Germany’s federal government plans to introduce an “approval fiction” at the EU level. This issue was highlighted on Thursday during an informal council meeting at Schloss Alden Biesen in Belgium, reports from government sources that reached the press office on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Olaf Scholz calls for a new mindset of simplification and deregulation. He says that approval processes for citizens and businesses take far too long-sometimes months, sometimes years. To address this, the government proposes setting a deadline for each procedure; if an authority does not decide within that period, the approval would automatically be deemed granted.
Another measure under consideration is a form of “bureaucracy brake”. It would allow EU institutions planning projects that might incur additional bureaucracy to be regularly reassessed, either by the Council for Competitiveness or the ordinary EU council.
No final decisions will be taken at this week’s informal council. Conclusive actions are expected at the next regular EU leaders’ meeting in March. Berlin insists that implementing these bureaucracy‑reduction measures within the year is crucial, especially ahead of the 2025 elections in France, Spain, Poland and Italy.
