Conference of Minister-Presidents explained

The Conference of Minister-Presidents (de|Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz, MPK) ^[1] is a committee formed by the sixteen States of Germany (Bundesländer) to coordinate policy in areas that fall within the sole jurisdiction of the Länder, e.g. broadcasting.^[2] The conference is not a constitutional body, therefore formal agreements between the federal states are fixed in a Staatsvertrag (treaty/compact).^[2] Since the MPK itself is not an official constitutional body, its meetings are purely informal, coordinating in nature. Similar bodies also exist at the level of the specialist ministers (such as the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs)^[3]

The first meeting of the conference took place in 8–10 July 1948, preceding the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany were coordinated by the Federal-State Conference until 2021.^[4]

History

The first meeting of the minister-presidents of all German states after the Second World War took place in Munich at the beginning of June 1947. However, the representatives of the states of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Margraviate of Brandenburg left the conference right at the beginning of the discussions because they were unable to get their demand for the immediate formation of a German central administration accepted. The West German prime ministers then continued the conference alone.^[5]

The meeting of the heads of government of the states of the three western occupation zones from 8 to 10 July 1948 in Koblenz is considered to be the "actual birth of the Conference of Prime Ministers" (even before the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany). This conference, which went down in history as the Rittersturz Conference (named after the meeting venue, the Hotel Rittersturz), decided to set up the Parliamentary Council to draft the Basic Law and thus paved the way for the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Since 1954 the Conference of Minister-Presidents has been a permanent institution. The first MPK chairman was the then Bavarian Prime Minister Hans Ehard. Since reunification, the five new states have also taken part in the conference. In autumn 1992, an eastern state - Saxony - took over the chairmanship for the first time.

Constitutional basis

Unlike the Bundesrat, the Conference of Prime Ministers is not a constitutional body and is not involved in federal or state legislation. Its decisions are therefore not legally binding and may first have to be implemented through legislative procedures in the individual states. The basis for this is federalism in Germany (Article 20 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law), according to which the states are independent member states of the Federal Republic of Germany. This allows each state to shape its own areas of competence independently (Articles 30, 70, 83 of the Basic Law) and to cooperate with other states in doing so. In order not to impair the powers of the Bundesrat, the Conference of Prime Ministers decided on December 17, 1992 that a matter may not be discussed in a Conference of Ministers (Presidents) if it is the subject of deliberations in the Bundesrat.^[6]

Organisation and functioning

The Conference of Minister-Presidents takes place four times a year. In summer and December, the heads of government of the states meet for a meeting with the Federal Chancellor after the MPK. If there is a particular need, additional special conferences are held. This has been the case for example for the federalism reform and the equalization payments to the states. The Conference of Minister-Presidents is prepared by the heads of the state and senate chancelleries of the states in appropriate conferences (CdS conferences). If the head of government of the presiding state is personally unable to attend an MPK, a member of the state government with ministerial rank, usually the head of the state or senate chancellery, takes over his place.

Topics of the discussions in recent years have been European policy, federalism reform, federal-state financial relations, media and education policy. Special topics are dealt with in confidential rounds of discussions, the so-called fireside chats. Only the heads of government take part in these discussions, without their staff.

Decisions always had to be made unanimously until the end of 2004. This consensus principle was relaxed during the discussions on federalism reform in order to strengthen the ability of the federal states to act. Since the end of 2004, decisions have only required the approval of at least 13 states. Exceptions to this are the rules of procedure, budgetary matters and the creation of community institutions. The principle of unanimity still applies here. The prime ministers of the A states and those of the B states usually hold separate preliminary discussions before the conference in order to determine the negotiating position.

The Conference of Minister-Presidents also proposes a list of 21 of the 24 German members (and the same number of deputies) of the European Committee of the Regions to the federal government, which then proposes the full list of elected representatives to the EU Council of Ministers for appointment for the five-year term of office.

Change of chairmanship

The chairmanship of the Conference of Minister-Presidents changes annually according to an agreed order. The chairman is the Prime Minister of the respective state.

A separate regulation concerns the co-chairmanship as coordinator and spokesperson of the politically competing group of states (A and B states) in the traditionally concluding press conferences of the MPK. If the MPK chairmanship changes and there is a transition from A state to B state (or vice versa), the outgoing Prime Minister remains co-chairman of his group of states until the MPK chairmanship falls back to his own group of states. For example, after the MPK chairmanship passed from Berlin to North Rhine-Westphalia in 2005, MP Klaus Wowereit was co-chairman of the social democratic-led A states for a further 4 years (chairmanship by the B states NW, NI, HE, SN) until he was replaced by MP Kurt Beck (Rhineland-Palatinate) in 2009.

Until reunification in 1990, the presidency rotated between the eleven countries at the time in the following order:

1. Bavaria
2. Berlin
3. North Rhine-Westphalia
4. Lower Saxony
5. Hesse
6. Rhineland-Palatinate
7. Schleswig-Holstein
8. Baden-Württemberg
9. Bremen
10. Saarland
11. Hamburg

The chair of the meeting is rotated on an annual basis among the federal states according to a fixed rotation:^[2]

1. Lower Saxony
2. Hesse
3. Saxony
4. Rhineland-Palatinate
5. Saxony-Anhalt
6. Schleswig-Holstein
7. Thuringia
8. Baden-Württemberg
9. Brandenburg
10. Bremen
11. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
12. Saarland
13. Hamburg
14. Bavaria
15. Berlin
16. North Rhine-Westphalia

