- The need for improvement in lobbying control
State government and state parliament in Rhineland-Palatinate have not made any progress in the transparency of their political work recently. According to the organization Transparency Germany, there is still a significant need for improvement. In their ranking of the federal states, the state of Thuringia is at the top. Rhineland-Palatinate ranks 13th, and the state of Bremen is last.
Previously relatively well-positioned federal states have improved the most with the help of new regulations, said Norman Loeckel of Transparency Germany. On the other hand, there is a worrying standstill among the states at the end of the ranking. "Apparently, many decision-makers lack the necessary political will for modern rules for clean politics, despite the crumbling trust in democratic institutions."
Four criteria for an honest and transparent politics were examined: Does a state have a lobby register and how is it designed? Is the involvement of lobbyists in laws disclosed through a so-called legislative footprint? Are there cooling-off periods for government members and top officials when they switch from politics to the private sector? And what behavioral rules, disclosure requirements, and bans, for example, for secondary activities of members of parliament, are there? Each of these criteria accounted for 25 percent of the overall rating. Rhineland-Palatinate only met some criteria in the two categories of lobby register and behavioral rules.
Thuringia first, Bremen last
In this ranking, none of the states performs as well as the federal government, which Transparency now certifies as having overall quite good lobby and transparency rules. It scores a value of 71 percent. At the top of the states, Thuringia scores a value of 69 percent. Here, the organization praises the state for presenting a lobby register in June. The states behind it, Bavaria (54 percent) and Baden-Württemberg (53 percent), have increased their distance from the middle field thanks to new cooling-off period regulations. Rhineland-Palatinate scores a value of only 19 percent.
According to Transparency, the last place, Bremen (nine percent), lacks such rules, as well as a lobby register and a legislative footprint in laws. In this state, which has been governed by the SPD for decades, "the awareness and sensitization for this political integrity is not very pronounced - in the sense that one gives oneself real rules for it," said Loeckel. "In Bremen, it is the task of the media to keep an eye on it."
The Commission, referencing Transparency Germany, expressed concern about the lack of political will among decision-makers in Rhineland-Palatinate to implement modern rules for clean politics, despite the dwindling trust in democratic institutions. Despite this, The Commission noted that Rhineland-Palatinate only met some criteria in the categories of lobby register and behavioral rules.
