On Wednesday, October 23, the IT Planning Council of the federal and state governments will meet for a special meeting that includes explosives. Bremen brought to the meeting several proposals that are downright revolutionary for German circumstances: The federal states should cede responsibility to the federal government for a planned data exchange infrastructure for federal and state authorities.
Advertisement
Furthermore, Bremen demands that all authorities be connected to this infrastructure within the next ten years. According to a statement from the Bremen senator for finance, all nations successful in e-government have adopted a concept that is available to C’T. This refers to countries such as Estonia, where all authorities use the central X-Road platform.
However, the Bremen initiative is quite radical for Germany, since in this country the IT Planning Council makes decisions on federal IT projects and IT standards. All 16 federal states and the federal government sit on the committee. From the perspective of many experts Long processes in IT Planning Council This is one reason why Germany is progressing in digitalization at a snail’s pace.
On top of this, when it comes to digitalization different administrative sectors – such as social affairs, health, justice or finance – often act autonomously and operate separate infrastructures, for example data sharing between authorities. For exchange or communication with citizens.
eIDAS: It is doubtful whether the digital wallet will arrive in two years or notfast till noots
Bremen now fears that the ambitious and expensive mammoth register modernization project will also start too slowly due to such structural constraints. The federal and state governments are currently negotiating a state treaty as the legal basis for the so-called National Once Only Technical System (NOOTS). This register is the technical basis of modernization. Authorities should exchange data with each other through NOOTS if citizens allow it. This means that applicants will no longer need to re-submit their evidence, such as birth certificates, to every authority (“once only principle”).
A draft state treaty proposes, among other things, that a steering group composed of the six federal states and the federal government decide on the technical design of NOOTS and that all states and the federal government jointly finance the development. Furthermore, according to the current plan, only certain administrative areas should be linked to NOOTS – for example, tax administrations and tax offices would be excluded.
Bremen considers this too timid and sees, for example, the risk that individual countries will not co-finance controversial decisions taken by the steering group. Instead, according to a statement by the Bremen representative in the IT Planning Council, the federal government should centrally finance, develop and operate NOOTS, which is available to the C’T. The federal government must also bear the conversion costs of states to connect their IT systems to NOOTS. In return, the federal government would be allowed to make sole decisions on technical design.
Bremen also demands that NOOTS not be limited to certain administrative areas. Within a maximum transition period of ten years, all sectors should be obliged to gradually join NOOTS.
Is the federal government taking a pinch?
With its initiative, Bremen is putting pressure on federal states that are reluctant to let the federal government intervene in their IT systems. The proposal may be more likely to receive support from less financially strong states, which would be happy if the federal government covered their conversion costs for NOOTS. But the federal government currently lacks funding for digitization projects, so the question is whether the responsible Ministry of the Interior is willing to take on the responsibility and costs for NOOTS. According to reports, the amount involved is in the mid double-digit million range.
Federal and state governments are also under time pressure in negotiating the NOOTS state treaty. At the Prime Minister’s Conference in June, the Chancellor and the Prime Ministers promised to ratify the treaty on 12 December. According to the current plan, NOOTS should go live by the end of 2025.
(CWO)
eIDAS: It is doubtful whether the digital wallet will arrive in two years or not
