Germany plans streamlined construction approvals, citizen services

Germany’s government on Wednesday announced plans for a raft of measures designed to stimulate the economy by reducing bureaucracy, speeding up approval processes for new construction and digitizing citizens’ access to key government services.

The so-called Germany Pact sets out a range of goals to be achieved in consultation with powerful regional governments including swifter, online consultation processes for wind farms and transport and data networks, a government document showed.

Home-building companies, hit hard by inflation, will benefit from more generous access to tax write-offs.

Key citizen services, from address registration to unemployment benefits, will go online. The document also promised a faster approval process for immigrant workers.

“The building of LNG terminals in record time has shown how much sense it makes to have the public participate in consultations online to speed up approval processes,” the document read. “That will now apply to all processes.”