When it comes to lobbying, most federal states are stingy when it comes to transparency. A new ranking shows which of them perform particularly poorly.
The anti-corruption organization Transparency International Germany sees little progress in most federal states in terms of regulations for disclosing lobbyists’ influence. In a “lobby ranking” presented on Tuesday, 12 of the 16 federal states were able to improve slightly compared to the last assessment in 2022. Nevertheless, 13 states do not even achieve half of the possible criteria. The federal government continues to perform best.
The organization created the first lobby ranking in 2021, and updated it a year later. The transparency and integrity regulations of the federal government and the federal states are compared with regard to four criteria. The assessment is based on whether a lobby register exists, i.e. a disclosure of which groups or companies influence politics.
Leader Thuringia
Transparency obligations and waiting periods after which retired politicians are allowed to move into the private sector also play a role. The so-called legislative footprint, which includes all of a member of parliament’s lobby contacts during the legislative process, is also taken into account.
The federal government continues to be at the top and performs better than all federal states in the current ranking: it is rated at 71 percent “thanks to what are now generally quite good lobby and transparency rules.” As in 2022, the leader among the federal states is Thuringia, now at 69 percent. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg follow with 54 and 53 percent respectively. These states have been able to increase their distance from the midfield “thanks to new waiting period rules,” it said.
There is a lack of political will
At the very bottom are Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony with 19 percent each, Saxony-Anhalt with 18 percent and Bremen with nine percent. The states at the bottom of the rankings are “at a worrying standstill due to a lack of activity,” says Norman Loeckel of Transparency. There is clearly a lack of political will to create modern rules for clean politics. This is evidenced by the fact that 13 of the 16 federal states do not even meet half of the criteria of the lobby ranking.
Loeckel emphasises: “A large proportion of the federal states therefore offer too little comprehensibility of political decisions for citizens and too many opportunities for potential illegitimate lobby influence.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
