News

Starting in July, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will fund Rafael Leite's stay at the National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) under the auspices of the renowned German Chancellor Fellowship, meaning that the NIPAG is once again playing host for the fellowship.

On 2 March 2024, around 30 members of the 'Youth Team' Thuringia met for a closing event at the Thuringia State Parliament. Together with the Youth Check Thuringia project bureau team, they reflected on previous meetings, evaluated the results and gave feedback on the consultation format.

With €179,800 in funding, the VW Foundation is funding a research project entitled 'AI used by the state: Safeguarding autonomy and human rights with transparency for the general public and support for public servants', proposed by Research Associate Dr Jonas Botta.

The German Bundestag Committee on Internal Affairs and the Interior invited Dr Jonas Botta, a renowned expert in the field, to share his insights on the draft law proposed by the police ombudsman (BT-Drs. 20/9148). Dr Botta provided the committee with his expertise in constitutional and security law. In his testimony, he advocated for a uniform right of entry for the general public and police officers, the reinforcement of independent official duties, a comprehensive right of access to files and the right to decline to testify before the Police Ombudsman.

Dr Jonas Botta (NIPAG Research Associate) appeared as a studio guest on Deutschlandfunk's public broadcasting programme 'Marktplatz'. The topic of the programme was 'Without the internet - analogue living in a digital world'. Dr Botta provided an overview of the digitalisation of public administration services and the possible (basic) right to analogue services.

At the expert hearing of the Home Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag on 16 October 2023, Prof. Dr Jan Ziekow commented on the draft of the 'Fifth Act Amending Administrative Procedure Provisions' ('Fünfte Gesetz zur Änderung verwaltungsverfahrensrechtlicher Vorschriften' - 5. VwVfÄndG). Numerous provisions of the Amendment Act relate to the increased use of electronic communication in planning and approval procedures with the provision being based on recommendations developed by the NIPAG that resulted from the evaluation of the Planning Assurance Act (Planungssicherstellungsgesetz - PlanSiG) carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI).

The NIPAG completed the evaluation of the Thuringian Transparency Act (ThürTG) commissioned by the Thuringia State Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs (Thüringer Ministerium für Inneres und Kommunales - TMIK) in August 2023. An interdisciplinary research approach was chosen for the evaluation, combining perspectives from legal, social and administrative sciences and various methods of empirical social research.

On 19 October 2023, a delegation from the Turkish Ministries of Youth and Sports, National Education and Labour and Social Affairs visited the Competence Centre Youth-Check (ComYC) in Berlin. The delegation was invited by the German-Turkish Special Committee of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

The Committee on Internal Affairs and the Interior of the German Bundestag invited Dr Jonas Botta (NIPAG Research Associate) as an expert. Dr Botta made his expertise in the fields of general administrative law, e-government law and constitutional law available to the Committee. The occasion was the Federal Government's proposed amendments to the Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz - OZG), the key law for the digital transformation of public administration in Germany. In his statement, Dr Botta advocated – in addition to the amendments already proposed – binding follow-up deadlines for the implementation of the OZG, a legal right to digital administration, independent monitoring, an optimised data protection cockpit and more digital participation.

The practical workshop on 'New Work in public administration', organised by the National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) and chaired by Prof. Dr Jan Ziekow, was held on 12 and 13 June 2023. A range of experiences and insights into approaches to New Work from the private sector and public administration were presented to leaders at federal and state level.