The Conference of Minister-Presidents (, MPK) 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. The conference is not a constitutional body, therefore formal agreements between the federal states are fixed in a Staatsvertrag (treaty/compact). 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)

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.

History Formation 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.

Rittersturz Conference 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), debated the Frankfurt Documents and agreed on a partial concurrence, the Koblenz Decisions. They 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.

Later Meetings 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.

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 federal states at the time in the following order: Bavaria Berlin North Rhine-Westphalia Lower Saxony Hesse Rhineland-Palatinate Schleswig-Holstein Baden-Württemberg Bremen Saarland Hamburg The chair of the meeting is rotated on an annual basis among the federal states according to a fixed rotation: Lower Saxony Hesse Saxony Rhineland-Palatinate Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia Baden-Württemberg Brandenburg Bremen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Saarland Hamburg Bavaria Berlin North Rhine-Westphalia

List of chairs PartyName of chairStatePartyName of deputy chairStateDurationHans EhardBavaria1 October 1954 – 30 September 1955Otto SuhrBerlin1 October 1955 – 30 September 1956 ... ... ... Franz Josef StraußBavaria1 October 1987 – 30 September 1988Eberhard DiepgenBerlin1 October 1987 – 30 September 1988Walter MomperBerlin1 October 1988 – 30 September 1989Johannes RauNorth Rhine-Westphalia1 October 1989 – 30 September 1990Gerhard SchröderLower Saxony1 October 1990 – 30 September 1991Hans EichelHesse1 October 1991 – 30 September 1992Kurt BiedenkopfSaxonyHans EichelHesse1 October 1992 – 30 September 1993Rudolf ScharpingRhineland-Palatinate Kurt Biedenkopf Saxony1 October 1993 – 30 September 1994Reinhard HöppnerSaxony-Anhalt1 October 1994 – 30 September 1995Henning Schwarz Schleswig-Holstein Reinhard Höppner Saxony-Anhalt1 October 1995 – 30 September 1996Bernhard VogelThuringia1 October 1996 – 30 September 1997Erwin TeufelBaden-Württemberg1 October 1997 – 30 September 1998Manfred StolpeBrandenburg Erwin Teufel Baden-Württemberg1 October 1998 – 30 September 1999Henning ScherfBremen1 October 1999 – 30 September 2000Harald RingstorffMecklenburg-Vorpommern1 October 2000 – 30 September 2001Peter MüllerSaarland Harald Ringstorff Mecklenburg-Vorpommern1 October 2001 – 30 September 2002Ole von BeustBremen1 October 2002 – 30 September 2003Edmund StoiberBavaria1 October 2003 – 30 September 2004Klaus WowereitBerlinEdmund StoiberBavaria1 October 2004 – 30 September 2005Jürgen RüttgersNorth Rhine-Westphalia Klaus Wowereit Mecklenburg-Vorpommern1 October 2005 – 30 September 2006Christian WulffLower Saxony1 October 2006 – 30 September 2007Roland KochHessen1 October 2007 – 30 September 2008Stanislaw TillichSaxony1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009Kurt BeckRhineland-PalatinateStanislaw TillichSaxony1 October 2009 – 30 September 2010Wolfgang BöhmerSaxony-Anhalt Kurt Beck Rhineland-Palatinate1 October 2010 – 19 April 2011Reiner Haseloff19 April 2011 – 30 September 2011Jürgen RüttgersSchleswig-Holstein1 October 2011 – 12 June 2012Torsten Albig12 June 2012 – 30 September 2012Christine LieberknechtThuringiaTorsten AlbigSchleswig-Holstein1 October 2012 – 30 September 2013Winfried KretschmannBaden-Württemberg Christine Lieberknecht Thuringia1 October 2013 – 30 September 2014Dietmar WoidkeBrandenburg1 October 2014 – 30 September 2015Carsten SielingBremen1 October 2015 – 30 September 2016Erwin SelleringMecklenburg-Vorpommern1 October 2016 – 1 July 2017Manuela Schwesig1 July 2017 – 1 October 2017Annegret Kramp-KarrenbauerSaarland Manuela Schwesig Mecklenburg-Vorpommern1 October 2017 – 28 February 2018Tobias Hans28 February 2018 – 1 March 2018Peter TschentscherHamburg Tobias Hans Saarland1 October 2018 – 28 February 2019Markus SöderBavaria Peter Tschentscher Hamburg1 October 2019 – 28 February 2020 Michael MüllerBavaria Markus Söder Bavaria1 October 2020 – 30 September 2021 Armin LaschetNorth Rhine-Westphalia Michael Müller Berlin1 October 2021 – 25 October 2021Hendrik Wüst25 October 2021 – 21 December 2021Franziska Giffey21 December 2021 – 30 September 2022Stephan WeilLower Saxony Hendrik Wüst North Rhine-Westphalia1 October 2022 – 30 September 2023Boris RheinHesse Stephan Weil Lower Saxony1 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