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. However, disagreement remains as to how extensive the register … [Read more...] about Germany to get a lobby register