Government: No money for eID advertising, but millions for cannabis education

For many years, experts have been calling for a large-scale advertising campaign considering the continuing reluctance of German citizens to use the electronic identity card (eID) associated with the electronic ID card to bring the online ID card to the people on a larger scale. A fifth of the population (22 percent) has already used the eID function at least once. Nevertheless, Ernst Bürger, Head of the Digital Administration Department at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, regretted last week that the government had again had to cut back on the planned online promotion of the benefits of the digital ID card for next year due to the tight budget situation.

The situation is different when it comes to educating people about the – now partly legal – use of marijuana. "The Federal Ministry of Health's information campaign 'Cannabis: Legal, but...' was launched in August 2023 and has been continued since April 2024 when the Cannabis Act came into force," explains Sabine Dittmar (SPD), Parliamentary State Secretary for Health, in an answer to a question from Markus Reichel, rapporteur for digital identities for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which was made available to heise online. A total of 2 million euros would thus be available for communication measures in 2024 alone. In 2023, the federal government spent a total of just under 1.28 million euros on agency and event costs, as well as media measures. That makes a total of around 3.28 million euros for two years.

CDU criticizes: eID campaign "gone up in smoke"

According to the letter, the corresponding placement costs are distributed as follows: Around 313,000 euros were incurred for outdoor advertising, for example with posters, around 100,000 euros for social media advertising and around 22,000 euros for print advertisements. As the advertising measures for 2024 have not yet been finalized, it is not yet possible to provide a corresponding breakdown of expenditure.

"It is telling that the eID advertising campaign has gone up in smoke in the 2025 budget, while there is enough money for the federal government's cannabis advertising campaign," Reichel complained to heise online. "The priorities are obviously not right." Instead of investing in the digitization of the country, the executive is pursuing "a very controversial drug policy" For the Christian Democrat, one thing is certain: "We need to get the eID in combination with the PIN "among the people" not only because of the health ID, but also considering the soon required European digital wallet. To this end, citizens should come into greater contact with the online ID card now. Practical use cases are therefore needed, "but also information about what is already possible with the eID today".

(nie)