mid-sized firms, the skilled trades and the liberal professions by funding digitalization and reducing red tape. In its view the state should confine itself to setting framework conditions instead of steering in detail.

Small and mid-sized companies matter for the state. The FDP wants to help them become more digital. There is a funding program for this. It should grow. Local offices should work in a uniform and simple way.

The FDP wants to allow more Sunday openings as far as the constitution permits. Municipalities should be able to designate one shopping Sunday every month. This is meant to strengthen brick-and-mortar stores against online retail, which is available around the clock.

Online shops are always open. Shops in town are not. So the FDP wants more open Sundays. Each town should be allowed to pick one Sunday a month for this.

The FDP wants to make North Rhine-Westphalia a leading location for innovation. Within five years, at least 50 pieces of research-based intellectual property are to become companies. To that end, future technologies are to be funded, new professorships created and legal obstacles removed.

The FDP wants more new ideas and new technology in the state. Research should lead to new companies. There should be at least 50 in five years. There should be more professors for future technologies. Rules that slow things down should go.

The FDP wants to avoid new bureaucratic burdens and to put time limits on existing obligations, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, or review them regularly. Laws, bans and rules that are not necessary should be dropped.

The FDP wants less red tape. Red tape means many rules, forms and reports. Rules that are not needed should go. Small firms in particular should have to report and record less.

The FDP wants tighter limits on commercial activities by municipalities. A municipality should be allowed to engage in business only if no private company can provide the service better and more economically.

Cities should run businesses less often. They should only do so if private companies cannot do it better. The FDP says some cities lost a lot of money this way. Taxpayers then bear the loss.

The Greens want to conclude an industry pact with business that provides targeted support for investments in climate-neutral processes. Clear rules and targets are meant to give companies planning and investment certainty so that NRW remains a leading industrial region.

The Greens want to make a pact with industry. The state helps companies that want to produce in a climate-friendly way. Clear rules should give companies security for planning. This should create new jobs.

The Greens want North Rhine-Westphalia's economy to become climate neutral before 2040 if possible, and promise clear rules, funding and faster planning to get there. The party believes a policy that only preserves what exists will, over time, endanger more jobs than it saves.

The Greens want an economy that does not harm the climate. This should happen before 2040 if possible. Companies should get funding and clear rules. Planning should go faster. The internet should get better everywhere.

The Greens want to steer industry in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) toward climate neutrality and launch a state-level investment package for it. The platform argues that acting early secures the region's competitiveness. Long-term certainty for planning and investment is described as the core of this industrial policy.

The Greens want industry in NRW to stop harming the climate. The state should give money to industry for this. Companies should get clear rules. The Greens say: those who change early will have an advantage later.

The Greens want to keep the steel industry in NRW and convert it to climate-neutral production using green hydrogen. The federal and state governments are to make the necessary investments possible for companies. An EU-wide safeguard is meant to prevent dumping, including on climate.

The Greens want to keep the steel industry in NRW. In the future, steel should be made without harming the climate. This needs green hydrogen. That is hydrogen made with green electricity. The government should help companies with the change.

The Greens want to align structural change in the Rhenish lignite area and at hard-coal power plant sites with climate protection and social fairness. Local people are to have more say, and funding is to follow binding criteria. According to the platform, the region should become a model for others.

Jobs are disappearing in the coal regions. The Greens want to create new opportunities there. Local people should have a say. Public money should only go to projects that help the climate. Workers should be able to learn new jobs.

The Greens want to establish a transformation network in every car-making region of the state. It is to bring together workers, companies and local politics to manage the shift to electric and connected vehicles. Jobs that disappear are to be offset by retraining and new economic prospects.

Many people in NRW work in the car industry. Cars are changing a lot. For example, they run on electricity. The Greens want a network in every car region. Companies, workers and politicians plan together there. Workers should be able to learn new jobs.

The Greens want to expand the bioeconomy in NRW, meaning an economy based on renewable raw materials. A state funding program and a bioeconomy council are to support companies and research. This is meant to reduce dependence on fossil raw materials.

