E-Government Act (Germany)
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Electronic Administration Promotion Act |
| Short title: | E-government law |
| Abbreviation: | EGovG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Administrative law |
| References : | 206-6 |
| Issued on: | July 25, 2013 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2749 ) |
| Entry into force on: | predominantly August 1, 2013, in some cases July 1, 2014, January 1, 2015, 1 year after De-Mail started working (= March 24, 2016, Federal Law Gazette I p. 678 ) and January 1, 2020 (Art. 31 G of 25 . July 2013) |
| Last change by: |
Art. 15 G of November 20, 2019 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1626, 1638 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
November 26, 2019 (Art. 155 G of November 20, 2019) |
| GESTA : | B030 |
| Weblink: | Law in full text |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The E-Government Act was enacted as Article 1 of the Act to Promote Electronic Administration and to Change Other Regulations on July 25, 2013, and most of it came into force on August 1, 2013.
history
In its 234th session on April 18, 2013, the German Bundestag passed the draft law introduced by the Federal Government after the second and third readings based on the recommendation for a resolution and the report of the Interior Committee . The Federal Council approved the law on June 7, 2013. The law came into effect on August 1st.
core items
- Obligation of the administration to open an electronic channel and, in addition, the federal administration to open De-Mail access
- Principles of electronic filing and replacement scanning
- Facilitation of the provision of electronic evidence and electronic payment in administrative procedures
- Fulfillment of publication obligations through electronic official gazettes and announcements
- Obligation to document and analyze processes
- Regulation for the provision of machine-readable databases by the administration
background
The Federal Government and the Bundestag have long recognized the necessity and advantages of IT and are endeavoring to use the development in these areas for the benefit of the public administration.
The law as well as the key points for the “Digital Administration 2020” program resolved by the Federal Cabinet on April 8, 2014 speak in favor of the decision to implement more IT support in both service and support processes. The aim of these digitization measures is to facilitate electronic communication with the administration and to enable the federal, state and local governments to offer simpler, more user-friendly and more efficient electronic administration services.
With the law, it will be inevitable for the federal authorities to switch their support processes to IT solutions from August 2013. According to several studies, there are a number of support processes in the federal administration that are not directly related to the citizen. There is a lot of potential for optimization hidden in these support processes of the federal administration, which is addressed by such advances in IT by the government as the law for the promotion of electronic administration.
With the introduction of the E-Government Act, federal legal hurdles are to be abolished in order to simplify electronic communication between citizens or companies and an authority. The same applies to communication within the authorities.
construction
scope
This law applies to the public-law administrative activities of the federal authorities, including direct federal corporations, institutions and foundations under public law. The law also applies to the authorities of the federal states and legal entities under public law that are subject to the supervision of the federal state if they implement federal law ( Section 1 EGovG).
It does not apply to criminal prosecution, the prosecution and punishment of administrative offenses, mutual legal assistance for foreign countries in criminal and civil matters, tax and customs investigations and measures of judicial service law, proceedings before the German Patent and Trademark Office and administrative activities after the Second Book of the Social Code .
Electronic access to administration
Every authority is obliged to enable electronic transmission of the data, including the electronic signature. Exception: If the federal authority does not have access to the IT process offered centrally for the federal administration, then it cannot offer any ( Section 2 EGovG).
Information on authorities and their procedures in publicly accessible networks
All federal authorities are obliged to provide contact-relevant information in publicly accessible networks in an understandable language. For municipalities and municipal associations, this only applies if it is ordered by state law ( Section 3 EGovG).
Electronic payment options
The authority must offer at least one option for the usual and secure e-payment ( § 4 EGovG), e.g. B. EC.
proof
The evidence can be provided in digital form as long as it is provided with a digital signature . However, if the authority requires an original for an obvious reason, it must be presented. § 5 EGovG is the basis for the transmission of data between authorities in digital form.
Electronic filing
The federal authorities should keep their files electronically. This does not apply if digitization requires too much effort or if it is not economical or if the e-file cannot be kept properly. The electronic file management serves the efficient and simultaneous processing of information, regardless of the place of processing ( § 6 EGovG).
Transferring and destroying the paper original
The paper originals must be converted to electronic form, e.g. B. scanned and included in the e-file. The papers are then destroyed or returned to the owner. This can be waived if it becomes too expensive or too complicated to digitize the documents ( Section 7 EGovG).
insight into files
According to According to § 8 EGovG there are four ways of granting access to files :
- by providing a file printout,
- by displaying the electronic documents on the screen,
- by sending electronic documents or
- by allowing electronic access to the content of the files.
Optimization of administrative processes and information on the state of the process
The administration should document all of its electronic procedures, because this documentation is used to analyze and improve the procedures of the procedures ( § 9 EGovG).
Implementation of standardization resolutions by the IT planning council
If the planning council for IT cooperation in the public administration between the federal government and the federal states ( IT planning council ) takes a decision, the council of IT officers of the federal government (IT council) decides on the implementation of this decision within the federal administration ( § 10 EGovG) .
Common procedures
Common procedures are automated procedures that enable several responsible bodies within the meaning of the Federal Data Protection Act to process personal data in or from a database. The application of joint procedures is only permitted if this is appropriate taking into account the interests of the data subjects worthy of protection and the tasks of the bodies involved ( Section 11 EGovG).
