The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) welcomes the adoption of the Law on Lobbying by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This is an important step to ensure transparency of government processes and openness of interaction between the government, business and civil society.
Over the past year, the NACP experts have been working hard to develop legislative proposals to regulate lobbying and analyze the best international practices in this area. In January-February 2024, the NACP, together with MPs, representatives of state institutions, business and civil society, significantly revised the Law on Lobbying, which was adopted today.
After the Law is signed by the President of Ukraine, the NACP will start creating the Transparency Register, an information and communication system that will collect, record and process information about lobbying entities and their reports.
It should be noted that the regulation of lobbying is one of the requirements of the European Commission for Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
The Lobbying Law opens up the market for lobbying services in Ukraine - a transparent and open way to influence public policy while ensuring the commercial interest of lobbyists. For example, if a certain legal entity or group of individuals seeks to adopt a new law, say, in the field of agricultural or environmental policy, citizens will see how this group lobbies for the adoption of such a law and will be able to assess how their lives will change and who is responsible for this initiative and its implementation.
In addition to the requirements of the European Commission, the legislative regulation of lobbying processes is provided for in clause 3 of the Action Plan to Prevent the Abuse of Undue Influence by Persons with Significant Economic and Political Weight in Public Life (oligarchs), the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025, and the recommendations of the GRECO Group of States against Corruption.
