Minister Wadephul introduces major overhaul of German Foreign Office

The German Foreign Office is undergoing a profound restructuring just over half a year after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul took office.

The primary guideline, according to a letter to the employees from the two state secretaries Géza Andreas von Geyr and Bernhard Kotsch, which was also made available to dpa in Berlin on Tuesday, is to increase the office's "effectiveness in the areas of security policy, the international order and economic development and security."

The letter confirmed earlier reports in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, the broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and on the international news website Politico.

The ministry stated that anyone who wants to position themselves effectively for the massive challenges of the 21st century and shape foreign policy driven by security and economic interests must set their own priorities more clearly and boldly.

The actions of the foreign service should be consistently aligned with the foreign and security policy interests and goals of Germany and Europe, it said.

Significant job cuts planned

The Foreign Office has nearly 3,100 employees at its headquarters and about 3,200 in around 230 German foreign missions. In addition, there are almost 5,600 locally employed staff.

The initiated restructuring is also the basis for the mandated reduction of 8% of the positions, von Geyr and Kotsch wrote. This will "lead to the elimination of a significant number of posts."

By the end of the current legislative period of the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, in 2029, around 570 positions, mainly at the headquarters in Berlin, are to be cut.

At the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Berlin, the competencies for managing bilateral relations with countries are to be consolidated into partly newly tailored regional departments: Europe, America, Asia/Pacific, Near and Middle East/Africa.

In a department for security policy, the core competencies in security policy – from Germany's role in NATO, the EU and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to disarmament, and arms export control to cybersecurity – are to be brought under one umbrella.

Foreign Office responding to geopolitical changes

In a department for EU policy and geo-economics, European, foreign economic, energy and climate policy are to be combined.

In addition to tasks in the area of the United Nations and human rights, humanitarian aid is to be integrated into the department for the international order.

On Tuesday, the employees of the foreign service were informed about the plans. The new structure is to be in place by the general transfer date of the Foreign Office next summer.

Von Geyr and Kotsch wrote that it is "probably the largest structural reform of the Foreign Office in decades." With this, they aim to adapt to the developments of recent decades, "but above all to the quite dramatic current trends."

Changes on the continent and in the world are impacting Germany "at high speed. This required a changed way of working."