Germany's CDU Drafts Plan to Bolster Mittelstand
Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is drafting an economic plan aimed at supporting the country's small and medium-sized businesses, known as the Mittelstand. The proposals include cutting bureaucracy and offering targeted tax relief. The party's goal is to stimulate growth, enhance competitiveness, and foster job creation within this key sector of the German economy.
- The plan proposes a temporary "investment booster" allowing for a special depreciation of up to 30% for equipment investments in 2025, 2026, and 2027 to encourage immediate capital expenditure. - To drive innovation, the party aims to increase Germany's total spending on research and development to 3.5% of GDP by 2030 and launch a "high-tech agenda" to position Germany as a leader in future technologies like quantum computing and AI. - A central proposal to combat the skilled labor shortage includes creating a digital "Work-and-Stay-Agentur," a single IT platform to streamline and accelerate the immigration process for qualified international professionals by simplifying the recognition of foreign qualifications. - The CDU intends to establish a new federal digital ministry to centralize and accelerate the country's re-industrialization through sovereign AI and cloud applications, aiming to create more flexibility and clearer responsibilities for future technologies. - As part of its bureaucracy reduction efforts, the party plans to abolish the national Supply Chain Act, advocating for a one-to-one, less bureaucratic implementation of the superseding EU directive to ease the reporting burden on companies. - The energy strategy includes lowering the electricity tax and grid fees to make energy more affordable for businesses and keeping nuclear power as a viable option to ensure supply security. - For startups, the plan includes a "start-up protection zone" which would largely exempt new companies from bureaucratic regulations during their initial phase to foster entrepreneurship. - The party's platform proposes making overtime pay for full-time employees tax-exempt to incentivize work and increase net income for employees.
