Overview

• A KfW study finds that German medium-sized enterprises spend €61 billion annually on bureaucratic compliance, equating to 7% of their working hours or 1.5 billion hours per year.
• The construction sector and solo self-employed are disproportionately affected, spending significantly more time navigating administrative processes.
• SMEs cite bureaucracy as the greatest risk to their competitiveness, with hidden burdens like planning delays and psychological strain adding further challenges.
• The likely CDU/SPD coalition has pledged comprehensive reforms, including digitalization and modernization of state processes, to reduce these burdens.
• Previous reform efforts have seen limited success, prompting calls for more effective measures to address the growing regulatory backlog.