Abitur Hessen Politik und Wirtschaft 2022 · GK · bilingual Englisch

Material

Christian Reiermann: Stimulus measures have helped German economy buck 1 the Corona Crisis (2020)

1 The stimulus policies being pursued by Economics Minister Peter Altmaier and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to curb the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 are not unlike a game of extremely high-stakes poker. They have funneled hundreds of billions of euros into a wide range of rescue and bailout measures - in the belief that they will have the desired effect.

[...]

5 Altmaier and Scholz believe that government policies were a significant reason for this positive development, and they do indeed have a few arguments on their side. Berlin reacted quickly and decisively to the crisis and mobilized more money, as a share of GDP, than any other country in the world. More than 1 trillion euros were made available for emergency loans, guarantees and direct aid - around one-third of the country's annual gross domestic product (GDP).

10 For the economic stimulus program alone, the German government has earmarked 2 130 billion euros for this year and next. The greatest share of that money is expected to be doled out by the end of this year.

It appears to be working. In June, the German economy recorded the highest month-on-month increase in exports in 30 years, with industrial orders jumping by 28 percent. Furthermore, consumer spending is recovering particularly strongly, with retail sales in May and June already back to pre-crisis levels.

15 [...]

Economics is not an exact science. Economists are at loggerheads 3 when it comes to many questions, but there is broad consensus on the basic assessment of the German rescue program. The scale and determination of the programs made a major contribution to the fact that an even deeper slump was avoided.

20 The government's attempt to stabilize the income of the German people is considered a success. Measures including expanding the government-subsidized work furlough program 4 to an unprecedented extent. The government provided generous grants to small businesses and self-employed people whose revenues collapsed as a result of the lockdown.

25 The result has been rather incredible. Although gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by almost 10 percent during the second quarter, disposable incomes fell by only 0.8 percent. [...]

Lars Feld, chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the federal government on economic issues, is also full of praise for the policy action taken. The council specifically singled out the moderate increase in unemployment - of just 600,000 - as a particularly notable success. "That's relatively low considering the collapse," he says. Germany has fared especially well, he says, in comparison to the United States, where several million jobs have been lost.

30 [...]

But not all of the expensive instruments for fighting the crisis have worked as intended. Take, for example, the VAT (sales tax) reduction. That measure, which runs through the end of the year, was intended to stimulate consumption. The Institute for Macroeconomics and Economic Research, which

35 has close links with Germany's labor unions, found in a survey that only a quarter of consumers were prepared to make additional purchases as a result. The reason: Many suspect that retailers haven't lowered their prices to reflect the change.

[...]

38 Even less effective than the reduction in the VAT has been the bridge loans for small- to medium-sized businesses, because few companies are taking them. The German government earmarked 25 billion euros for this program, but companies have so far only taken out 700 million euros in such loans.

40 Other projects still have to be approved by Brussels, and the delays have been problematic. It is quite possibly 5 that the barriers will only be removed once that money is no longer needed because the economy has already largely recovered. "The federal government runs the risk that many of its measures will have a pro-cyclical effect," warns Feld. "This applies particularly to the planned infrastructure measures" - including, for example, 5G infrastructure or hydrogen technology. These initiatives require considerable lead time because they are subject to sometimes lengthy approval procedures. It's possible that they won't be implemented until the next upswing is already in full swing.

50 The respected Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) has warned that a number of these measures could even prove harmful. Many of them, they argue, are simply subsidies that help cement outdated and uncompetitive structures at the government's expense.

52 Researchers are forecasting that the stimulus package will increase subsidies by 72.6 billion euros. Of that amount, 4.4 billion euros would be downright harmful - the funds for increasing purchase premiums for electric cars, for example. Researchers criticize the fact that the state is unilaterally promoting a certain technology at the expense of alternatives through that premium.

1 to buck – to resist

2 to earmark – sth. will be used for a special purpose

3 to be at loggerheads – to be in conflict with someone

4 work furlough program – Kurzarbeit

5 possibly – possible

Christian Reiermann: Stimulus measures have bucked the corona crisis, in: Spiegel online, 08.09.2020, URL: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-v-shaped-recovery-german-stimulus-measures-have-bucked-the-corona-crisis-a-84685ddd-38d0-47ba-8c0b-5364c5e6f028 (abgerufen am 12.07.2021).