List of chairs

Party		Name of chair	State	Party		Name of deputy chair	State	Duration
		Hans Ehard	Bavaria					1 October 1954–30 September 1955
		Otto Suhr	Berlin					1 October 1955–30 September 1956
	...	...	...
		Franz Josef Strauß	Bavaria					1 October 1987–30 September 1988
		Eberhard Diepgen	Berlin					1 October 1987–30 September 1988
		Walter Momper	Berlin					1 October 1988–30 September 1989
		Johannes Rau	North Rhine-Westphalia					1 October 1989–30 September 1990
		Gerhard Schröder	Lower Saxony					1 October 1990–30 September 1991
		Hans Eichel	Hesse					1 October 1991–30 September 1992
		Kurt Biedenkopf	Saxony			Hans Eichel	Hesse	1 October 1992–30 September 1993
		Rudolf Scharping	Rhineland-Palatinate			Kurt Biedenkopf	Saxony	1 October 1993–30 September 1994
		Reinhard Höppner	Saxony-Anhalt					1 October 1994–30 September 1995
		Henning Schwarz	Schleswig-Holstein			Reinhard Höppner	Saxony-Anhalt	1 October 1995–30 September 1996
		Bernhard Vogel	Thuringia					1 October 1996–30 September 1997
		Erwin Teufel	Baden-Württemberg					1 October 1997–30 September 1998
		Manfred Stolpe	Brandenburg			Erwin Teufel	Baden-Württemberg	1 October 1998–30 September 1999
		Henning Scherf	Bremen					1 October 1999–30 September 2000
		Harald Ringstorff	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern					1 October 2000–30 September 2001
		Peter Müller	Saarland			Harald Ringstorff	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	1 October 2001–30 September 2002
		Ole von Beust	Bremen					1 October 2002–30 September 2003
		Edmund Stoiber	Bavaria					1 October 2003–30 September 2004
		Klaus Wowereit	Berlin			Edmund Stoiber	Bavaria	1 October 2004–30 September 2005
		Jürgen Rüttgers	North Rhine-Westphalia			Klaus Wowereit	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	1 October 2005–30 September 2006
		Christian Wulff	Lower Saxony					1 October 2006–30 September 2007
		Roland Koch	Hessen					1 October 2007–30 September 2008
		Stanislaw Tillich	Saxony					1 October 2008–30 September 2009
		Kurt Beck	Rhineland-Palatinate			Stanislaw Tillich	Saxony	1 October 2009–30 September 2010
		Wolfgang Böhmer	Saxony-Anhalt			Kurt Beck	Rhineland-Palatinate	1 October 2010–19 April 2011
		Reiner Haseloff						19 April 2011-30 September 2011
		Jürgen Rüttgers	Schleswig-Holstein					1 October 2011–12 June 2012
		Torsten Albig						12 June 2012–30 September 2012
		Christine Lieberknecht	Thuringia			Torsten Albig	Schleswig-Holstein	1 October 2012–30 September 2013
		Winfried Kretschmann	Baden-Württemberg			Christine Lieberknecht	Thuringia	1 October 2013–30 September 2014
		Dietmar Woidke	Brandenburg					1 October 2014–30 September 2015
		Carsten Sieling	Bremen					1 October 2015–30 September 2016
		Erwin Sellering	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern					1 October 2016–1 July 2017
		Manuela Schwesig						1 July 2017–1 October 2017
		Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer	Saarland			Manuela Schwesig	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	1 October 2017–28 February 2018
		Tobias Hans						28 February 2018–1 March 2018
		Peter Tschentscher	Hamburg			Tobias Hans	Saarland	1 October 2018–28 February 2019
		Markus Söder	Hamburg			Peter Tschentscher	Hamburg	1 October 2019–28 February 2020
		Michael Müller	Bavaria			Markus Söder	Bavaria	1 October 2020–30 September 2021
		Armin Laschet	North Rhine-Westphalia			Michael Müller	Berlin	1 October 2021–25 October 2021
		Hendrik Wüst						25 October 2021–21 December 2021
						Franziska Giffey		21 December 2021–30 September 2022
		Stephan Weil	Lower Saxony			Hendrik Wüst	North Rhine-Westphalia	1 October 2022–30 September 2023
		Boris Rhein	Hesse			Stephan Weil	Lower Saxony	1 October 2023–30 September 2024

See also

• Executive federalism
• Minister president (Germany)
• Federal-State Conference (Germany)
• Conference of State Governors (Austria)
• Conference of the Cantonal Governments, Switzerland

References

1. Web site: Sector-specific Conferences of Ministers. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716141030/http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_171/nn_11008/sid_DB9371AF2DFF5230C842E39E0D5E76CD/nsc_true/EN/national-en/fachministerkonf-en/fachministerkonf-en-inhalt.html?__nnn=true. dead. July 16, 2011.
2. Web site: Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz . 2024-05-21 . Baden-Württemberg.de . en.
3. Web site: Thema: Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz . 2021-10-01 . Government of North Rhine-Westphalia . 2024-09-02 . 2024-06-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240611154006/https://www.land.nrw/themen/ministerpraesidentenkonferenz .
4. Web site: Bund-Länder-Konferenzen zur Corona-Pandemie . 2021-02-08 . . 2024-09-02 .
5. Web site: Die Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz . 2015 . . 2024-09-02 .
6. Book: Augsberg, Steffen . 2014 . Gesetzgebung: Rechtsetzung durch Parlamente und Verwaltungen sowie ihre gerichtliche Kontrolle . C.F. Müller Verlag .