‘Future State Germany”: RLI supports nationwide call for courageous state reform

March 4, 2025 | More than 200 mayors and leaders from administration, politics, business, civil society and science today published the call “For a state of the future – call for courageous state reform”. RLI supports the initiative and calls on other individuals and organisations from politics, administration, business and civil society to join. RLI Managing Directors Kathrin Goldammer and Christine Kühnel are among the first signatories.

Together, the signatories call on the incoming German federal government to implement targeted reforms to make the state more capable of acting, more digital and closer to its citizens. The appeal is intended to send a clear signal to the coalition negotiations: comprehensive state modernization must be a priority.

The appeal says: “The status quo is not an option. The state must become faster, more impact-oriented and more capable of acting – in order to overcome crises, enable social progress and strengthen trust in democracy.”

Key proposals of the call

  • More effective division of tasks in federalism: More room for manoeuvre for municipalities
  • Citizen-oriented, efficient and digital administration
  • Results-oriented use of state funds instead of blanket budgeting
  • Laws that are developed and reviewed in a practical way with municipalities and those affected
  • More attractive working conditions in the public sector to attract talent
  • Partnerships with business, civil society and academia to solve major challenges together

The full appeal and the list of all initial signatories are available at: www.reform-staat.org/zukunftsstaat/

Background
The call was created in the network of Re:Form, an alliance for the state of tomorrow. Re:Form brings together administrative pioneers from the federal, state and local governments. Together, they are testing new instruments and methods for a sustainable administration and developing concrete reform proposals. Re:Form is an initiative of the non-profit organization ProjectTogether and is funded by Stiftung Mercator.