Aufgaben

1

Summarize the text. (Material)

(30 BE)

2

Put the stimulus measures taken by the German government during the coronavirus pandemic (Material) into the context of major economic theories.

(40 BE)

Material

Christian Reiermann: Stimulus measures have helped German economy buck 1 the Corona Crisis (2020)

1 The stimulus policies being pursued by Economics Minister Peter Altmaier and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to curb the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 are not unlike a game of extremely high-stakes poker. They have funneled hundreds of billions of euros into a wide range of rescue and bailout measures - in the belief that they will have the desired effect.

[...]

5 Altmaier and Scholz believe that government policies were a significant reason for this positive development, and they do indeed have a few arguments on their side. Berlin reacted quickly and decisively to the crisis and mobilized more money, as a share of GDP, than any other country in the world. More than 1 trillion euros were made available for emergency loans, guarantees and direct aid - around one-third of the country's annual gross domestic product (GDP).

10 For the economic stimulus program alone, the German government has earmarked 2 130 billion euros for this year and next. The greatest share of that money is expected to be doled out by the end of this year.

It appears to be working. In June, the German economy recorded the highest month-on-month increase in exports in 30 years, with industrial orders jumping by 28 percent. Furthermore, consumer spending is recovering particularly strongly, with retail sales in May and June already back to pre-crisis levels.

15 [...]

Economics is not an exact science. Economists are at loggerheads 3 when it comes to many questions, but there is broad consensus on the basic assessment of the German rescue program. The scale and determination of the programs made a major contribution to the fact that an even deeper slump was avoided.

20 The government's attempt to stabilize the income of the German people is considered a success. Measures including expanding the government-subsidized work furlough program 4 to an unprecedented extent. The government provided generous grants to small businesses and self-employed people whose revenues collapsed as a result of the lockdown.

25 The result has been rather incredible. Although gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by almost 10 percent during the second quarter, disposable incomes fell by only 0.8 percent. [...]

Lars Feld, chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the federal government on economic issues, is also full of praise for the policy action taken. The council specifically singled out the moderate increase in unemployment - of just 600,000 - as a particularly notable success. "That's relatively low considering the collapse," he says. Germany has fared especially well, he says, in comparison to the United States, where several million jobs have been lost.

30 [...]

But not all of the expensive instruments for fighting the crisis have worked as intended. Take, for example, the VAT (sales tax) reduction. That measure, which runs through the end of the year, was intended to stimulate consumption. The Institute for Macroeconomics and Economic Research, which

35 has close links with Germany's labor unions, found in a survey that only a quarter of consumers were prepared to make additional purchases as a result. The reason: Many suspect that retailers haven't lowered their prices to reflect the change.

[...]

38 Even less effective than the reduction in the VAT has been the bridge loans for small- to medium-sized businesses, because few companies are taking them. The German government earmarked 25 billion euros for this program, but companies have so far only taken out 700 million euros in such loans.

40 Other projects still have to be approved by Brussels, and the delays have been problematic. It is quite possibly 5 that the barriers will only be removed once that money is no longer needed because the economy has already largely recovered. "The federal government runs the risk that many of its measures will have a pro-cyclical effect," warns Feld. "This applies particularly to the planned infrastructure measures" - including, for example, 5G infrastructure or hydrogen technology. These initiatives require considerable lead time because they are subject to sometimes lengthy approval procedures. It's possible that they won't be implemented until the next upswing is already in full swing.

50 The respected Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) has warned that a number of these measures could even prove harmful. Many of them, they argue, are simply subsidies that help cement outdated and uncompetitive structures at the government's expense.

52 Researchers are forecasting that the stimulus package will increase subsidies by 72.6 billion euros. Of that amount, 4.4 billion euros would be downright harmful - the funds for increasing purchase premiums for electric cars, for example. Researchers criticize the fact that the state is unilaterally promoting a certain technology at the expense of alternatives through that premium.

1 to buck – to resist

2 to earmark – sth. will be used for a special purpose

3 to be at loggerheads – to be in conflict with someone

4 work furlough program – Kurzarbeit

5 possibly – possible

Christian Reiermann: Stimulus measures have bucked the corona crisis, in: Spiegel online, 08.09.2020, URL: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-v-shaped-recovery-german-stimulus-measures-have-bucked-the-corona-crisis-a-84685ddd-38d0-47ba-8c0b-5364c5e6f028 (abgerufen am 12.07.2021).

