Bitkom gives politicians a poor report card

The digital association has examined 25 plans of the black-red federal government with regard to start-ups. Politicians have fully implemented 15 of them, while nothing has happened yet with three.

The digital association Bitkom has taken stock of the federal government's plans to strengthen start-ups in Germany. According to the report, a total of 15 of the 25 promises have been fulfilled. These include a reduction of bureaucracy for young start-ups, the introduced Tech Growth Fund and the Future Fund filled with ten billion euros.

Seven of the plans of the black-red federal government are still in progress or have not yet been fulfilled. The Fund Location Act, among others, falls into this category. Bitkom praises the doubling of the tax-free allowance for employee shareholdings, but also writes: "The self-imposed objective of fully solving the "dry income" problem as a significant hurdle for employee shareholdings in startups was missed."

Three projects have even been addressed by the federal government. These include Bitkom's announced introduction of a start-up period, which should be similar to family caregiver leave. Also the subsidies for household services were not converted. Likewise, there is still no contact person for data protection issues.

Bitkom is disappointed with the results. Particularly in view of the extremely fast start-up scene, the coalition programme should have been completed after two years at the latest, claims Bitkom President Achim Berg. "It must be acknowledged that the federal government has prevented the feared startup death in the undoubtedly difficult Corona period."

As for the future, Berg doesn't see much moving forward. "Not much will happen in startup policy in the next six months because of the federal elections," Berg says. "That makes it all the more important to pick up the pace quickly afterwards and, among other things, involve startups more in public tenders, improve the financing situation for startups at all stages of development, and massively reduce the bureaucratic burden on startups and company management."