Lobby law arrives: public register and out with convictions of more than two years

Montecitorio is trying again. And after a debate that has been going on for several legislatures, it seems on the verge of giving the green light to an organic law on lobbies. The Constitutional Affairs Committee has, in fact, voted the mandate to the rapporteur, President Nazario Pagano (FI), to report to the Chamber where the text will arrive on Monday 26 January. The oppositions, for the time being, abstained in the final vote in committee, waiting to see how the work will develop. "It is a law that has been awaited for years,' Pagano stressed, 'and I hope that the process can now proceed quickly with the broadest support from the parliamentary groups: it would be a good signal to give to the country.

At the international level, in fact, there are several nations, from Canada to France, that have adopted specific regulations to regulate interest representation, and even the European Union has provided for a 'Register for Transparency' that regulates relations between stakeholders and community institutions. The text approved by the commission comes after a fact-finding investigation and also responds to an invitation by the Constitutional Court which, Pagano recalls, "last December, urged the legislature to adopt an 'organic discipline on lobbying activities' as soon as possible".

The measure aims to regulate and give transparency to the activity carried out by interest representatives as a contribution to public decisions, but always "in compliance with the regulations in force, respecting the autonomy of the institutions and with an obligation of loyalty and integrity towards them". A public register for the transparency of lobbyists' activities is to be set up at the Cnel. A single register that will also include those already existing at other institutions (at the Chamber - for example - there is the one created during the Fico presidency). A Supervisory Committee will also be set up at the CNEL to monitor registrations and impose sanctions ranging from fines to cancellation.

In the register, lobbyists must enter, on a weekly basis, a list of the meetings held, indicating the public decision-maker met, the place where the meeting took place, the subject matter discussed and any other participants in the meeting.

Anyone who has been definitively sentenced with sentences of more than two years for offences against the P.A. may not register in the register. After the law's approval, Istat will have to integrate the list of Ateco codes with a specific one on interest representatives. Also celebrating the law's passage in Montecitorio is the union Representatives of Parliamentary Interests (Sirip): 'It is a measure that has been awaited for decades,' stresses president Achille Ducoli, 'and requested by many parties. We will give our utmost support so that the criteria of ethics, transparency and fairness are respected".The go-ahead for the Chamber's Constitutional Affairs Committee to the proposed law on the regulation of lobbying. The mandate for the rapporteur, President Nazario Pagano, to report to the Assembly was voted with the abstention of the opposition. The text is on the calendar as of Monday.