Thursday March 25, 2021
Executive footprint is missing
Transparency sees shortcomings in lobby registers
The government coalition wants to adopt a lobby register for the Bundestag. Transparency International, however, sees it as insufficient. A large lobby association is also calling for improvements. And even the SPD is dissatisfied after the Union’s mask scandal.
Before the long controversial introduction of a lobby register, the anti-corruption organization Transparency International criticized the federal government’s draft as inadequate. “We will not get any transparency about the concrete lobbying in the future either, or at most a very thin one,” said the organization’s head of Germany, Hartmut Bäumer, of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. Bäumer criticized the fact that, even after the register was set up, it was not clear which lobbyists had exercised their influence in the drafting of laws. “If the lobby register is as it is now designed, it will have several major shortcomings,” criticized Bäumer.
The chief lobbyist of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), Norbert Theihs, also joined the criticism from Transparency International. There is a long list of exceptions of associations and organizations that do not have to be entered in the register, said Theis. “There are large groups, such as the churches, trade unions, employers’ associations and lawyers, who are not or insufficiently covered by the law,” he said. In an alliance with Transparency International and other well-known associations, the VCI is campaigning for a consistent lobby register.
The Bundestag wants to adopt the lobby register on Thursday. Until the last moment, the SPD and CDU / CSU were still working on the law. The parties also want to draw a conclusion from the Union scandal about the procurement of corona protective masks.
SPD criticizes blockade of the Union
The SPD praised the law as an important step forward, but criticized the Union for blocking even more extensive transparency rules. With the so-called executive footprint, an important point in the law is missing, said Matthias Bartke, SPD negotiator for the transparency law, the Funke newspapers. The executive footprint is about “the publication of all lobbyist contacts and all lobbyist statements on legislation by the federal ministries”.
The footprint would have been an important contribution to creating transparency in the area of legislation, said Bartke. “The Union prevented him. Even after the many scandals of the last few weeks, the principle of the CDU / CSU still seems to apply despite all opposing assertions: Too much transparency is undesirable.”
Nevertheless, the lobby register is in itself a “parliamentary milestone”, said Bartke. In the future, lobbyists would have to provide detailed information about their projects, their clients and financial expenses.
.