Remove brakes on investment. Reducing bureaucracy A liberal state should not patronise its citizens and businesses, rather, it should respect their space to manage their own affairs. Regulations should only be made where they are needed for protecting the vulnerable members of society and to maintain important community assets and ensure this occurs within an orderly framework. Regulations are not an end in themselves and there should not be more of them than necessary. Essential regulations should be lean and reliable. Administrative procedures and legal proceedings should be expeditious. Reduced bureaucracy and improved lawmaking are like a growth programme at no charge. As a result of the economic crisis we seek to tap into this potential now more than ever. All departments will therefore continue to reduce bureaucratic burdens of their accord and avoid creating new ones. The costs arising from statutory reporting requirements placed on business have been measured. In order to curb the costs of bureaucracy even further, we shall _ examine statutory reporting requirements, including for citizens and _ examine the obligations to act imposed upon businesses, citizens and administration before legislation is proposed. To this end we shall equip the regulatory control council (NKR) with more powers. We are currently examining how the current NKR mandate can be extended to include compliance with the methodological implementation of the stipulated requirements when adopting new regulations. We must increase the possibility of setting time limits on laws, ordinances and administrative regulations. The NKR will be explicitly asked to examine the possibilities of time limitations in each of its opinions. We specifically want to transfer the duties of carrying out a plausibility check on so-called miscellaneous bureaucracy costs to the NKR. Prior to communication of the Federal Government’s proposal for the renewed appointment of the NKR we shall examine the size and structure of this body in light of its enhanced mandate. We fully back current commitments to reduce the costs borne by business as a result of federal reporting guidelines by a net amount of 25 per cent by 2011 (over 2006 levels). To this end, the federal ministries must present binding implementation plans by 1 July 2010. The Federal Government will define another ambitious reduction target for the total measured compliance costs for the period after 2011. As a first step, we will immediately point out existing opportunities t...
