Lobbying must be transparent

Today, on March 2, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered the Draft Law №3059-2 “On Legal and Transparent Regulation of Lobbying”.

Olena Moshenets, people’s deputy and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, is the co-author of the bill and the chairman of the working group on its preparation.

People’s deputies Oleksandr Kachura, Andrii Klochko, Oleksandr Marikovskyi, Oleksii Zhmerenetskyi, Taras Tarasenko, Oleksandr Aliksiychuk, Oleksandr Merezhko, Dmytro Liubota, Serhiy Babak, Oleh Bondarenko, Roman Babiy, Tetiana Tsyba, Yelyzaveta Yasko, and Artem Dubnov are also the co-authors of the bill.

Key aspects of the draft law are:

• lobbying activities may be conducted by individuals and legal entities, except politicians, civil servants, representatives of charitable, religious organizations or public utility enterprises, etc.;
• those involved in lobbying activities should be included in the Unified Register of Lobbyists;
• lobbyists must pass a qualifying examination and obtain an appropriate certificate;
• administrative and criminal liability is envisaged for lobbying without inclusion in the register and without the certificate;
• lobbyists must report on their work;
• lobbyists will have to make payments to the budget: at the moment of registration and annually for status confirmation. Amounts of contribution will depend on the field of lobbied activities. That is, lobbying of alcohol and tobacco products will cost much more than, for example, protection of stray animals.

Two bills on the lobbying market regulation №3059 and №3059-1 have already been registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

“Our document is different, in particular, in that it provides for revenues to the state budget from lobbying activities, creation of professional lobbying self-governance, which will subsequently be involved in registration, market regulation, as well as emergence of qualified and professional lobbying industry,” Olena Moshenets said.