2023-10-09 09:50:16
The Union warns of further cuts in the financing of digital projects. The background is the ongoing parliamentary discussions for the 2024 budget, in which almost all federal ministries have to live with significant savings. The Federal Ministry of Transport also has to make savings – including around 25 percent in financing the digital infrastructure. “The traffic light is once again putting an end to the important broadband funding for fast internet,” criticizes digital politician Reinhard Brandl (CSU). The traffic light is thus putting its “anti-digitalization policy” into concrete numbers.
The fact that the “Special Digital Infrastructure Fund” is being dissolved also caused criticism. It was created in 2018 and filled primarily with proceeds from mobile phone auctions. So far, this has paid for the expansion of fast internet, the expansion of the mobile phone network and the digital pact for schools. In the future, these will be fully financed from the federal budget.
Conversely, the funds from the special fund now flow back into the budget. However, in a report that has not yet been published, the Federal Audit Office emphasizes that it is still unclear what will happen to a difference from the special fund amounting to 1.5 billion euros. Brandl criticized that the billions would be “misused”. He called for it to be included in the long-requested “digital budget”. The traffic light parties agreed on such a special pot for digital projects in the coalition agreement, but there are no concrete plans for this yet.
No around 3 billion euros for gigabit funding
Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) does not believe such a budget is necessary because the individual ministries are required to provide their digital projects with sufficient funds anyway. However, given budget cuts, there are serious doubts about this. In the summer, there was outrage that the traffic light wanted to let the financial resources for administrative digitization expire next year as planned – even though the digitization of the administration is far from being completed. The Federal Ministry of the Interior then referred to “remaining expenditure” amounting to around 300 million euros, which would be available for this in 2024 according to the current planning status.
A spokesman for the Federal Digital Ministry has now assured that there will be no change in the financial resources for the gigabit and mobile communications expansion. As before, the federal government will provide a budget of around 3 billion euros per year for gigabit funding. Last fall, the funding caused a lot of criticism in the federal states and municipalities.
At that time, the Federal Digital Ministry had to stop the program at short notice after a veritable flood of applications meant that the funds provided were suddenly exhausted. Funding started again in the spring after the program was restructured.
New momentum through online access law
The chairwoman of the digital committee, the Green Bundestag member Tabea Rößner, also made it clear that the money from the special fund must flow entirely into the digital infrastructure. She emphasized that there is basically enough money in the system. The general conditions are still problematic. The approval process took too long
But that is now being addressed. The so-called superstructure – when another company also expands an area developed by a competitor – also causes uncertainty. But this cannot be prevented easily.
The slow digitization of administrative services is also causing a lot of discussion, which is now set to receive new impetus with a new edition of the Online Access Act (OZG). This law is also currently being discussed in parliament, and an expert hearing will take place this Monday. The OZG’s original approach failed last year: The rules created in 2017 stipulated that the federal, state and local governments must offer around 600 administrative services online by the end of 2023. However, this did not succeed.
Digital small states
The federal government has managed around 85 percent so far, but the degree of digitalization in the states and municipalities still varies greatly. In most cases, it is not the technical development that is the problem, but rather the nationwide distribution of the offers. One reason for the slow progress is the many vanities, criticized Rößner. Many states and municipalities would rather stick to self-developed digital applications than switch to nationwide solutions. “The digitalization of administrative services can only be successful if the rigid structures are overcome,” emphasized the Green politician.
Holger Schmidt Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 A comment from Michael Spehr Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 66 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 30
The federal government now wants to make a new attempt with the OZG 2.0, but the opposition and experts are insisting on improvements. The Union demands that citizens should have a legal right to digital provision from 2025 onwards. The digital association Bitkom also spoke out in favor of this in its statement on the expert hearing. “The experience of the last few years shows that this is obviously the only way to effectively increase the pressure for implementation,” it says. “We recommend that the legal entitlement be structured in several stages and linked to the delivery period of particularly important and frequently used administrative services.” The Regulatory Control Council, an advisory body to the federal government for better legislation, also demands that the OZG must provide clear guidelines on standards, interfaces and the use of common basic components make.
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