The future law of the lobis will stop the use of ‘revolving doors’ by high officials

The Government plans to create a Registration of interest groups. Natural or legal persons who intend to establish contact with senior officials or directors of the state administration in order to influence the development of regulations or decision-making must register in it. The Registry will be located both in the Transparency Portal of the General State Administration (AGE) and in the Office of Conflicts of Interest (OCI) and its operation will be entirely electronic. In this record, each interest group must identify its members, its headquarters and its purpose, in addition to including and updating each of the meetings held with senior officials and the reason for them. The financial information of that group linked to the exercise of its lobbying activity must also be included. “Without the mandatory registration, no meetings or interviews can be held, nor can any contact with public personnel be made, nor can influence activities be exercised,” states the text of the draft.

According to the bill, “they will be considered interest groups natural and legal personswhatever their form or legal status, as well as groups of people who are formed on platforms, forums, networks or other forms of collective activity, without legal personality, who work on their own account or for someone else and regardless of their form or legal status, who carry out influence activity”.

The text explicitly explains that international organizations (such as Unicef, for example), nor political parties, trade unions or business associations, will not be considered interest groups. However, the foundations created by parties, unions or employers will be considered lobbies and, therefore, will have the obligation to register in the Registry of Interest if they exercise an “influencing activity”

The draft law refers to “all direct or indirect communication” with senior officials, directors or officials “for the purpose of intervening in public decision-making or in the processes of designing and applying public policies and drafting regulatory projects.” Influencing activity can be exercised “on behalf of an organized entity or group of a private or non-governmental nature, for the benefit of its own interests or the interests of third parties”. This includes both a business association that defends its own interests, and the professional office hired by that association for the same purpose. By “direct influence“The text understands communication with public personnel through any means of communication. For “indirect influence” refers to communication through intermediaries, media, conferences or social events oriented to the same end.

It is another novelty of this bill. It refers to the fact that in Regulatory Impact Analysis Report Each legal amendment must state the identity of the persons or interest groups that have influenced its preparation, detailing the specific aspect in each case. In the normative footprint The identity of public personnel who have had contact with said groups must also be stated.

The draft includes a system of infractions and sanctions applicable to cases in which, for example, an attempt is made to contact a senior official without prior registration in the Registry of interest groups. The offer of gifts or favors, the dissemination of confidential information or the non-updating of the Registry data. The foreseen sanctions can reach the expulsion of the Registry for a period of up to three years.

The preliminary draft establishes that during the two years following the date of their dismissal, the senior officials of the State administration “may not carry out professional activities of influence at the service or for entities registered in the Register of interest groups in any of the matters related to the powers of the department, body or entity in which they served as a senior position & rdquor ;. This is an addition that will be incorporated into Law 3/2015 regulating the senior position of the General State Administration in which it was already established a period of two years after the date of their cessation during which it is prohibited to “provide services in private entities that have been affected by decisions in which they have participated. The prohibition extends both to the affected private entities and to those that belong to the same corporate group”. With the addition that is being promoted now, the incompatibility of senior officials will clearly affect those who exert their influence indirectly, through law firms or consultancies In addition, the incompatibility is not limited to “entities that have been affected by decisions in which senior officials have participated”, but extends to “the powers” of the department in which they performed their tasks.

Yes, for the General State Administration (AGE). However, there are already registers of interest groups in some regional administrations, such as those created in the Government and the Parliament of Catalonia and in other communities like Aragon or Valencia. Also, in the National Commission of Markets and Competitionthere has been a voluntary registry since 2017. In the Congress of Deputies there is an initiative to regulate the relationship of interest groups with parliamentarians whose processing has been delayed since June 2021. In the European institutions, the work of lobi is absolutely regulated and it is considered an essential mechanism to convey to legislators and senior officials the interests of the groups affected by the development of regulations and decision-making.

Yes, for the General State Administration (AGE). However, there are already registers of interest groups in some regional administrations. In addition, in the National Commission of Markets and Competition, there is a voluntary registry since 2017. In the Congress of Deputies there is an initiative to regulate the relationship of interest groups with parliamentarians whose processing has been delayed since June 2021 .

It’s hard to tell. After the approval of the bill, the public information process of the draft begins. It must then be approved in a second round by the Council of Ministers before starting its subsequent parliamentary process. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has been confident that the law will be definitively approved before the Cortes are dissolved due to the holding of general elections that, in principle, will take place at the end of 2023. In any case, the draft anticipates that the law would come into force two months later of its publication in the Official State Gazette.