House of German Economy
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Berlin (German news agency) – The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has sharply criticized the shortened hearing periods in legislative processes, which the traffic light coalition has recently set more frequently. Concrete feedback on the desired effects and undesirable side effects of laws is only possible if associations and chambers as well as experts in companies are given sufficient time for well-founded feedback.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case on a regular basis,” DIHK Deputy General Manager Achim Dercks told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Friday edition). According to Dercks, the Building Energy Act and the Energy Efficiency Act are the most recent negative examples. “Four to five working days over Easter are not enough – and leave those affected with a stale aftertaste,” he criticized. “It gives the impression that the government is saying goodbye by sending out the drafts in the Easter days and expects that others will do the ‘orders’ over and around the holidays.” Unlike in the past, the current drafts are not about acute crisis situations that could justify such an urgent tempo, the DIHK deputy continued. Rather, the energy and building efficiency laws are about very fundamental projects, the design of which is decisive for the future of many companies or even entire sectors. “Therefore, the participation of business in these legislative processes must not become an alibi event,” Dercks demanded. The DIHK has created a list of all traffic light laws with a response period of a few days or even hours. It now includes 23 entries. “The problem runs through almost all ministries – and is one of the reasons for the feeling of constantly growing bureaucracy,” said Dercks. At the end of March, a broad alliance of associations had already complained in an open letter about the “high time pressure” and the “increasingly undemocratic approach” of the federal government at the association hearings. There is similar criticism from the federal states and the opposition. Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) recently felt compelled to write a letter to Chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) and the chairmen of the government factions to urge a “return to orderly processes”. One should not allow “trust in representative democracy to be weakened”.
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