“Backward Administration”
Study: Ampel delays the majority of its digital projects
08/28/2023 2:07 p.m
The traffic light regularly advertises its digital projects, often announcing that it wants to make Germany fit for the future. An evaluation by the digital association Bitkom now shows that Berlin is making little progress in this regard. There is a problem, especially in administration.
According to an evaluation by the digital association Bitkom, the federal government has considerable problems putting its ambitious agenda for digitizing Germany into practice. According to a study by Bitkom, the traffic light coalition only implemented eleven percent of the total of 334 digital projects halfway through the legislature: According to the “Monitor Digitalpolitik”, every fourth project has not yet been tackled. Two thirds of the projects are currently being implemented.
Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst identified the greatest deficits in the digitization of education and administration. So far, the federal government has not kept its promise to launch a “Digital Pact 2.0” in order to be able to continue to guarantee the financing of digital technology for schools. So far, no follow-up financing for the “Digital Pact 1.0” has been provided for in the 2024 budget draft.
“In the meantime, our schools are lagging behind countries like Denmark by 20 years,” complained Wintergerst. The Online Access Act (OZG) 2.0, one of the most important digital policy projects of the federal government, is still unfinished. Unfortunately, the work has only just begun. The financing of the measures is uncertain, and this time there were no deadlines at all. “The backward German administration is growing into a real locational disadvantage that is burdening households and companies alike,” he said.
When it comes to planning and approval, Germany performs better
Only 30 out of 600 administrative services are digitized in Germany. Bitkom made great progress in healthcare and broadband expansion. The association praised the comprehensive introduction of the electronic patient file (ePA), for which the so-called opt-out procedure is planned according to the plans of the federal government. This means that the ePA is automatically activated for the insured person unless they object.
Bitkom also sees the planning and approval acceleration for digital infrastructure initiated by the traffic light coalition as positive. The expansion of mobile and broadband networks had already made great progress last year. “In a European comparison, Germany is now in fourth place as far as the supply of telecommunications services is concerned.” In 2021, Germany was still in eleventh place in the index for the digital economy and society.