From the point of view of the head of the Landsberg Association of Cities and Towns, the cities and municipalities not only lack money for the digital challenges.
(Photo: IMAGO/Metodi Popov)
Berlin The plans of the FDP to oblige authorities to digitize faster by amending the Online Access Act (OZG) are met with sharp criticism in the municipalities. “It is an illusion to believe that digitization can be accelerated with so-called consequences or penalties,” said the managing director of the Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, to the Handelsblatt.
Digitization cannot be enacted by law, but the appropriate framework and conditions must be created. “Grass doesn’t grow any faster if you pull on it either,” Landsberg emphasized.
Specifically, the Liberals want to introduce a “legal right to digital administration”, which should be linked to clear deadlines, as can be seen from a position paper that the FDP parliamentary group passed last Tuesday. Authorities would therefore have to offer administrative services digitally from a certain point in time. According to the paper, if they don’t comply, they should have to reckon with “tangible consequences”.
The President of the German District Association, Reinhard Sager, also reacted with incomprehension to the FDP initiative. Sager told the Handelsblatt that it has long been a “municipal mantra” that digital services for local citizens and businesses must be available more quickly. “However, wanting to achieve this through a legal right for citizens and quasi-punishment of authorities is not only strange, but also reveals the obvious helplessness of the governing party FDP. That’s not how we move forward.”
In fact, the digitization of administration has been a major construction site in Germany for years. In many European countries, citizens have long been able to deal with a large part of their contact with authorities online. There is still a lot of catching up to do in this country.
The federal government achieves its own goal: hundreds of administrative services not digitized
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is responsible at government level. Shortly after taking office in December 2021, she explained at the “Future Congress State and Administration” in Berlin that the topic of digitization was a “very, very important” concern for her and would “be very high on my agenda”.
The first conclusion that Faeser drew from the previously sluggish government digitization relates to the implementation schedule. The SPD politician conceded this after the federal and state governments missed their self-imposed goal of digitizing hundreds of administrative services by the end of last year.
A new law should now ensure acceleration. The so-called OZG 2.0 is currently undergoing internal government departmental coordination, after which it is to be decided by the federal cabinet before it is introduced to the Bundestag. There, the parliamentarians can then make changes if they wish.
The Greens domestic politician Misbah Khan is not averse to the FDP’s considerations. She also advocates a legal entitlement to online access to administrative services from a certain point in time. “We need pressure on the responsible actors at federal, state and local level, without which we will not make progress quickly enough,” explained the MP.
District council: Do not repeat the mistakes of the first online access law
However, the FDP does not want a general deadline by which all important services must be available online. She wants to focus on individual services that citizens should be able to use online from 2025.
>> Read also: Authorities want access to the cloud: “The technology is there, the time is ripe, but we are not allowed”
These should be so-called “one for all” projects, i.e. online services for administrative services that are developed and operated by one federal state and can be used by others. These include re-registration, parental allowance, building permits or driver’s licenses.
County council president Sager warned against repeating the mistakes of the first online access law. “It’s just not enough to provide online application forms,” he said. The goal must be “consistent, media-break-free digitization” so that online applications from guarantors can also be processed electronically within the administration. “Only that creates faster procedures and relieves the administration of unnecessary effort and deployment of personnel.”
From the point of view of the head of the Landsberg Association of Cities and Towns, the cities and municipalities not only lack money for the digital challenges. There was also a lack of digitally capable laws, staff and, in some cases, still suitable software.
“The federal government should tackle these problems together with the municipalities, provide the necessary funds and burden the administrations less with constant new bureaucratic requirements,” he said. “Then there is a chance that we will make progress with digitization.”
More: These online services will be monitored by the EU in the future