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The organization Foodwatch has filed a lawsuit against Federal Food Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) because, according to consumer advocates, she does not want to disclose her meeting with lobbyists.

This emerges from a message that Foodwatch made public on Tuesday.

In the afternoon, the ministry confirmed receipt of the complaint to the German press agency.

First the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ) reported on it.

With the lawsuit at the Cologne Administrative Court, the consumer advocates want to achieve, according to the report, that the minister makes all “official contacts” with “external third parties” transparent.

The public has a right to know, said Foodwatch representative Rauna Bindewald.

According to its own information, Foodwatch had submitted an application to the ministry in March 2020 for the disclosure of Klöckner's lobbying appointments under the Freedom of Information Act.

The ministry rejected this in August 2020 and cited "security reasons" in the reasoning.

The ministry argued that the list of meetings was incomplete

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It was said that “movement profiles” could be derived from information on lobbying meetings.

In addition, the ministry argued that a disclosed list might not contain all of the minister's contacts, which could lead to the allegation of "insufficient completeness".

The Ministry of Agriculture did not want to comment on details in the afternoon "with a view to the ongoing court proceedings", as a spokeswoman for the dpa announced on request.

Foodwatch has long been calling for a lobby register to be introduced, which also fully discloses the meetings between federal ministers and stakeholders.

There has been a dispute in Germany for years about a mandatory register of this type.

Steps have already been taken to make future discussions between experts, interest groups and politicians transparent and understandable for the public.

Such a register already exists at EU level.

The passage of the law for a lobby register in Germany has so far failed due to the coalition dispute over whether the register should oblige not only members of parliament but also the federal government to be more transparent.

The SPD is in favor - the Union has so far rejected it.