Advocacy.

As a global company with a complex value chain, our activities and products affect not only our workforce and customers, but also the interests of various stakeholders. In the other direction, social developments impact the business activities of the entire Group in many respects. Business partners, suppliers, lobbyists, the media, the political and scientific sectors, industry associations, NGOs, investors and other stakeholder groups have different views and expectations with regard to our company. Responding to their needs can positively impact our social legitimacy, competitive advantage and success as a company.

In view of this, BMW Group engages in constant exchange with its stakeholders worldwide. We incorporate the various perspectives into our decision-making, taking care to also consider the respective regulatory framework. This enables us to identify new political and social trends and develop sustainable solutions for the challenges of the future. We encourage stakeholders to raise any concerns they may have about BMW Group activities at an early stage and openly discuss solutions where potential conflicts of interest arise. Furthermore, we enhance the transparency of our decisions by sharing information about the BMW Group strategy as well as our positions on political, regulatory and social topics.

Striking a balance between economic, environmental, and social concerns is a key prerequisite for the economic success of our company. Economic success is also a necessity for the company to develop sustainable technological innovations, ensure job security and collaborate with all partners along an increasingly sustainable value chain.

For this reason, since the financial year 2020, BMW Group has kept its stakeholders informed about the business development of the company in the form of an integrated report. This enables us to provide a holistic, well-founded insight into the BMW Group, as we are also doing in the current integrated Group report. We report on both the company’s business activities and sustainability activities in a transparent, comprehensible manner.

The company engages in active, open and transparent dialogue with decision-makers and political and trade union representatives as well as representatives of various associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help shape the political framework conditions for its business activities in a constructive, transparent manner. BMW Group is a member of numerous associations in various countries. While these memberships and the commitment of the BMW Group are voluntary in most cases, this cooperation may also be based on statutory requirements in individual instances, e.g. for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria (IHK München, Oberbayern) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Berlin (IHK Berlin).

The engagement of the BMW Group with associations ranges from board memberships in various association committees and participation in working groups to roles with observer status only. The company strives to align with the respective associations concerning positions on relevant strategic topics. In the case that the BMW Group observes deviations between the positions of the associations and those of the company, the company enters into a dialogue to improve the alignment. The BMW Group brings the positions of the company into the associations’ opinion-forming processes, thereby actively participating in discussions on key strategic topics such as climate protection, human rights, the circular economy, carbon footprint reduction to achieve climate goals under the Paris Agreement, and transparent supply chain management.

Within the BMW Group, understanding the valves and aims of the people around us, managing relationships, and communicating with stakeholders are led by the Corporate Communications and Government Affairs department.

The Government Affairs organisation of the BMW Group is an integral part of this department and is responsible for relationships with political and regulatory stakeholders, NGOs and the scientific community worldwide. This enables us to ensure the consistency and transparency of our core political messages and positions.

The Government Affairs organisation in Munich exchanges with regard to three broad areas: e-mobility and the environment, trade and geopolitics, and digital cars and mobility. Our goal is to establish uniform, legally compliant framework conditions. These should be flexible and agile to facilitate the development of innovative products. The team in Munich also coordinates our relationships with core automotive manufacturers’ associations such as the German Association of the Automotive Industry (Verband der Automobilindustrie, VDA) and the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).

At international scale, we focus on the four regions of the Americas, China, Asia-Pacific and Europe/Africa/Middle East. The BMW Group maintains Government Affairs offices and/or employs local staff for direct interaction with the political and regulatory environments within the key individual markets and in selected growth markets. These act as permanent points of contact for local decision-makers and are available to address queries directly and in the language of the respective country. Our stakeholders make active use of this opportunity.

In its activities, the Government Affairs organisation strives to ensure the highest possible level of transparency, fact-based information and credibility. Comprehensive compliance regulations are in force on a company-wide basis to govern contact with external stakeholders and shape the nature of our interaction with them.

Various transparency registers have been drawn up in different countries and regions where interest groups, such as private individuals, companies or NGOs, are involved in the political decision-making process. These registers may be voluntary or compulsory depending on the country. People and organisations who wish to contact political institutions or decision-makers with a view to influencing political decision-making processes enter various details in these registers. The purpose of such registers is to help increase public trust in politics and to make the way lobbyists and representatives exert their influence more transparent.

The BMW Group has been listed in the ↗ European Commission’s EU Transparency Register since 2008. The Company provides information on the number of employees and the budgets it allocates to influencing European legislative processes and the areas of relevance to the BMW Group, as well as details of its memberships of associations relevant to EU policy-making. In addition, laws on lobbying covering the German Bundestag and the Bavarian State Parliament, which provide for the establishment of public lobbying registers, have been in force since 1 January 2022. BMW AG is also entered in these registers. It provides extensive information about its political activities and its work with associations, as well as its financial expenditure in connection with political lobbying in accordance with the relevant requirements.

The BMW Group supports the creation of transparency and lobbying registers. They contribute to transparency as well as increasing trust in the democratic legislative process and in the political work of all those involved in the legislative process.