Page 2: Lobby register entries to be checked more closely

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The information comes from the companies themselves. However, the Bundestag administration wants to impose fines for false entries more quickly in the future: Previously, there was a kind of grace period in which only a few fines were issued. However, anyone who conceals information on lobbyists or even deliberately provides false information, for example on the amount spent on lobbying, must expect to receive unwanted mail from the Bundestag administration in the near future.

But money alone is by no means everything in lobbying: since a legal and subsequent technical update in 2024, the lobby register not only contains information on which lobbyists are trying to influence government business and plans and by what means, but also why. Even if, unlike in other transparency registers, not every meeting has to be published: as soon as statements or expert opinions are submitted to the government or parliament, these must always be published, just like the annual financial statements of companies.

There are therefore corresponding links to every legislative proposal in the lobby register: For example, there are 97 statements and expert opinions on the NIS2 Implementation and Cyber Strengthening Act so far in the system – a treasure trove of data that no other lobby register in the world holds in this structured form.

Data treasure to be made more usable

In its report for the years 2022 to 2024, the parliamentary administration announces that the Bundestag intends to make this treasure trove even more usable in the future: All entries are already available as JavaScript objects and can be used by third parties. In the future, the lobby register is to be supplemented by a genuine interface (API) to the lobby register, which interested parties could then use to set up applications on the register. For example, to create transparency more easily about who is lobbying for which new law or which interest representatives are moving to where.

The so-called revolving door, when MPs or employees also become lobbyists at the same time or later, will also be mapped by the lobby register. The API is to be launched in a test mode this spring and will also enable links to other transparency registers, such as those of the state parliaments.

The fact that the new President of the Bundestag has its own history with a lack of close interest representation should even benefit the lobby register: Considering the expected headlines, it is unlikely to be politically feasible to want to dismantle it in the same way as the Freedom of Information Act in the course of the bureaucracy reduction ideas currently circulating.

(wpl)