Participation of the NIPAG in an international project exploring the relationship between autonomy and digitalisation

The findings of the project, 'Digital autonomy and governance in the context of legal-administrative systems', were unveiled at the international conference, 'Autonomy in the Age of Digitisation'. The National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) is participating in the project.

On 5 September 2024, the day on which the international Gruber–De Gasperi Agreement sealed South Tyrol's autonomy in 1946, the 'Day of Autonomy' was celebrated in Bolzano (Italy) for the 78th time. This year, the celebrations centred around an international conference on the theme of 'Autonomy in the age of digitalisation'.

At the conference, the initial findings of the project ''Digital autonomy and governance in the context of legal-administrative systems' were presented to the public. The project is being conducted by the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and The European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) under the participation of the NIPAG for the analysis of the developments in Germany. The aim of the project is to perform a comparative analysis of the impact of digitalisation on the federal and regional systems. The main focus of the study is to determine whether the need for a nationally coordinated strategy leads to an increase in decision-making processes and a reduction in the scope of action of decentralised decision-making levels. 

The speakers reported on current developments in digitalisation and the distribution of competences in Italy, the states of South Tyrol and Trentino, Austria, the federal state of Tyrol, Germany and Estonia. Prof. Dr Cristina Fraenkel-Haeberle, Senior Researcher at the NIPAG, outlined the specific collaboration and coordination requirements for the digitalisation of administrative services in the Federal Republic of Germany.