Germany: €600 million in new relief measures announced on July 18

Herz — Business Desk · 18 July 2026 at 12:50 · 30s summary · 2 min read

What we know

The German federal government (Bundesregierung) announced on July 18, 2026 a new €600 million package of administrative and economic relief measures, presented at a government meeting dedicated to reducing regulatory burden known as the Entlastungskabinett, according to Handelsblatt.

These €600 million add to €1.5 billion in relief measures already voted before the Entlastungskabinett.

GeDIG, the flagship measure

The centerpiece of the new package is GeDIG (Gesetz für Daten und digitale Innovation im Gesundheitswesen — law for data and digital innovation in the healthcare sector), a law aimed at digitizing Germany's healthcare sector.

This legislation is expected to eliminate €445 million in annual charges for healthcare sector actors.

Specifically, GeDIG provides for the digitization of medical referral orders — the pink paper transfer slip would disappear — and the transition to digital medical correspondence, of which 150 million copies are currently sent annually via mail or fax.

The numbers