The Greens want to use raw materials from plants instead of oil. This is called the bioeconomy. The state should give companies money for this. A new council should advise on the topic. This should create new jobs.

The Greens see the skilled trades as central to the energy transition and want to strengthen them. They rely on collective bargaining, sector-specific minimum pay and fair competition. At the same time, red tape for small and mid-sized businesses is to be reduced.

The Greens say: climate protection needs skilled trades. Tradespeople should be paid fairly. The Greens want to act against very low wages. Small businesses should have less paperwork.

The Greens want to support people who take over a business. According to the platform, demographic change means many firms will soon need new owners. Small and mid-sized companies are to be preserved this way.

Many business owners will retire soon. Then the business needs a new owner. The Greens want to help these successors. They should get advice and cheap loans.

The Greens want to help small and mid-sized companies, solo self-employed people and cultural workers after the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who have to repay pandemic aid are to get more time to do so. Solo self-employed people and apprentices are to get better social protection.

COVID hit many small companies hard. Some have to pay back aid money. The Greens want to give them more time for this. Small companies should get more advice. Self-employed people without staff and apprentices should be better protected.

The Greens want to enable municipalities to keep their centers attractive with new uses, culture and places where people can spend time without buying anything. A fund is to let cities buy key properties. The aim is to prevent vacancies and decline.

Many city centers are losing shops. The Greens want to help the cities. Centers should get more culture and places to sit and stay. Cities should get state money to buy important buildings.

The Greens want to support small shops in selling online as well. The state is to help with investment costs and provide extra money for smart-city approaches. This is meant to let small stores survive alongside large online platforms.

Small shops should also be able to sell online. The Greens want to help them with money. This way the shops can hold their own against big online sellers.

The Greens want to help small tourism businesses restart after the pandemic and position NRW as a destination for sustainable travel. A Senne national park is to open up new opportunities for nature tourism in eastern Westphalia.

The Covid crisis hit hotels and travel firms hard. The Greens want to help small businesses. NRW should become known for eco-friendly travel. A new national park is planned in the Senne area.

The Greens want to make NRW the leader in start-up creation, since the program says the state trails Berlin and Bavaria. Plans include better grants, more start-up centers, expanded financing through NRW.BANK and a parental allowance for founders. Half of the funds are to go to women.

NRW has fewer new companies than Berlin and Bavaria. The Greens want to change that. There should be more advice and more money for founders. Half of the money should go to women.

Together with the federal government and other states, the Greens want to create a fund providing state-backed venture capital for future technologies. It is to enable investments whose risk regular banks avoid. Women entrepreneurs are to benefit in particular.

New technology needs a lot of money. Banks often find that too risky. The Greens want to set up a fund. The state backs the money in it. Women who run companies should benefit in particular.

The Greens want to digitize, speed up and partly automate administrative procedures for businesses. A central platform is to bundle all dealings with authorities. Solo self-employed people and small firms are to face fewer record-keeping and reporting duties.

Companies have a lot of paperwork with public offices. The Greens want to make this easier. Companies should handle everything through one website. Small firms should have fewer forms to fill out.

The Greens want to support social enterprises, cooperatives, sharing projects and similar models with advice and assistance. State-owned companies are to draw up a common-good balance sheet in a pilot project. In the program's view, today's economic model exceeds ecological and social limits.

The Greens want to strengthen firms that serve the common good. Common good means: it benefits everyone. This includes cooperatives and social enterprises. State-owned companies should test how to measure what they do for the common good.

The Greens want to change the Sparkassengesetz (savings banks law) so that the public savings banks can do more to finance the ecological and digital transition in municipalities and mid-sized firms, and to fund start-ups. Their own investments and their investment advice should follow ESG criteria.

Savings banks are important banks in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Greens want to change the law for them. The banks should be able to give more money to green projects and young companies. They should invest money by rules for the environment and social issues.

The Greens want to strengthen the state-owned development bank NRW.BANK and add a funding goal of transformation to its mandate. Its business model and funding strategy would be aligned with sustainability and with the recommendations of the federal government's Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee.

