State representation

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State representation of Bavaria in Bonn 1966, with Franz Josef Strauss

As state representatives (often only briefly representation ) is referred to the authorities of the German states , which represent the interests of the country to the federal government and the other countries and its headquarters in the German capital Berlin have. The representations at the federal level are specific to German federalism and have a long tradition.

State representations serve as an interface between federal and state politics. Therefore u. a. maintaining close relationships with the German Bundestag and the federal government in addition to their activities . The political and technical work aims to represent the interests of the state in shaping federal policy and legislation . In addition, the representations offer work and overnight accommodation for the state government. In addition, it is important to present its cultural and economic diversity.

Due to the increasing importance of the European Union , the interests of the state must also be adequately represented at this level. That is why all countries now also have national representations in Brussels , the headquarters of the EU. The Article 23 and 50 of the Basic Law oblige countries over the Bundesrat participate in matters concerning the European Union.

tasks

Either as independent authorities or as a department of the State Chancellery, state representations act as a link between federal and state politics. They convey information in both directions, represent the interests of the state and participate in legislation in the Federal Council . Employees of the representations also visit the specialist committees of the Bundestag so that the Prime Minister and the state government are informed about the plans of the federal government and parliament . The states' European policy is also coordinated by the state representations and represented in the responsible bodies in Brussels . In addition, the representations are interlocutors for administrations, associations, journalists and interested citizens and represent their country to the outside world.

Historical development

Holy Roman Empire and German Confederation

Already in the Holy Roman Empire , envoys with powers of attorney represented the interests of the territorial princes and not infrequently also the imperial circles at the court of the emperor , at the other princely courts and at the imperial diets. Their competencies and responsibilities were extensive and very different, ranging from courtly and ceremonial duties to mediating in political matters. The ambassadorial service in the empire experienced a first institutional expansion with the establishment of the Perpetual Diet in Regensburg in 1663. The princes now had small representations in the imperial city , which the envoys presided over.

The Holy Roman Empire ended in 1806, and the German Confederation was founded in 1815 . This had a single body, the Bundestag , which had its seat in Frankfurt am Main. The member states of the federal government each had an envoy in the Bundestag who cast a different number of votes depending on the country. Foreign states could accredit an envoy to the federal government; conversely, the federal government could appoint federal envoy. However, only very limited use was made of this.

The German Imperium

Bavarian legation in Berlin, 1896

In the North German Confederation , which became the German Empire in 1870/1871 , the governments of the member states sent representatives to the Bundesrat . This had its seat in the imperial capital Berlin. The members of the Bundesrat were mostly high- ranking officials from the state administration.

The tasks of the authorized representatives, in addition to representative duties, were to participate in the Federal Council's committees in preparing draft bills and administrative regulations. In addition, they took care of the transmission of information and political decisions between the state authorities and the Reich authorities. In order to ensure that the state's interests were also represented in parliament , the plenipotentiaries also had the right to attend meetings of the Reichstag and to be heard there. The workload and the personal workload of the authorized representatives was immense, since they usually had no staff of their own apart from a secretary .

Weimar Republic

In the Weimar Republic , too, the Reichsrat der Länder had the right to object to legislation. With the loss of the monarchy, the representative function for the emperor had become obsolete. The plenipotentiaries, who meanwhile also had their own staff, now headed the representations of the states at the Reich. After the National Socialists came to power , the empire became a central state . The political life of the countries was abolished. Only administration and cultural issues were dealt with at the state level.

Federal Republic of Germany

Laubenpieperfest 1970 in Bonn
State Representation Berlin in Bonn , 1974: The Governing Mayor Dietrich Stobbe announced Schobert & Black in an evening of lectures .

With the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany , the tradition of the authorized representative as representative of the interests of the federal states was resumed. The state representations were based in the provisional federal headquarters in Bonn until the early 1950s . In the Villa Henkel in Unkel near Bonn there was a so-called country house as a guest house for the countries until autumn 1950 . Later, all federal states acquired or built buildings in which they established state representations in Bonn. In the course of reunification , the houses finally moved to Berlin between 1999 and 2001. Some federal states erected new buildings in the ministerial gardens and in Hiroshimastraße . The state of Berlin has had its state representation in the Berlin City Hall since 2002 and no longer in its own building.

