The Federal-State Conference (offically: „Conference of the Federal Chancellor with the Heads of Government of the States“) is an unofficial body of the Federal Government and the federal states that was convened for the first time on 12 March 2020 to coordinate measures under the Infection Protection Act (Infektionsschutzgesetz, IfSG) to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany nationwide.
The Federal-State Conference is not a constitutional body, is not involved in federal or state legislation, and cannot issue legally binding regulations. There is no legal basis for the body. The existence of the Federal-State Conference is indirectly made possible by the Basic Law. The federal government and the states can coordinate on measures that fall within the responsibility of the states. The Basic Law does not exclude this. The implementation of the Infection Protection Act, on the basis of which many measures against the COVID-19 pandemic are being taken, falls within the scope of state administration. The resolutions and agreements made during the conference are political declarations of intent with no legal effect. They must be implemented by the federal government or the states in the form of ordinances or laws (Section 32 IfSG, Article 80 Paragraph 4 GG).
The federal-state conferences are organized by the German Chancellery. The group of participants will be determined depending on the main topics of the respective meetings. In addition to the Federal Chancellor and the incumbent heads of government of the states, regular participants also include the head of the Federal Chancellery and the heads of the state chancelleries of the states The members of the Federal Government who are responsible for the subject matter and are affected attend the conferences as appropriate. Expert hearings can take place during the meetings, to which expert scientists and representatives of the Robert Koch Institute and the Charité are invited. The draft resolutions are often coordinated with the chair and co-chair states of the Conference of Ministers-President. The decisions of the Federal-State Conferences are made according to the consensus principle. The Federal Chancellery prepares brief minutes of the meetings, which are subject to confidentiality. The decisions are published..[1]
The Federal-State Conference met for the first time on 12 March 2020 on the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic
The following members of the federal and state governments of the ministries as well as representatives of the ministries at the federal and state level took part in the meetings. The ministry responsible for the subject matter were or will be invited in individual cases.
The following conferences took place up to and including 22 March 2021:
The date scheduled for April 12, 2021 did not take place.
With the entry into force of the Fourth Act to Protect the Population in the Event of an Epidemic Situation of National Significance, uniform protective measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the event of a particular infection (so-called federal emergency brake) were in force nationwide from April 23 to June 30, 2021. In addition, the Federal Government is empowered to issue special regulations for vaccinated, tested and comparable persons by means of a legal ordinance. This legal ordinance requires the approval of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The draft regulation was discussed at a federal-state conference on 26 April 2021;[3] the regulation came into force on 9 May 2021.
As a result of the vaccination progress, the frequency of federal-state conferences decreased. Further dates from May 2021:
In its ruling of June 30, 2022, the Berlin Administrative Court ordered the Federal Chancellery to release minutes of meetings from 2020 to the Berlin Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act.