Recently, the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) released its 24th annual report "Anti-Corruption Trends, Challenges and Best Practices in Europe and the United States" and called on member governments to adopt stricter rules to prevent corruption and promote integrity in government, including with regard to lobbying and third-party contacts. GRECO calls on countries to intensify their efforts to fully and promptly implement all recommendations.
The document pays special attention to the institution of lobbying. The general trend among the Group's member countries is that lobbying regulations have not been introduced or are not effectively implemented.
Ukraine has come a long way in this regard, as evidenced by the Law on Lobbying adopted in February. According to the provisions of the adopted law, a lobbyist acquires his or her status from the moment of registration in the Transparency Register. Currently, a painstaking effort is underway to create the Register itself with the involvement of development partners. The National Agency should launch the Register by January 1, 2025. To determine the procedure for the Registry's functioning, the National Agency has developed and submitted a draft Regulation to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
An important aspect for opening up the lobbying services market is the introduction of the Rules of Ethical Conduct for lobbyists themselves. The National Agency continues to work on developing an effective document that will take into account the interests of both the public and business representatives as potential lobbyists. The National Agency engaged representatives of more than 20 organizations in discussions of the draft document.
GRECO also noted the obvious progress in measures taken by member states to ensure transparency of the legislative process, publication of draft laws and public consultations. In addition, it emphasized the importance of involving stakeholders in policy-making and the development of regulations and stressed the need for legislative regulation of the transparency mechanism. Public consultation procedures often have shortcomings in implementation, with discrepancies between norms and practice, especially in terms of meeting consultation deadlines and feedback processes. Proposals to draft laws during public consultations are often received too late, and amendments based on public comments are rarely made.
In its activities, the National Agency strives for openness and transparency and actively engages civil society organizations and businesses in the rulemaking process. For example, the NACP has developed an internal document that describes in detail the algorithm of actions to involve stakeholders in policy-making or discussion of important issues - the Roadmap for Public Consultations. Announcements about such consultations are necessarily published on the National Agency's website and in social media, which allows to involve more stakeholders.
"Implementation of GRECO recommendations is an important aspect for building a good government and a just society. On the European integration path of Ukraine, it is extremely important to continue implementing anti-corruption policy, an important direction of which is the establishment of the institution of fair lobbying," said NACP Head Viktor Pavlushchyk.