3

Comment on to what extent the stimulus measures taken by the German government (Material) can be criticized as concessions to lobbyism.

(30 BE)

Vorschlag B: China's growing global influence and international trade

Material

Michel Penke: How China’s mines rule the market of critical raw materials (2021)

1 The European Union has identified 30 raw materials as critical for industry. Their supply is endangered by conflicts, a weak rule of law and trade monopolies. And one nation controls more than all others.

5 [...] They [cobalt and germanium] are all both rare and vital for the production of everyday items like smartphones, solar panels and electric vehicles.

6 The European Union has identified 30 such resources—which cannot currently be substituted—as crucial for the defense and renewables sectors, as well as in the manufacture of robotics, drones and batteries. Unlike steel, cement and oil, the global production of many critical raw materials amounts to just a few thousand tons per year. And it is controlled by only a handful of countries.

10 Though not readily available across the globe, there are several critical resources hot spots. South Africa’s north has reserves of platinum and vanadium, while Congo is home to cobalt deposits and the United States extracts beryllium. China, meanwhile, has mining access to two-thirds of the different 30 critical raw materials, including antimony, baryte and rare earth elements.

14 The unequal geographical spread of critical raw materials is reflected in market share. China is one of the top three suppliers of many of the elements, way ahead of the United States and Russia. This dominance is partly attributable to deposits across China itself, but it is also down to deliberate planning.

18 “China has strategically developed mining and processing. [...] These days it’s the Shanghai Metal Exchange that’s important, not the London Metal Exchange,” said Hanns Günther Hilpert, head of the Asia Research Division of the German think tank 1 SWP. [...]

21 “The country has built a know-how that is unique worldwide,” said Hilpert. “Even when alternative deposits are mined, most of the processing take place in China—before being exported abroad again.”

24 That makes China both the biggest producer of critical raw materials, but also the leading importer of those mined elsewhere. To secure yet further direct access, Chinese companies invest in foreign mines, extracting cobalt in Congo or platinum in South Africa. It’s a strategy Beijing applies to resources China lacks, as well as to those it has in abundance 2 —such as fluorspar or silicon metals used in solar panels.

28 According to Hilpert, besides controlling supply chains of critical raw materials, China’s dominance has been facilitated by lax regulations that allowed it to neglect environmental follow-up costs and pay low wages. But this dominance is also obtained by the use of export restrictions and by offering subsidies for companies to build factories—all to promote its processing industry and technology providers.

33 This allows China to fight off competitors. “Ultimately, the Chinese have been able to force other suppliers out of the market with ruinous price competition,” Hilpert said.

35 The 10 biggest suppliers cannot keep pace, and their collective share of global production is just 35%, as opposed to China’s 45%.

37 China’s dominance isn’t the only concern for future supply.

38 Many materials are mined in Asian or African countries characterized by civil unrest, corruption or authoritarian leadership. Cobalt is a prime example. Almost 60% of global supply originates from Congo, where internal conflict has been rife 3 for decades. [...]

41 Experts agree their future supply could be affected by nepotism 4, undemocratic leadership, trading restrictions, civil unrest or even inner-state military conflicts.

43 The possible consequences for the processing industry include disrupted supply chains, high downtime costs for halted production and boycott calls by consumers when products are publicly associated with human rights violations.

46 Such risks affect producers and buyers alike. Industrialized economies suffer from a lack of resources for future technologies, while mining nations stand to lose income and paid jobs.

48 In 2019, for example, the Swiss mining company Glencore announced the closure of its Mutanda Mine in southern Congo due to higher taxes, rising costs, a lower world market price of cobalt and the increased pressure to stop importing the metal from a war zone. Thousands of workers could lose their jobs. However, these plans have not yet been implemented. The mine is “on maintenance,” Glencore said.

53 In its capacity as a buyer, the EU is currently developing a new strategy to ensure “open and unrestricted trade in raw materials,” said a spokesperson for the defense industry and space division at the European Commission.

56 “When other countries restrict the export of critical raw materials, the EU takes the necessary action to get the export restrictions removed,” the spokesperson said.

58 In 2012, Europe, the US and Japan won a case brought to the World Trade Organization (WTO), that forced China to drop export restrictions on critical raw materials.

60 In February of this year [2021], following a request by the EU, the WTO established a panel to assess Indonesia’s export restrictions on raw materials.

