Members of the German IT Planning Council
Federal, state and local governments in a single committee
The German 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
Quelle: BMI/Henning Schacht
Dr Markus Richter, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community and Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology, assumed the chair of the IT Planning Council on 1 January 2024.
The Federal Government provides the chair every second year and sees its role as guaranteeing the ongoing transformation of the IT Planning Council into an agile, joint federal and state forum for the public administration of the future.
The process initiated by the Federal Government chair in 2022 will continue in 2024 in order to enable the federal level, the 16 federal states and the roughly 11,000 local governments to develop a cooperative orientation and a more transparent structure. To achieve this, the current chair is working with the 2025 chair, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the “driving force” of the IT Planning Council, FITKO, the body for federal IT cooperation, in a strategic process involving the conferences of specialised ministers, business and industry, and interested partners from civil society and the technology community which is intended to help activate all stakeholders involved in implementing the IT Planning Council's agenda.
The IT Planning Council remains focused on its aim of digital transformation for public administration everywhere in Germany, to offer user-friendly, end-to-end digital services. To achieve this aim faster and more efficiently, in 2024 the Federal Government seeks to make identification for online services, the use of register data, and information security more effective to meet the European Union’s ambitious standards.
The Federal Government sees enormous digital diversity at state and local level which makes Germany more advanced than it is often perceived. And there is a great deal of potential still to be tapped. Past progress and future potential will be highlighted and put to greater use in priority areas. The perspective of users, including local government, business and industry, and public administration staff will be given as much attention as the technologies and processes.
With the awareness that limited resources must be used more effectively, the Federal Government relies on creativity, teamwork and confidence in implementing all projects intended to make Germany’s public administration ready to face the future.
Current order for chair
- 2024: Federal government
- 2025: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
- 2026: Federal government