Political lobbying should get clear rules, according to NOVA MPs who plan to file a draft law on lobbying in parliament in September, the SITA newswire wrote.
Independent MP and NOVA chairman Daniel Lipšic told a press conferenceon August 5 that a law on lobbying is not a universal remedy, but it can define what is lobbying. “Lobbying need not necessarily be unfair and a bad thing,” he said, adding that it could concern only generally binding directives. It would be banned in the case of tenders.
“That is not lobbying, that is simply corruption,” Lipšic opined as quoted by SITA. According to the NOVA proposal, parliament would have a central list of lobbyists, and regional administrations would have similar such lists in their regions. NOVA proposes public officials, especially ministers, to publish lists of lobbyist contacts they have had.
Lipšic admitted, according to the TASR newswire, that the model for the current proposal is a version form back 2005 – but there was no political will then to implement it.
The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) will file its own bill on lobbying at September parliamentary session. KDH’s Pavol Hrušovský said for SITA that his caucus wants to repeat the same draft bill that was not approved last September.
“I brushed up only the dates,” Hrušovský said. “I have it prepared and signed by MPs; to file it is the only thing left to be done.” The law lobbying, KDH caucus head said, fits into the anti-corruption policy that should aim at making the contacts of top constitutional officials with interest groups and lobbyists transparent. Hrušovský thinks that the NOVA and KDH proposals might be identical. “It is important that we enter this space and not who files the proposal,” Hrušovský said.
(Source: SITA, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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