Before the Prime Ministers’ Conference, Saxon Premier Michael Kretschmer (CDU) accused the German Bundestag and the EU of lacking engagement in cutting bureaucracy.
He told the editorial network Germany that the states have consistently pursued a path of state modernisation and deregulation, yet he worries that neither the Bundestag nor the EU embrace the insight that only a profound removal of rules can spark economic dynamism. In Germany and Europe, an “erroneous” belief that the state must impose regulations on citizens and businesses still prevails.
At the conference, held on Thursday, one of the main topics is bureaucracy reduction. In December, the federal government and the states approved an agenda with more than 200 measures, the first of which are to be implemented by the end of June.
Rhineland‑Palatinate Premier Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) told the same network that this is “the most extensive measures package on federal‑state organisation since the major federalism reform of the 2000s”. He remains confident that implementation will proceed as planned and noted that “within a very short period, we are making a huge step forward”.