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Members of the IT Planning Council

Federal, state and local governments in a single committee

The IT Planning Council is a 17-member committee consisting of representatives of Germany’s federal government and the state governments. Additional individuals, such as representatives of the municipalities, can attend the meetings and be consulted in an advisory role.

Members:

  • Representing the federal government: Federal Commissioner for IT Technology (IT Commissioner)
  • Representing the states: one representative responsible for IT technology from each state (typically undersecretaries

Members in an advisory role:

  • Three representatives from the municipalities and municipal associations who are posted by the leading municipal associations at the federal level
  • Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
  • One representative of the state commissioners for data protection
  • President of FITKO (Federal IT Cooperation)

Individuals who may be consulted:

  • Additional persons, particularly contacts from the conferences of specialised ministers, to the extent that the decisions of the IT Planning Council relate to their area of expertise

Frequency of meetings

The IT Planning Council typically meets three times each year in accordance with its rules of procedure. Additional meetings are held at the request of the federal government or that of three states. The council has established the practice of holding three meetings each year (spring, summer, autumn).

Chair of the IT Planning Council

Fotografie von Patrick Burghardt

© Hessische Ministerin für Digitale Strategie und Entwicklung

In order to take account of federal structures, the chair of the IT Planning Council alternates annually between the federal government and states, with the states assuming the chair in alphabetical order.

In his capacity as Digital Undersecretary and Chief Information Officer of the State of Hesse (CIO) as well as Plenipotentiary of the State Government for eGovernment and Information Technology, Patrick Burghardt assumed the chairmanship of the IT Planning Council on 1 January 2023.

This year, Hesse intends to forge ahead in particular in the fields of cloud, digital skills and OZG 2.0 (German Act to Improve Online Access to Administrative Services or Online Access Act). These three issues form part of the five multi-year priorities the members of the IT Planning Council have defined for the first time to home in on and channel the efforts on these issues. Cloud transformation harbours enormous potential when it comes to increasing efficiency and employer attractiveness. In concert with the federal and state governments on the IT Planning Council, Hesse’s aim is to define and set in motion the political and organisational conditions for a successful cloud transformation of the public administration. It is also to help advance projects that swiftly enable the cloud transformation with the necessary decisiveness.

Successful first steps have already been taken in bolstering digital skills in the public administration. Hesse wants to start designing and piloting continuing professional development measures based on the learning modules from the eGov-Campus continuing education and training platform and is open to working with other federal states to this end. For the third topic, OZG 2.0, co-designing the successor law to the OZG and further developing inter-federal cooperation are front and centre. Hesse intends to take concrete action to advocate and work towards removing obstacles to the digitalisation of the public administration, advancing end-to-end digitalisation of administrative processes and establishing new dialogue formats between the federal government, the states and local governments.

This thematic work is shored up by the activities to further develop the IT Planning Council’s governance to make it even more impactful as a council. In addition to the multi-year priorities, specialised spokespersons are being put in place to act as an interface to the Specialised Ministers’ Conferences to ensure better dovetailing of the council’s work. Furthermore, the federal working structures below the IT Planning Council are to be streamlined. Hesse will be paying special attention to the IT Planning Council’s municipalities committee. Stepping up this dialogue is important in order to optimise the implementation of administrative digitalisation in the interaction between the federal government, the states and the municipalities.

The enhancement and strategic alignment of the Federal IT Cooperation (FITKO) decided on at the closed-door conference is also to be implemented. As the “implementation muscle” of the IT Planning Council, the aim here is for FITKO to become even more effective in the cross-state and cross-level digitalisation of administrative services.

 

Current order for chair

  • 2023: Hesse
  • 2024: Federal government
  • 2025: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
  • 2026: Federal government
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