NRW.BANK belongs to the state. It gives money to companies, towns and housing. The Greens want the bank to mainly support the change toward more environmental protection. It should become the greenest development bank in Germany.

The Greens want municipalities to look beyond price when awarding public contracts. Environmental and social criteria should also count when choosing a bid. The legal rules are to be changed accordingly.

Cities buy many things and award contracts. So far, low cost matters most. The Greens want the environment and social issues to count too. They want to change the rules for this.

The Greens consider the federal supply chain law passed in 2021 inadequate because, in their view, it contains too many exemptions. Until a stricter law exists, they want NRW to pass a new law on collective wage compliance and public procurement that ties public purchasing to social and ecological criteria.

The Greens think the 2021 supply chain law is too weak. A supply chain law is meant to protect workers and nature in other countries too. So NRW should get a new law for public contracts. The state should only buy under social and green rules. Cities and towns should get help with this.

The SPD wants to create a state fund of 30 billion euros that takes temporary stakes mainly in mid-sized companies. This is meant to strengthen their equity, creditworthiness and ability to invest as they shift to climate-friendly production. A new agency is to coordinate the transition.

The SPD wants a large state fund. It should hold 30 billion euros. The state uses it to own part of some companies for a while. This should help companies invest in new technology. A new agency should advise the companies.

The SPD wants to speed up the transformation of the Rheinisches Revier (Rhenish lignite region) after the coal phase-out by simplifying how federal funds are awarded and shortening planning procedures. The goal is an industrial region with well-paid jobs covered by collective agreements. The same relief is to apply to affected hard-coal sites in the Ruhr area.

Coal mining is ending in the Rhenish coal region. The SPD wants new businesses to settle there quickly. Funding should be easier to get. Planning should become simpler too. This should also apply to cities in the Ruhr area.

The SPD wants to give municipalities more room for their own economic activity and launch tailored funding programs. Regional transformation councils are to pool local knowledge and revive public participation.

The SPD wants cities and towns to be able to do more business themselves. There should be fitting funding programs for this. Regions should get new councils. There, employers, unions, civic groups and politicians discuss the change together.

The SPD wants to keep North Rhine-Westphalia an industrial state and to accompany the shift to climate-neutral production with an active industrial policy. Lead markets for climate-neutral basic materials are to be created, and the steel sector is to be secured with support and participation from the state, the federal government and the EU.

The SPD wants the state to remain a strong industrial region. Factories should become climate-friendly. The government should set clear rules and help. The steel industry should get money and support from the state, the federal government and the EU.

The SPD wants to make it easier to start a business and to give founders new chances even after a failure. Social entrepreneurship is to receive more support, and a dedicated funding program is planned for startups founded by women.

The SPD wants to help people who start a company. Those who fail should get a new chance. Companies with social goals should get more funding. There should be a special funding program for women founders.

The SPD wants to strengthen rural areas with regionally tailored funding programs instead of uniform statewide funding. Broadband, infrastructure and health care are to be expanded and secured, and the closing of local hospitals is to end.

The SPD wants to strengthen villages and small towns. Each region should get the funding that fits it. Fast internet should come sooner. Hospitals in rural areas should no longer close. There should be more skilled workers.

The SPD wants to improve conditions for municipally owned companies and strengthen the Sparkassen (public savings banks). It rules out privatizing the savings banks. Their employees should continue to be paid fairly under collective agreements.

Cities and towns own companies, for example for water, energy or buses. The SPD wants to make these companies stronger. The public savings banks should stay strong too. The SPD does not want to sell them to private owners.

The SPD wants trade agreements to include enforceable rules on sustainability and working conditions and not to restrict public services. It backs compliance with and further development of the Supply Chain Act and the global minimum tax on corporate profits.

The SPD wants fair rules for world trade. Trade deals should protect the environment and workers. Poorer countries should get a fair chance. Companies should watch their supply chains. Big corporations should pay a minimum tax everywhere.