The New German Transparency Register and Other Current Issues of Transparency in Germany.

Abstract

In 2017, German regulations for the implementation of the Fourth European Directive (2015/849) on anti-money laundering came into force in Germany. With this measure it will be possible to identify the natural persons who control companies (especially limited liability companies). In Germany a new Transparency Register has been created for this purpose. In the German public sector there are three levels of transparency: (1) According to parliamentary law, members of parliament can initiate commissions of inquiry and interpellations, it has been reinforced by the recent jurisprudence of the German Constitutional Court. (2) The right of journalists to access public information should also be emphasized. (3) Citizens’ access to existing information (especially documents) vis-à-vis the executive is protected at the federal level and in most Länder by means of laws of free access to public information. In Hamburg the administration has to publish proactively, that is to say, without prior request of a citizen - public documents. These developments demonstrate the increasingly important significance of transparency for an interested and active citizenry in government control. At the same time this level of transparency has only been achieved thanks to technical advances and the internet.