In his first speech in the Bundestag as Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance, Lars Klingbeil called for Germany to become simpler. But what does 'simpler' actually mean?
The OECD's Regulatory Policy Outlook provides an answer: legislation must be designed with people in mind. As part of the OECD Berlin Center's webinar 'Good rules - less burden: paths to a state that enables action', a high-ranking panel discussed the potential for improvement in the German legislative process.
One instrument that was frequently mentioned was the reality check. Reality checks aim to take into account the perspectives of the affected groups of people when drafting laws. The coalition agreement calls for 'reality checks to be carried out in the early stages of the legislative process [...] and for those affected and enforcement experts [...] to be involved.' In future, the federal ministries should 'carry out several reality checks per year'.
In order for this to succeed, the ConPolicy Institute for Consumer Policy supports political decision-makers in the planning, implementation and evaluation of reality checks, even beyond consumer policy issues. Because for us, the focus is on people - regardless of their role as practitioners, citizens, civil servants, entrepreneurs or consumers.
You can find more information on the reality checks conducted by our institute here.