NOOTS State Treaty: Federal and state governments strengthen networking
A few days ago, the Bundestag passed the new NOOTS State Treaty. Here is what the new legal framework means for the administration.
Networking between the federal and state governments through the NOOTS State Treaty. Source: Pexels
With the ‘National Once-Only Technical System’, the federal and state governments want to create a common digital infrastructure for data exchange between offices and authorities. A few days ago, the new draft law was passed in the Bundestag. Now the states must also approve the project.
"With the NOOTS state treaty, proactive, citizen-oriented administration with a genuine once-only principle is within reach. When government agencies and authorities at the federal level and in the 16 federal states are able to exchange data with each other in the future, citizens, businesses and the administration itself will benefit. Only linked, digital registers enable the rapid processing of applications without media discontinuity, reduce processing errors, save costs and prevent data from having to be re-entered repeatedly. In a recent Bitkom survey, 71 percent of citizens aged 18 and over said they were in favour of authorities exchanging more data with each other so that they do not have to provide the same information over and over again. And 82 percent want authorities to automatically contact them when they are entitled to a service or remind them when, for example, their ID card is about to expire," comments Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst.
Cooperation instead of silo thinking
The NOOTS state treaty is a decisive step towards the development of interoperable, secure and sustainable IT infrastructures that can be used across state borders. This solidarity is essential, particularly in the implementation of the Online Access Act (OZG) and future digital services.
In future, public IT service providers will be able to jointly develop, operate and further develop solutions under the umbrella of the NOOTS agreement – saving resources, improving quality and accelerating digital projects.
However, the state treaty initially only creates the legal basis for a digitalisation push in administration. It is at least as important that the federal and state governments also pull together in practice and quickly build the necessary technical infrastructure together.