62 To reduce its dependency on external suppliers, the EU is pursuing two main approaches. According to its 2020 action plan, the bloc 5 proposes diversifying the sources of its raw materials—including [...] the use of deposits within the EU. The EU Commission spokesperson said member states have been asked to identify mining and processing projects within their territories “that can be operational by 2025.” [...]

67 The second main approach is to “reduce dependency through circular use of resources.” It’s disputed whether recycling will have a significant impact, or whether industries will ultimately have to find substitutes.

1 think tank – Denkfabrik, Ideenschmiede, Forschungsinstitut

2 abundance – plenty, affluence

3 rife – widespread

4 nepotism – Vetternwirtschaft

5 the bloc – here: the EU

Michel Penke: How China’s mines rule the market of critical raw materials, in: Deutsche Welle, 13.04.2021.

1

Summarize the text. (Material) (30 BE)

2

Examine political and economic consequences of China’s domination of the raw material market. Take the material into consideration. (40 BE)

3

Discuss strategies international economic actors could adopt to reduce their dependency on external suppliers such as China. (30 BE)

Material

Will Putin save Lukashenko? (2020)

“First they stole our country. [Now] they are stealing the best of us.” So said Svetlana Alexievich, a Nobel prize-winning writer, of the rulers of her native Belarus. Since mass protests erupted after a blatantly rigged presidential election in August, riot police and plain-clothes goons 1 have been beating up peaceful demonstrators. On September 7th, in broad daylight, men without uniforms abducted 5 Maria Kolesnikova, one of three women leading the protests and the only one still inside the country. They threw her into a van and drove her to the border with Ukraine, like gangsters trying to drive a rival off their turf. Defiantly, she ripped up her passport, so she could not cross. She is now in detention in Belarus. [...]

Ms Kolesnikova is being persecuted not only for her role in the protests but also, more importantly, 10 because she is the leading member of the National Co-ordinating Council. This body was launched by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who probably won the election on August 9th but who has been forced into exile. It aims to negotiate a peaceful end to the unpopular dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko. He has refused to negotiate, just as he has refused to talk to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

He prefers to talk to Vladimir Putin, the president of next-door Russia, who props up his regime. 15 Mr Putin, whose own challenger, Alexei Navalny, has been poisoned by a nerve agent 2, has endorsed Mr Lukashenko’s rigged election and his use of violence. He has warned the West not to meddle in Belarus, which Russia has subsidised for many years and with which it has a common market. At Mr Lukashenko’s request, Mr Putin has pledged to support Belarus with his own law-enforcers if necessary. He has also dispatched propagandists to run its airwaves 3 and consultants to manage the 20 crisis. Russia’s prime minister and finance minister have flown to Minsk to talk about an economic rescue package.

The West’s reaction has been divided, slow and weak. The Baltic states and Poland, which have had first-hand experience of Soviet occupation, have imposed sanctions on Mr Lukashenko and offered support to the Belarusian opposition. Germany and France, however, appear to have heeded 25 Mr Putin’s warning to stay out of the dispute. The European Union has yet to impose any sanctions on Mr Lukashenko, though some measures are under discussion. Such caution about Belarus contrasts with bolder statements about Mr Navalny’s poisoning from Mrs Merkel. She has pointed a finger at the Kremlin and raised the possibility of cancelling Nord Stream 2, a huge and controversial gas-pipeline project.

30 The eu should speak up loudly about Belarus, and with one voice. Simply warning Mr Putin against sending troops is not enough. A Russian invasion was unlikely from the start. Instead, Mr Putin wants the tottering 4 Belarusian tyrant to integrate his country more deeply with Russia, giving Mr Putin control over its defence, internal security and certain key economic assets. In return, Mr Lukashenko might get an honorary post in Moscow some day. Russia might be hoping for a soft Anschluss. That 35 would be no more acceptable than Mr Putin’s annexation of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula, in 2014.

Belarusians have woken up. They will not submit quietly to Moscow’s rule and they continue to protest in vast numbers. They deserve support. The eu should impose personal sanctions against Mr Lukashenko and his henchmen 5. And it must state that any agreement with Russia signed by Mr Lukashenko on behalf of the people who have clearly rejected him has no legal basis or validity. 40 No one should recognise a dodgy deal struck by a desperate despot who would sell his country to save himself.

