Country data: Germany

All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

The last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged.

 

Transposition deficit (percentage of all directives not transposed): 0.4% (last report: 0.6%) – a decrease of 0.2 percentage points. Germany is one of six Member States that managed to reduce their deficit in the reporting period. It is the Member State with the lowest deficit (along with Denmark) and achieved the 0.5% proposed target.          
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

Germany’s performance on this criterion is generally good. It remained below the 1% threshold set by the European Council for the third consecutive year and scored its best result ever. In addition, it did not transpose only 2 of the 26 single market directives (8%) due to have been transposed in the 6 months before the cut-off date for calculating the deficit (1 June to 30 November 2021). This shows that Germany organises the timely transposition of directives quite well. Its performance was not affected by the unusually high number of directives to transpose in 2016 and a possible lack of resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic (although it has some difficulties in transposing directives correctly – see below).

Overdue directives: 4 (last report: 6), including 3 on energy. No directive is more than 2 years overdue.

Average delay in transposing directives: 8.6 months (last report: 5.6 months) – an increase of 3 months. Germany’s average delay is now equal to the EU average.    
EU average = 8.6 months

Of Germany’s 4 outstanding directives, 2 have been due for about 1 year and 2 for 5 months.

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 2.2% (last report: 1.8%) – an increase of 0.4 percentage points. This is Germany’s highest deficit ever and the second highest deficit among Member States.  
EU average = 1.3%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings that the Commission has launched against Member States for incorrect transposition of single market directives has more than halved in 2 years. Nevertheless, the number of ongoing cases is still high. With 22 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, Germany’s conformity deficit is well above the EU average.

Evolution of transposition deficit

 

Evolution of conformity deficit

 

All comparisons are with the figures for 1 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

 

Pending single market cases: 47 (7 new cases, including 3 on employment, social affairs and inclusion, and 8 cases closed, including 5 on the free movement of goods and services; last report: 48 pending cases) – this is a slight decrease of one case and still well above the EU average.
EU average = 27 cases

For the first time since December 2018, Germany’s number of cases has decreased (although only moderately). Germany is now the Member State with the second highest number of pending cases (up from the 4th place in December 2020).

The Commission launched 120 new cases against Member States in the reporting period (besides those for late transposition), and these were still pending on 1 December 2021. A total of 7 cases were launched against Germany, which is almost double the EU average of 4 new cases launched in the reporting period. However, 8 German cases have been resolved since December 2020, which is equal to the EU average.

Problematic sectors: taxation – direct taxation (3 cases) and indirect taxation (7); the environment (9 cases), including 4 on atmospheric pollution; transport (9 cases), in particular road and rail transport (5). Together, these make up 60% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 51.6 months for the 41 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 49.4 months) – this is an increase of 2.2 months, and the duration of cases is much longer than the EU average. Germany is in the top five of Member States with the longest average case duration.   
EU average = 42.8 months

Germany’s average case duration has increased by 22% in 3 years. 40% of cases (17 out of 41) have been running for 5 years or more (the oldest case, on air pollution, has been running for 13 years), and this has a big impact on the average duration. However, the 7 German cases (with an average duration of less than 12 months) that have been launched in the reporting period and the resolution of 4 cases with an average duration of around 4 years have some impact on the final result.

Time taken to comply with Court rulings: 44.2 months for the 13 single market cases at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure and closed in the last 5 years (last report: 30.1 months).   
EU average = 46.8 months

Germany is one of 12 Member States whose average time to comply increased in the reporting period (+14.1 month). This is due to the country resolving four cases in the reporting period after an average of 7 years each, and these are now part of the calculation. In particular, the closure of one case on air transport more than 18 years after the Court ruling, with the entry into force of the EU-U.S. Air Transport Agreement (29 June 2020), has a considerable effect on the calculation. However, one case on data protection that took Germany around 6 years to comply has now been closed for more than 5 years and is no longer part of the calculation.

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – Germany performed well.

• Results for three indicators were slightly above the EEA average.
• Performance on requests replied within the deadline increased noticeably.
• Requests accepted within 1 week and counterparts’ satisfaction with efforts made remained below the EEA average.

• Caseload – very large
  Submitted cases: 164 (131 in 2020)
  Received cases: 285 (214 in 2020)

Cases not accepted: 318 (350 in 2020)

• Resolution rate: 85% (89% in 2020)
• Handling time (as home centre)
  Reply in 7 days: 31% (25% in 2020) – very poor
  Cases prepared in 30 days: 75% (78% in 2020) – good
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 63% (63% in 2020 ) – poor

Cases not accepted within 30 days: 24% (17% in 2020) – very poor

• Handling time (as lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days:  18% (18% in 2020) – very  poor
  Cases closed in 10 weeks: 68% (63% in 2020) – poor
• Staffing level
  Urgent requiring action

In 2022, the average payment delay (the time exceeding the legal or contractually agreed payment terms) by German public authorities was 13 days.

The average number of days needed for a business to have its invoices paid by other businesses (business-to-business payments) was 49.09 days.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	3.7	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	79.9%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	13 days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	1.2 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	26.1%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	20%	25%
No calls for bids	6%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	2.1%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	14%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	67%	64%
Decision speed (days)	51	99
SME contractors	66%	61%
SME bids	73%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	18%	31%
Missing calls for bids	1%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	99%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	97%	11%

Note: A typical (mid-ranking) EU country is used for the EU average for all indicators except the publication rate. Due to delays in data availability, publication rate results are based on 2020 data.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Restrictiveness indicator – architect	2.7	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	3.4	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	2.7	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	3.4	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	0.0	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	3.7	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	0.0	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 1.07	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 5.12	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	84.1%	84.2%

Note: The EU restrictiveness indicator (EURI) measures the level of restrictiveness for the cross-border provision of services and the right of establishment for seven groups of professional services with a high share in EU firms’ intermediate consumption or cross-border mobility. The level of restrictiveness is measured on a scale from 0 (least restrictive) to 6 (most restrictive). 

Indicator	2021	EU average
Access to public financial support (% of SMEs indicating deterioration)	8.4%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	49.1 days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	0.50%	0.48%