Requirements for the provision of data, authorization to issue statutory orders
The law states that machine-readable formats are to be used if data is made available in digital form ( Section 12 EGovG). A format is machine-readable if the data it contains can be read out and processed automatically by software (e.g. XML ).
Electronic forms
Officially provided signature fields alone do not require the written form, they are not required in electronic communication ( Section 13 EGovG).
Georeferencing
Direct geo-referencing, which is standardized throughout Germany, is specified in Section 14 EGovG in order to be used by the administration. If an electronic register is set up with location data, such as B. Land register, the data of the area must flow into the register.
Official bulletins and announcements
Publications are usually published in the bulletin or announcement of the federal, state or local authority ( § 15 EGovG). This can also be done electronically with the condition that all citizens have access to this platform.
Accessibility
The federal authorities should ensure the barrier-free design of electronic communication and the use of electronic documents according to § 4 BGG in an appropriate form ( § 16 EGovG). All digital data must be designed to be barrier-free .
The situation in the federal states
Some of the Länder have changed their administrative procedure laws in the first step in order to provide a good basis for electronic administration in administrative activities.
- Baden-Württemberg: Act to promote electronic administration in the state of Baden-Württemberg (E-Government Act Baden-Württemberg) of December 17, 2015 (Journal of Laws of 2015, 1191).
- Bavaria: Law on electronic administration in Bavaria (Bavarian E-Government Law - BayEGovG) of December 22, 2015 (GVBl p. 458)
- Berlin: Law for the Promotion of E-Government ( Berliner E-Government-Gesetz - EGovG Bln) of 30 May 2016 (GVBl Bln p. 282)
- Brandenburg: Draft of the Brandenburg E-Government Act of May 14, 2018.
- Bremen: Law to promote electronic administration in Bremen of March 20, 2018 (Brem.GBl. 2018, 44), as well as amendment of the Administrative Procedure Act
- Hamburg: no info
- Hessen: Bill Hessian E-Government Act of May 10, 2018
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Law on the Promotion of Electronic Administrative Activities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of April 25, 2016 (E-Government Act Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - EGovG MV)
- Lower Saxony: draft bill of a Lower Saxony law for the promotion and protection of digital administration (NDiG) in the departmental coordination
- North Rhine-Westphalia: Act to promote electronic administration in North Rhine-Westphalia (E-Government Act North Rhine-Westphalia - EGovG NRW) (Art. 1 G of July 8, 2016, GV. NRW. P. 551)
- Rhineland-Palatinate: still in draft
- Saarland: Law to promote electronic administration in Saarland (E-Government-Gesetz Saarland - E-GovG SL) of November 15, 2017
- Saxony: Law to promote electronic administration in the Free State of Saxony (Sächsisches E-Government-Gesetz - SächsEGovG) (Art. 1 G of July 9, 2014, SächsGVBl. P. 398)
- Saxony-Anhalt: Amendment and adaptation of the state administrative law, draft of a law to promote the electronic administration of the state of Saxony-Anhalt (E-Government Law Saxony-Anhalt - EGovG LSA) of 19 September 2017
- Schleswig-Holstein: Law on electronic administration for Schleswig-Holstein of July 8, 2009
- Thuringia: Thuringian Law for the Promotion of Electronic Administration (Thuringian E-Government-Law -ThürEGovG -) of 10 May 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the legal discussion of the individual key points of the Federal E-Government Act, see also: Albrecht / Schmid, K&R 2013, p. 529 ff.
- ↑ On behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Interior , the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster , the Technical University of Munich , the University of Siegen and the Hertie School of Governance , coordinated by the National E-Government Competence Center , examined the challenges of implementation and the potential of the EGovG: Jörg Becker; Marcel Heddier; Sara Hofmann; Marlen Jurisch; Helmut Krcmar; Bjorn Niehaves; Michael Räckers, Hans Peter Rauer, John Schilling; Hendrik Scholta; Claudius Seidel; Basanta thapa; Petra Wolf; Robert Zepic: Analysis of the potential of the e-government law (PDF file; 14.4MB), 2014.
- ↑ FAQ on the Federal E-Government Act ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Mini-commentary by the Federal Ministry of the Interior on the E-Government Act ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Law for the Promotion of E-Government (E-Government-Gesetz Berlin - EGovG Bln) of 30 May 2016
- ↑ State Chancellery of the State of Brandenburg (ed.): Status report on the future strategy of digital Brandenburg . September 2017, p. 29 .
- ^ Free Hanseatic City of Bremen: Law to promote electronic administration in Bremen. March 20, 2018, accessed July 5, 2018 .
- ↑ State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt: Draft of a law to promote the electronic administration of the State of Saxony-Anhalt (E-Government-Geset z Sachsen-Anhalt - EGovG LSA). September 19, 2017. Retrieved July 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Law on Electronic Administration for Schleswig-Holstein (E-Government Law - EGovG) of July 8, 2009
- ^ Juliane Riehm: Media information Thuringian state government passes the most modern e-government law in Germany. November 7, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017 .
