Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport


In Austrian politics, the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport is the ministry in charge of arts, culture, public employment law, civil service job training, civil service staff representation, administration management in general, and sport.

History

Even though the Republic of Austria has always had a large public sector and a considerable number of career civil servants, the country does not usually maintain a dedicated civil service ministry. Traditionally, the interest of Austria's civil servants were protected by their strong union and by the fact that civil servants were overrepresented among the upper ranks of every major political party. Public employment policy was set, and public employment law written, by the Chancellery and the Ministry of Finance.
A precursor of the current Ministry called the Ministry of Public Services and Sports was established by the Schüssel I cabinet in 2000, then unceremoniously disestablished by the Schüssel II cabinet in 2003. Its responsibilities were attached to the Chancellery. The Ministry was resurrected by the First Kurz cabinet in 2018 as Federal Ministry of the Civil Service and Sport. On 29 January 2020, it was renamed Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport by the Second Kurz government.

Responsibilities

Structure

Since January 2020, the ministry consists of the Minister and his or her personal staff, the office of the general secretary, and four departments:
The Minister and his or her staff are political appointees; the general secretary and the section heads are career civil servants.

Ministers