1 goons – people hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents

2 nerve agent – nerve gas

3 to run airwaves – to control the radio stations

4 to totter – to move unsteadily

5 henchmen – Handlanger

Will Putin save Lukashenko?, in: The Economist (Online-Ausgabe), 12.09.2020, URL: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/09/12/will-putin-save-lukashenko (abgerufen 10.07.2021).

Hinweis

In der vorliegenden Quelle wird kein Autor genannt.

Aufgaben

1

Summarize the text. (Material)

[30 BE]

2

Examine challenges of international politics against the background of political and economic interests. You may refer to the conflict in Belarus (Material) or another conflict dealt with in class.

[40 BE]

Material

Will Putin save Lukashenko? (2020)

“First they stole our country. [Now] they are stealing the best of us.” So said Svetlana Alexievich, a Nobel prize-winning writer, of the rulers of her native Belarus. Since mass protests erupted after a blatantly rigged presidential election in August, riot police and plain-clothes goons 1 have been beating up peaceful demonstrators. On September 7th, in broad daylight, men without uniforms abducted 5 Maria Kolesnikova, one of three women leading the protests and the only one still inside the country. They threw her into a van and drove her to the border with Ukraine, like gangsters trying to drive a rival off their turf. Defiantly, she ripped up her passport, so she could not cross. She is now in detention in Belarus. [...]

Ms Kolesnikova is being persecuted not only for her role in the protests but also, more importantly, 10 because she is the leading member of the National Co-ordinating Council. This body was launched by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who probably won the election on August 9th but who has been forced into exile. It aims to negotiate a peaceful end to the unpopular dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko. He has refused to negotiate, just as he has refused to talk to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

He prefers to talk to Vladimir Putin, the president of next-door Russia, who props up his regime. 15 Mr Putin, whose own challenger, Alexei Navalny, has been poisoned by a nerve agent 2, has endorsed Mr Lukashenko’s rigged election and his use of violence. He has warned the West not to meddle in Belarus, which Russia has subsidised for many years and with which it has a common market. At Mr Lukashenko’s request, Mr Putin has pledged to support Belarus with his own law-enforcers if necessary. He has also dispatched propagandists to run its airwaves 3 and consultants to manage the 20 crisis. Russia’s prime minister and finance minister have flown to Minsk to talk about an economic rescue package.

The West’s reaction has been divided, slow and weak. The Baltic states and Poland, which have had first-hand experience of Soviet occupation, have imposed sanctions on Mr Lukashenko and offered support to the Belarusian opposition. Germany and France, however, appear to have heeded 25 Mr Putin’s warning to stay out of the dispute. The European Union has yet to impose any sanctions on Mr Lukashenko, though some measures are under discussion. Such caution about Belarus contrasts with bolder statements about Mr Navalny’s poisoning from Mrs Merkel. She has pointed a finger at the Kremlin and raised the possibility of cancelling Nord Stream 2, a huge and controversial gas-pipeline project.

30 The eu should speak up loudly about Belarus, and with one voice. Simply warning Mr Putin against sending troops is not enough. A Russian invasion was unlikely from the start. Instead, Mr Putin wants the tottering 4 Belarusian tyrant to integrate his country more deeply with Russia, giving Mr Putin control over its defence, internal security and certain key economic assets. In return, Mr Lukashenko might get an honorary post in Moscow some day. Russia might be hoping for a soft Anschluss. That 35 would be no more acceptable than Mr Putin’s annexation of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula, in 2014.

Belarusians have woken up. They will not submit quietly to Moscow’s rule and they continue to protest in vast numbers. They deserve support. The eu should impose personal sanctions against Mr Lukashenko and his henchmen 5. And it must state that any agreement with Russia signed by Mr Lukashenko on behalf of the people who have clearly rejected him has no legal basis or validity. 40 No one should recognise a dodgy deal struck by a desperate despot who would sell his country to save himself.

1 goons – people hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents

2 nerve agent – nerve gas

3 to run airwaves – to control the radio stations

4 to totter – to move unsteadily

5 henchmen – Handlanger

Will Putin save Lukashenko?, in: The Economist (Online-Ausgabe), 12.09.2020, URL: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/09/12/will-putin-save-lukashenko (abgerufen 10.07.2021).

Hinweis

In der vorliegenden Quelle wird kein Autor genannt.

Aufgabe

3

Belarusians have protested in vast numbers. Assess the effectiveness of different forms of political participation in countries such as Belarus.

