Weekly happenings at the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
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The German government's policies in 2025 show a strong focus on education, sustainability, and human rights.
Education
Education is compulsory from age 6-7, with recent federal efforts focusing on quality standards, more practical teacher training, bilingual education, and increasing digitalization in schools. The OECD has criticized insufficient support for migrant children, and debates are ongoing about policies like a “migration quota” for schools to balance social and language disadvantages. International cooperation continues, for example, via the ‘SHE – Support Her Education’ initiative, funding girls' education in low-income countries.
Start-ups and Sustainability
The German government supports sustainable start-ups globally through the German development agency GIZ, with projects focusing on climate action, renewable energy, poverty reduction, and empowerment, particularly in developing countries. Environmentally, there has been a small decline (1.7%) in total commercial waste in Germany, with efforts ongoing to stabilize emissions and improve waste sorting and recycling rates.
Plastic Waste
Waste management in commercial settings adheres to the German Commercial Waste Ordinance, with substantial proportions of organic, paper, and packaging waste being separately collected and processed. There is evidence of gradual reductions in waste outputs and improved recycling as part of environmental policies.
Skills Development
The government focuses on relevant workforce skills, with practical orientation in teacher training and digital skills inclusion. GIZ projects mention investment in technical and vocational education and training globally.
Human Rights
Germany continues to invest in human rights through initiatives supporting education access, gender equality, and social inclusion in its domestic and international policy frameworks. The federal government's human rights engagement for 2023 and 2024, the situation and implementation of human rights work in Germany, the federal government's engagement for human rights in foreign and development cooperation, and the human rights situation in selected countries are addressed in the "Education in Germany 2022" report.
Company Conversion Policies
There are no explicit recent updates from the retrieved sources specifically on company conversion policies in Germany as of 2025.
Skills Strategy and Start-up Funding
The federal government has launched a skills strategy to attract and secure skilled workers and will provide 10 billion euros for start-ups in their growth phase at KfW. A single-use plastic fund will be established at the Federal Environment Agency, financed by a single-use plastic levy paid by manufacturers.
Human Rights Report
The report sheds light on the topics "human rights and digitization", "climate change and human rights", and "combating sexual abuse". Less than a third of students from disadvantaged social backgrounds achieve the general higher education entrance qualification, compared to around 80 percent of students from better-off families.
Minority Shareholder Rights and Digitally Secure Procedures
The bill unifies the rights of minority shareholders and introduces a digitally secure procedure for involved trade registers to communicate with each other.
Start-up Strategy
The federal government has launched a start-up strategy with ten action fields.
In summary, Germany’s 2025 policies emphasize educational quality and inclusivity, sustainable development with a global outlook, incremental waste reduction and recycling improvement, and strengthening vocational skills tied to sustainability and development goals. Human rights remain integral especially through development cooperation. Specific firm-level company conversion policies were not addressed in the available data.
- The federal government has allocated funds for start-ups in their growth phase, focusing on ventures that may invest in technology sectors, such as artificial intelligence.
- As part of their start-up strategy, the government aims to attract venture-capital investments, particularly to projects that focus on sustainable technologies and the ongoing digitalization in schools.
- In addition to supporting sustainable start-ups globally, the German government also focuses on investing in projects that utilize artificial intelligence to drive innovation in various sectors, including finance and education.
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