German government plans tax breaks

Published in: 28.07.2011

It’s a political evergreen: while the Liberals want to have tax breaks before the next elections, the Minister of Finance is trying to hold his money together. But for the Liberals, this is a matter of (political) life and death. So is net neutrality for a number of activists and MPs who recently engaged in a fierce debate on this issue. The Internet is increasingly on the radar of regulators and policy makers.

It has been the pet project of the liberal FDP since the very beginning of the current legislative period: tax breaks for the middle class. And as the new party chairman Philipp Rösler promised to “deliver”, the party brought the issue up again shortly before the summer break. Finance Minister Schäuble (CDU) is strongly opposed to tax cuts and refers to financial risks associated with the energy turn and the Euro crisis, but Rösler has the backing of the Chancellor. Even though tax breaks have been decided in Cabinet already, their scope and the time frame for implementation remain unclear – an additional annoyance factor within the coalition.

More than 2/3 of the German population are now online and the parliamentary Enquete Commission “Internet and Digital Society” wants to find answers to fundamental questions of the digital age, including privacy, media literacy and open data. The Enquete Commission however got stuck over the delicate issue of net neutrality in July. All members stress that they are certainly in favor of net neutrality, but – as ever – the devil is in the detail and there’s disagreement whether net neutrality should be codified by law or can be ensured by the market. This is all the more explosive as the coalition is currently deliberating on a new Telecommunications Law that does not even mention the word “net neutrality” at all.

When pharma lobbyists return from their summer holidays, they may find the doors of the Ministry of Health closed. According to an internal paper, the new Minister Daniel Bahr (FDP) wants to ban pharma lobbyists from the expert commissions which advise the Ministry on pharmaceutical issues. To ensure impartiality, these commissions shall only consists of academic members in the future, the paper says. The pharma lobby was of course outraged about the proposal, and the Conservatives also do not seem to be convinced so that the proposal has been put on hold for the time being.

What do we think?

"Whether in energy policy or in the health industry: companies have a hard time with the government at the moment. While the coalition was initially seen as particularly pro-business, many companies have now trouble to make their voice heard."
-- Daniel Florian, Associate Director

Subscribe to the free "View from Berlin" newsletter

This is just one of the articles that you can find in our newly published free monthly newsletter "View from Berlin". The "View" will give you a regular update on political affairs in Germany, trending topics, careers and the occasional dinner party rumours. You can sign up by simply putting your e-mail address into the form below.