[30 BE]

Thema und Aufgabenstellung: Vorschlag D – Lobbyism

1

Summarize the text. (Material) [30 BE]

2

Analyse the current impact of lobby activity in Germany considering economic and political aspects. [40 BE]

3

Discuss to what extent fair competition could be fostered by national and/or international lobby control. [30 BE]

Material

Lisa Hänel: Fighting corruption: Germany gets a “lobby register” (2021)

Scandals surrounding parliamentarians who profited brokering COVID mask deals have sped up the passing of a law requiring lobbyists to make their influence more transparent. Critics say this is not enough.

The heart of every democracy is its parliament. It is the place where bills are negotiated and passed into law, and elected representatives exchange views and debate. Yet it is also where the representatives of interest groups from business and society promote their affairs—in other words, where lobbying takes place.

Lobbying belongs to every democratic process. The political realm needs the expertise of economic associations, professional unions, nongovernmental organizations and religious groups for the legislative process.

This should not be an opaque backroom activity, the parties in Germany’s governing coalition have decided. After long-running disagreement, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have agreed to establish a transparency register, also known as a lobby registry.

A lobby registry is a publicly accessible database in which the professional representatives of interest groups must register before they contact political actors. Such registries already exist in various countries.

Germany’s forthcoming lobby register, which will be situated within the Bundestag, will require lobbyists to enter their names and provide details about their employers or commissioning agents. The lobbyists can also provide information about the number of people involved and expenses. False entries or failing to register at all will be punishable by a fine.

An early draft of the registry proposed only requiring information from lobbyists who would be interacting with members of the Bundestag. However, the current version agreed upon by the coalition parties calls for lobbying that takes place within the government ministries to also be registered.

Government members such as Olaf Scholz, the current finance minister and vice chancellor and the SPD’s chancellor candidate in the upcoming national elections, have said they are satisfied with the deal.

Experts and political scientists do not take such a rosy view of the planned registry. “Overall, the deal falls short of the demands of organizations and civil society, and when compared internationally to other lobbying regulations, it lies somewhere in the middle,” Maximilian Schiffers, a political scientist from the University of Duisberg-Essen, told DW 1.

This is primarily because, while the registry would clarify who is going in and out of the Bundestag and the ministries, it wouldn’t provide information on the area of business.

“It doesn’t even tackle the problem that a good lobby registry can solve. We will know who the lobbyists are, but we won’t know what they are actually doing and who they are speaking with,” said Roman Ebener, from the nonpartisan internet platform Abgeordnetenwatch (Parliamentarian Watch), which advocates for greater political transparency in Germany.

A further problem is that lobbyists must only name their political contacts when this involves someone at the sub-departmental leadership level or higher. “A lobbyist doesn’t have to register if they just meet with an adviser or an administrator, even though this person may be influential because they deal with the topic. This means that hidden influence would still be possible,” Ebener told DW.

[...]

The European Union has also set itself a high bar regarding transparency. EU commissioners have to publish their lobbying-related meetings online. The same holds true for EU parliamentarians in key positions, for instance, committee heads and rapporteurs 2.

In addition, meetings are also listed according to the law they pertain to. “You can simply go to the website, look up the ‘Green Deal’, for example, and then you will get all the organizations that undertook lobbying activity in relation to the Green Deal, including all their positions and meetings,” Schiffers explained.

[...]

The organizations 3 are also demanding a so-called legislative footprint, which would make it possible to trace which interest group had played a role in shaping a passage in a concrete law. This would let citizens see how the laws were made and which interests were taken into account.

[...]

Since 2018, the German government has been required to make so-called the legislative process 4 transparent. This means that it is possible to see drafts of laws on ministry websites, including the respective position of lobbying organizations.

This is not far removed from the idea of a legislative footprint. However, each law is individually published on the respective ministry’s website; there are 15 federal ministries in total. There is no combined overview to provide transparency—a transparency that many say is needed to ensure lobbying activities serve democracy and remain within legal boundaries.

Lisa Hänel: Fighting corruption: Germany gets a ‘lobby register’, in: Deutsche Welle, 26.03.2021, URL: https://www.dw.com/en/fighting-corruption-germany-gets-a-lobby-register/a-56808321 (abgerufen am 11.07.2021).

1 DW – Deutsche Welle is a German public state-owned international broadcaster

2 rapporteurs – Berichterstatter

3 here: Abgeordnetenwatch

4 correct word order: to make the so-called legislative process