Germany - Federal Digital Strategy for Public Administration

Through the Federal Digital Strategy for Public Administration, the German IT Planning Council aims to make public administration fit for the future and to organise cooperation between the Federal Government, the Federal States and local authorities more efficiently in the field of digitalisation. At the same time, the Strategy is intended to address the expectations of citizens, businesses, public-sector employees and political decision-makers.

Three components of the strategy

The preparation of the strategy was initiated in November 2023. The umbrella strategy includes the future vision of the administration and common guidelines. Building on this, target visions were developed for five priority areas: Digital transformation, digital infrastructure, digital applications, data use and information security. . These provide the basis for deriving concrete and specific implementation initiatives.

The Strategy complements the existing digital strategies of the Federal Government and the States by addressing aspects of federal cooperation within Germany’s federal system and objectives that can only be achieved jointly.

Vision of the future of public administration

The vision sets out three overarching objectives: greater efficiency through a division of responsibilities within a modern federal system; a state that is resilient in times of crisis and capable of adapting to change; and greater trust in government and democracy through administrative action that is transparent and understandable.

This includes common standards and structures based on a division of responsibilities, automation, the once-only principle, and shared IT solutions. Further elements include using data to support evidence-based decision-making, deploying new technologies, and fostering a modern working and learning culture with digitally skilled employees.

Guidelines for joint digitalisation

The Strategy focuses on guidelines which are divided into governance guidelines, subject-specific guidelines and implementation principles, providing a framework for both existing and planned initiatives.

The subject-specific guidelines cover areas including process automation, a shared “Germany Architecture”, the once-only principle and data minimisation, data governance, artificial intelligence, information security, sovereign cloud solutions, future skills, and common standards for process and project management.

Within the Digital Transformationpriority area, the Strategy provides for strengthening the digital skills of employees at federal, state and local levels and establishing standards for the digitalisation of public administration. By the end of 2028, knowledge and expertise relating to digitalisation and service design are to be increased substantially.

• Core Competencies: Focuses on closing skills gaps within public authorities so that federal, state, and local entities can independently manage digital transformation processes.

• Targeted Training Initiatives: Leverages standardized qualification programs (such as eGov-Zert) and inter-administrative competency centers to systematically upskill public personnel by 2028.

• Service Design Focus: Emphasizes user-centric capabilities to ensure that digital administrative services are intuitively designed for citizens and businesses alike.

The role of the IT Planning Council

Established in 2010, the German IT Planning Council coordinates and supports cooperation between the Federal Government and the Länder on the digitalisation of public services on the basis of Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law, and the IT State Treaty. It brings together the wide range of stakeholders involved in the digitalisation of public administration and uses its decisions to establish binding requirements and uniform standards.

The German IT Planning Council has standard-setting powers in the field of standardisation. It is supported by Federal IT Cooperation (FITKO) as its advisory and implementation organisation.

Financing through a joint digital budget

No overall budget is specified for the Federal Digital Strategy. However, the Strategy envisages a joint digital budget to finance shared foundational components as well as central IT components and infrastructure. Existing federal and Land-level funding is to be pooled for this purpose. The budget is intended to provide planning and operational certainty beyond a single financial year. Decisions on the use of the joint funds are to be taken cooperatively and in a transparent manner.

From strategy to implementation

The Federal Digital Strategy is designed as an ongoing process. For 2025, it provides for bringing together the German IT Planning Council’s existing and planned initiatives in a single portfolio of initiatives and aligning them with the strategic objectives.

Further participatory formats are intended to ensure continued involvement in the Strategy’s further development. In addition, implementation is to be accompanied by a continuous evaluation of effectiveness. The Strategy will be further developed on this basis. The target visions for the five priority areas provide guidance for deriving and linking specific implementation initiatives.