- Hamburg in the lobby ranking only in the back seats
Hamburg has achieved only the 12th place out of 16 in the Lobby Ranking 2024 by Transparency International Germany. The ranking evaluates whether a lobby register, legislative footprint, cooling-off period for government members, and disclosure of secondary activities are present, and if so, in what form, the organization announced.
Compared to 2022, the Hanseatic city has improved by one place and three percentage points, but still does not score more than 20 percent of the possible Transparency criteria.
According to the information, Thuringia performed best among the states with 69 percent, followed by Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg with 54 and 53 percent respectively. Transparency International Germany rated Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and the perennial tail-lighter Bremen worse than Hamburg.
In the view of the non-governmental organization, the federal government performs better than all federal states with 71 percent thanks to now relatively good lobby and transparency rules.
Hamburg has indeed improved by 12 points to 44 percent in terms of behavioral rules, but it still lacks both a lobby register and a legislative footprint, keeping it in the lower ranks.
The legislative footprint refers to a detailed and chronological record of the development of a legislative proposal, including the identification of those involved and their contributions.
"Apparently, many decision-makers still lack the necessary political will for modern rules for clean politics, despite the eroding trust in democratic institutions," said Norman Loeckel, co-head of the politics working group of Transparency Germany.
This is evident in the fact that 13 out of 16 federal states do not even meet half of the Lobby Ranking criteria. "A large number of federal states thus offer insufficient traceability of political decisions for citizens and too many opportunities for potential illegitimate lobby influence."
Hamburg needs to establish a lobby register and legislative footprint to improve its lobbying transparency, currently lacking at 44%, as cited by Transparency International Germany. The organization's co-head, Norman Loeckel, highlights that many decision-makers lack the political will for modern rules, resulting in 13 states failing to meet half of the Lobby Ranking criteria.
