Rada to legalize lobbying

The Verkhovna Rada intends to legalize lobbying.

According to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Holos faction, who announced this on the Telegram channel, 309 MPs voted for the adoption of the corresponding bill No. 10337, instead of the minimum required 226, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Parliament submitted to the first reading No. 10337 Law on Lobbying. For - 309," he wrote.

The bill in particular defines the terminology in the field of lobbying; rights and obligations of lobbying subjects; influence methods; rules of ethical behavior of lobbying subjects.

It provides for the creation of the Transparency Register, the owner and administrator of which is the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

The bill regulates the procedure for registration in the Transparency Register and exceptions to it; access to the Register (open and free); reporting of the lobbying entity entered in the Register; mechanisms for monitoring the activities of lobbying entities by monitoring compliance with legislation on lobbying.

Zhelezniak noted that the adoption of this bill is one of the requirements of the European Union, which was in the European Commission's report on the start of membership negotiations with Ukraine.

The MP also notes that there is no such law in the EU countries, the demand for Ukraine to adopt it arose as an alternative to the law on oligarchs, which the EU considers bad and recommended not to implement.

At the same time, Iryna Herashchenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the European Solidarity faction, in relation to this bill, notes that the wording proposed by the government is controversial and has criticism from non-governmental organizations, because it can create obstacles for the activities of public organizations engaged in advocacy and organizing public discussion of socially important issues.

She emphasizes that the project does not distinguish lobbying as a professional paid activity from the activities of public organizations.

Herashchenko also notes that government representatives are actually required to hold meetings with lobbyists, which can significantly complicate the performance of their direct functional duties, and the NACP, in her words, is given significant discretionary powers.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in December, the Cabinet of Ministers proposed to the Verkhovna Rada to legalize lobbying by approving and sending the relevant bill to the Verkhovna Rada.

The bill provides that information about lobbying contracts, sources of funding, clients and beneficiaries of lobbying (not commercial, state, banking or other information protected by law) is entered into the Transparency Register.

Earlier, the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Davyd Arakhamia, announced the consideration of a bill on lobbying, according to which all relevant organizations and individuals must submit data on their donors and amounts to the NACP.

Arakhamia said that the National Agency on Corruption Prevention will monitor compliance with the relevant law, if it is adopted, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau will investigate violations. According to him, court cases related to lobbying violations will be considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court.

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