Lower Saxony and Bremen chair state conferences

Politics - Lower Saxony and Bremen chair state conferences

The federal states work together in specialist conferences to coordinate and exchange information in various policy areas. The chairmanship of these conferences, which bring together the relevant senators and ministers from the federal and state governments, rotates annually from one federal state to another. In 2024, Lower Saxony and Bremen will each hold a chair.

CONFERENCE OF YOUTH AND FAMILY MINISTERS:

The responsible Bremen senators want to focus on the topics of inclusion and participation, social space and family orientation, staff recruitment and securing skilled workers. "These three topics are of strategic importance in all areas of child and youth welfare work," says Senator for Social Affairs Claudia Schilling (SPD). "We want to use the Bremen Presidency to drive forward ongoing debates and initiate tangible developments." Senator for Children and Education Sascha Karolin Aulepp (SPD) said that all states and the federal government must make an effort to improve the social participation of children and young people right from the start.

Bremen wants to ensure that children and young people have more opportunities to participate. Minors living in an institution or with foster parents should also be able to participate. According to Bremen, young people should be given a seat on the youth welfare committee, for example. They could then introduce their own topics and be heard on issues that affect them. In the federal state of Bremen, people aged 16 and over are allowed to vote in state and local elections, and the state wants to campaign for other states to lower the voting age if they have not already done so.

New strategies are to be developed for recruiting and securing skilled workers. Shorter qualification paths, lower requirements for formal qualifications, extra-occupational training and the recruitment of immigrants and career changers should help to attract more staff to work with children and young people.

The Conference of Youth and Family Ministers will meet in Bremen in May. There will be meetings at specialist level and several working groups in preparation for and after the conference.

CONFERENCE OF JUSTICE MINISTERS:

At the meetings in spring and fall, the politicians will deal with current issues and challenges in legal policy under the chairmanship of Lower Saxony. As legislative competence for the justice sector mostly lies with the federal government, the federal states use the conference to define common goals and represent the interests of the federal states vis-à-vis the Federal Minister of Justice. The conference program is determined by the federal states, which register topics for the conference and submit proposals for resolutions to be voted on, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice in Hanover. According to the statement, the conference will provide important impetus for the judiciary with its resolutions. Lower Saxony's Minister of Justice, Kathrin Wahlmann, intends to present her priorities at the beginning of the year. The spring conference will be held at the beginning of June in Hanover, the fall conference in November at the Lower Saxony Representation to the Federal Government in Berlin.

Announcement on the chairmanship of the Conference of Youth and Family Affairs Ministers About the Conference of Youth and Family Affairs Ministers About the Conference of Justice Ministers Page of the Conference of Justice Ministers with forwarding to the respective chairing state