Visit from Christian Schreider

On 11 July 2024, member of the German parliament Christian Schreider (SPD) visited SÜDWEST Lacke + Farben GmbH & Co. KG. Mr Schreider is taking advantage of the current summer recess at parliament to gain an understanding of what is happening in his constituency. His aim is to gain an insight into many businesses in the region to take the requests and concerns of the companies back to Berlin and incorporate them into his work.

Together with Mr von Rhade, the two-and-a-half-hour visit began with a tour of the factory, with Mr Rößler taking charge of the visit through production and the filling plant.

At the end, there was also the opportunity to engage in discussion. In his conversation with Mr Schreider, Mr von Rhade expressed clearly where the challenges lie for a medium-sized company like SÜDWEST. In particular, he named the problems that lawmakers inflict on small and medium-sized enterprises (such as the German Supply Chain Act or the European REACH regulations). Mr von Rhade emphasised in particular that it is not each individual measure, but rather the total number of measures, that presents huge hurdles for companies. In von Rhade’s opinion, the aim should be to protect Germany as a location for business and ensure that companies get the support they need from lawmakers in order to survive and have the incentive to continue to invest in the future.

Mr Schreider explained that the German government has launched various initiatives to take the burden of excessive bureaucracy off companies. These include, in particular, the Bureaucracy Reduction Act and the “one in, one out” principle that states that for every new piece of bureaucracy introduced, an existing one must be removed. This measure should help companies to focus more on their core areas of expertise and enable them to boost their competitiveness in the international market. Mr Schreider highlighted that it is a continual process that constantly needs to be adapted to the needs of the economy to be successful in the long term. He added that he will continue to monitor this process closely.