Instead, a study

Schellhorn also scraps second relief package

The second debureaucratization package will not be presented on June 3, as originally planned.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Only 14 of the 113 deregulation measures announced by State Secretary Sepp Schellhorn have been implemented. Schellhorn is now canceling the planned second deregulation package. The Budget Accompanying Act will not make it to the Council of Ministers this week either, but a “gummy bear law” will.

Things are still not going quite smoothly for State Secretary for Deregulation Sepp Schellhorn (NEOS). He wanted to present a second deregulation package once again, but that won’t happen—at least not anytime soon.

Ongoing presentations instead of a new package
“Instead, the next steps and reform plans will be presented on an ongoing basis,” a spokesperson told the media outlet “Selektiv.” In June, however, the State Secretariat’s focus will be on digitalization and reform partnerships anyway.

In addition, Schellhorn’s office is commissioning a study to provide scientific oversight of the process, according to reports. The deregulation initiative is intended to ease the burden on the economy.

Many laws and regulations burden the economy. Schellhorn wants to deregulate, so far with limited success.(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

The coalition partners, the ÖVP and SPÖ, have long held the view that more of the first deregulation package should be implemented first before a second wave of measures is presented. Only 14 of the 113 announced steps have been implemented so far; according to the office, 88 more are in the process of being implemented, though these include several digitalization measures.

The Budget Accompanying Act is also still pending and has not made it to the Council of Ministers. Although negotiations have already been concluded, there is still no new law.

“Gummy Bear Law” Goes Under Review
The government has at least one small, sweet success to report. Thanks to an amendment to food law, “fruit gummies, chewy candies containing gelatin or pectin”—which, as reported, have recently increasingly contained harmful ingredients such as THC or mucsimol derived from fly agaric mushrooms—can be more easily removed from the market.