Monographie Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

Especially the two federal ministries for Environment, Nature
Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety as well as Economic
Cooperation and Development benefit from the
proximity to numerous institutions and NGOs that have their
head office in Bonn or have relocated here. Among these is
the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation
(GIZ), with 17,300 employees worldwide.
UNO city Bonn: 18 institutions with 1,000 employees
One of these institutions deserves particular mention: apart
from Geneva and Vienna, Bonn has developed into the most
important UNO location in Europe. Counting among the
total of 18 UNO institutions that have their head office in
Bonn are, among others, the Climate Secretariat, the Se -
cretariat to Combat Desertification or the volunteer programme
of the United Nations. Meanwhile, when adding
together all UNO institutions, they employ 1,000 people.
Thus, the United Nations has become an important image
and economic factor for the Bonn region. This has slightly
mitigated “the consequences arising from the loss of the
parliamentary residence and seat of government“, as it is
formulated in the Berlin/Bonn law. These losses are to be
“appropriately compensated for” by the “assumption and
establishment of new functions and institutions of national
and international significance in the political, scientific and
cultural sectors, as well as with support by means of the
required restructuring measures.“ One of the sectors in
which the compensation has been realised is “Bonn as a
location for development policy, national, international and
supranational institutions.” The 18 UNO institutions, as well
as numerous other international actors, with a total of more
than 7,000 employees, have actually provided Bonn with
“adequate compensation”.
Jobs in ministries: stopping the “slide effect”
When looking at the distribution of workplaces of the
federal ministries between 2002 and 2015, it can be seen
that the compensation in this area is not as good. Whilst
almost 60 percent of the workplaces were in Bonn in 2002,
the number has continually decreased in the following
years. Already by 2007, it was only half of the amount in
2002, and in 2015 the number had decreased to 36 percent.
Trend: decreasing further. Thus, not only have the Chamber
of Industry and Commerce and a large number of other
regional actors been calling on the federal government to
comply with the Berlin/Bonn laws in the past years but also,
on numerous occasions, the municipal council of the City
of Bonn.
The pressure on the federation has been increased for a
number of months now – and this has been done in the
form of a combined effort. The political representatives of
the City of Bonn, the heads of the Rhein-Sieg and Ahrweiler
district, representatives of the provincial governments of
North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as
members of the Landtag, federal government, and members
of the European Parliament of the region are all pulling
together and acting in concert to secure the future of Bonn
and the region as a federal city. The Bonn senior mayor: “We
stand together, like we did 25 years ago!”
In July 2016, in an unanimously adopted position paper,
they demanded that the Berlin/Bonn law must not be undermined
further, and that binding measures are to be taken
to ensure that the “sliding effect“, which has been observed
to date, is to be stopped. “The Federal City of Bonn – Centre
of Competence for Germany” is the name of the position
paper. In the light of the significance that Bonn has attained
as a UNO location, one could also say: a Centre of Com -
petence for Germany and the world.
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