Tuesday, February 02, 2021
Foodwatch files a lawsuit
Klöckner is to publish lobby dates
Foodwatch wants to ensure more transparency in the influence of lobbyists on laws of the federal government. The consumer organization demands that Agriculture Minister Klöckner disclose her contacts. The ministry had rejected a corresponding application.
The consumer organization Foodwatch wants to force the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to disclose the lobbying appointments of Minister Julia Klöckner. As Foodwatch announced, the organization filed a lawsuit with the Cologne Administrative Court. The ministry had previously rejected an application by the organization under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to its own information, Foodwatch wants to act against "lack of transparency". Rauna Bindewald from Foodwatch explained that the public has a right to know which lobbyists are influencing laws and initiatives of the federal government and which topics are being discussed. "No more back-room politics," she demanded.
Foodwatch has long been campaigning for the introduction of a lobby register that also fully discloses the meetings of federal ministers. In contrast, the EU commissioners have long been obliged to make their lobbying appointments public, stating the topics discussed, criticized the organization.
The Foodwatch lawsuit concerns Klöckner's official appointments in January 2020 with "external third parties". If the consumer advocates are successful, this could have a signal effect, wrote the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
Appeal to the Freedom of Information Act
In principle, the court must therefore clarify in particular the question of whether the consumer advocates can invoke the Freedom of Information Act. According to Foodwatch, the ministry rejected a request from the consumer organization last August. This was justified on the one hand with the fact that there was such a large number of lobby contacts that "any information" would be suitable "to expose oneself to the accusation of insufficient completeness", explained Foodwatch.
On the other hand, it was argued that "for security reasons" no information could be given, since movement profiles could be derived from the information. Foodwatch described this justification as advanced. Security concerns are incomprehensible, since Foodwatch did not ask for the location of the lobby meetings – and the fact that there are a "large number" of lobby meetings speaks for and not against more transparency.
A spokeswoman for Klöckners stated that the ministry would not comment publicly on details of the ongoing legal proceedings until the proceedings were concluded. The agricultural policy spokeswoman for the left-wing parliamentary group, Kirsten Tackmann, described the disclosure of political decision-making processes as "a prerequisite for trust, participation and control". This transparency is "the core of democracy," she said. Only in this way can "the transformation to sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry succeed and be supported by social majorities".
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