After years of controversial discussions, the new lobby register for more transparency in the political decision-making process will be launched next Saturday. However, it should be sharpened soon. The SPD and the Greens in the Bundestag referred on Thursday to corresponding agreements in the coalition agreement.
“We should start the parliamentary procedure as soon as possible,” said the Green Group leader Britta Haßelmann to dpa. One wants to “get this on the way together promptly”, added the vice-chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese. The organization Transparency International also called for improvements.
more transparency
The publicly accessible lobby register is intended to make visible who has an influence on political decisions and legislation. Professional interest representatives are now obliged to register there by March 1st at the latest. Among other things, they have to provide information about their clients and the personnel and financial expenditure of their lobbying activities at the Bundestag and the federal government. The area of interest and the activity must also be explained. Meetings in ministries should be recorded down to the level of sub-department heads.
Lobbyists are also obliged to adhere to a code of conduct. Their activities should be carried out “on the basis of openness, transparency, honesty and integrity”. Information should never be obtained in an unfair manner, especially through financial incentives. Agreements by which remuneration or the amount thereof is made dependent on the success of the representation of interests are also inadmissible. Lobbyists who do not abide by the rules face a fine of up to 50,000 euros.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung: “I am proud of the starting shot. In future, everyone can read in the lobby register which representatives of interests are active in which political fields, who their clients are and how much money is being spent on them.” Bas also said it might be necessary to sharpen the rules.
Repairs requested
The organization Transparency International vehemently calls for improvements. In particular, it calls for the introduction of a “legislative footprint”, ie a reference in all new laws as to which stakeholders have influenced it. The traffic light coalition agreed to introduce this retrospectively, said the chairman of Transparency Germany, Hartmut Bäumer. “But it depends on what it looks like. We’ll take a closer look at that.” “Completely incomprehensible” are the exceptions for churches, trade unions and municipal associations.
Transparency believes that the register is subordinate to the respective Bundestag President as a misconstruction. “There has to be a neutral instance like the data protection officer, which is not dependent on instructions,” said Bäumer. The register should be kept there and compliance with the rules should be checked. “It has to be an institution that also has a bit of bite.”
Rework
Greens parliamentary leader Haßelmann said: “It is good that we will have a statutory lobby register from January 1st.” In response to high pressure from the public and the opposition, the grand coalition took the first steps towards greater transparency, but they did not go far enough. “Now the Greens, SPD and FDP have agreed to sharpen the lobby register and thus ensure more transparency.”
In addition to the introduction of the “footprint”, it is planned to expand the number of registered interest representatives and to lower the threshold for contacts to be specified in the ministries down to the level of speakers.
The lobby register is kept digitally at the Bundestag. There one reckons with 6000 to 8000 stakeholders who will register. For comparison: the previous public list of associations registered with the Bundestag, which will become obsolete with the new register, contains just 2238 entries.
(jk)