The buildings of the state representations serve to represent the states , especially with regard to their permanent political participation in the federal state system of Germany . Due to the competence to participate in matters of the European Union and due to the partial sovereignty of the federal states, they also represent platforms for the maintenance and development of their external relations at the important international embassy location in Berlin Usually meets on Monday evenings in the representations of their federal state. The coalition negotiations between the CDU, CSU and FDP after the 2009 federal elections took place in the state representations of Hesse, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. They also provide information about the country and offer a cultural program. State representations are also available for conferences and parliamentary evenings and can be hired by third parties for these purposes.

The national representations at the European Union

To represent their interests vis-à-vis the European Union, all federal states now have representations in Brussels. In addition to the general representation of interests via official and unofficial channels, these representations also serve as a “showcase” for their respective federal state and thus represent it not only politically, but also culturally. At the same time, the national representations look after their respective representatives in the European Committee of the Regions .

The establishment of the state representations in Brussels triggered a constitutional dispute between the federal government and the federal states. The former feared an unconstitutional "secondary foreign policy" of the countries, while the latter argued that European policy was also domestic policy. An agreement was reached with the new version of Article 23 of the Basic Law and the 4th Act on Cooperation between the Federation and the States in Matters of the European Union (EUZBLG) of March 12, 1993. Section 8 of the law allows the federal states to have their own representations set up at the European Union. At the same time, the federal and state governments undertake not to act in contradiction to agreed positions. Despite the federal government's original reservations, the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union and the state representations are now working closely together.

It is also controversial whether the representation of interests of the federal states in Brussels is lobbying . The state representations themselves do not see themselves as lobbyists and so far (as of September 2017) have not entered the transparency register of the European Commission. In political science , on the other hand, the state representations are often classified as state lobbyists. This is supported by the fact that a significant part of their work is based on informal networks with EU officials.

See also

literature

  • Steffen Dagger, Till Schröder: flying the flag - national representations in Brussels. in: politics & communication. Issue 23, February 2005. Political publishing house Helios: Berlin 2005. ISSN  1610-5060
  • Martin Große Hüttmann, Michèle Knodt: "Diplomacy with local color": The representations of the German states in Brussels and their tasks in the EU decision-making process . In: European Center for Federalism Research Tübingen (Ed.): Yearbook of Federalism 2006. Federalism, Subsidiarity and Regions in Europe . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 978-3-8329-2147-7 , pp. 595-605.
  • State Representation Rhineland-Palatinate (Hrsg.): Chronicle 60 years State Representation Rhineland-Palatinate , Berlin 2009 ( [1] ).
  • Hans Linketscher: The embassy of Rhineland-Palatinate to the federal government and to the European institutions. In: The representation of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the federal level and the European Union . Berlin 2001.
  • Klemens H. Schrenk: The representations of the states at the federal government , in: Klemens H. Schrenk / Markus Soldner (ed.): Analysis of democratic systems of government. 1st edition, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16309-3 , pp. 359–374.
  • Till Schröder, Mirjam Stegherr: Centers of Power. State offices in Berlin in: politics & communication. Issue 37, June 2006. Helios Media: Berlin, 2006. ISSN  1610-5060
  • Hans H. Stein: Monitoring and influencing European legislation: Policy advice from the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union , in: Steffen Dagger, Michael Kambeck (ed.): Policy advice and lobbying in Brussels . VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007. ISBN 3-531-15388-9 .
  • Kerstin Wittmann-Englert, René Hartmann (Hrsg.): Buildings of the countries. The regional representations in Bonn, Berlin and Brussels , Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2013. ISBN 978-3-89870-796-1 .
  • Wolfgang Zeller: The history of the state representation of Baden-Württemberg in Bonn and its predecessors (1619–1985) . Stuttgart 1985.
  • Burgsmüller, Christian (2003): The German country offices in Brussels - unconstitutional secondary foreign policy or contemporary form of federalism? Zugl .: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2002. Aachen: Shaker (reports from jurisprudence)
  • Schenderlein, Christiane (2015): State representations in the decision-making process of the European Union. Marburg: Tectum

Web links

Commons : State offices  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Participation in European affairs ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal bundesrat.de , accessed on April 27, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesrat.de
  2. Berlin.de ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed on December 15, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin.de
  3. ^ Coalition negotiations 2009
  4. a b c Schenderlein, Christiane: Land representations in the decision-making process of the European Union . Tectum, Marburg 2015, ISBN 3-8288-3566-X .
  5. ^ Burgsmüller, Christian .: The German country offices in Brussels - unconstitutional secondary foreign policy or contemporary form of federalism? Shaker, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-8322-1096-2 .
  6. ^ Stakeholder Register - Home Page. Retrieved September 12, 2017 .