Lobbying Transparency Register (GR0089)

Brief Description of the Commitment

This action aims to ensure integrity and transparency in lobbying and lay down rules which will govern influence activities in political decision-making, as well as the establishment of a transparency register. The Transparency Register will operate as an electronic database storing data and information on lobbying activities, i.e. the activities carried out by interest representatives with the objective to influence institutional decision-making. It aims to enhance transparency in public decision-making, as the information entered is publicly accessible to citizens, who can be informed of the persons exercising influence, the way, the time and the purpose for which they communicate with public officials.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? Interest representatives meet with officials of the legislature or the executive in order to influence decisions and formulate policies. In these meetings, interest representatives try to promote the interests of their clients for a fee. For years the subjects of the meetings as well as the meetings themselves have been unknown and this could lead to undue influence, unfair competition and capture of public policies to the detriment of the public interest and the effective functioning of democratic institutions.

2. What are the causes of the problem? The main cause of the problem is that lobbying activities are not recorded nor are they accessible to the public, resulting in a lack of information and transparency.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? 1. Legal regulation of lobbying activities was first introduced by Law 4829/2021. 2. Operation of the Transparency Register (December 2022). 2.1. Submission of an annual declaration by interest representatives to the Transparency Register 2.2. Accessibility of citizens to the Transparency Register data 2.3. Interoperability with TAXIS, GEMI, the National Criminal Records Portal 3. Publication of the Code of Conduct (December 2022). 4. Publication of Guidelines (December 2022).

2. What solution are you proposing? With the adoption of Law 4829/2021, Greece introduced for the first time a regulatory framework for lobbying activities. The law forbids current members of the legislature and the executive and their spouses to act as interest representatives and at the same time, it restricts former members from engaging in lobbying consulting for a period of 18 months after leaving office. In addition, NGOs and professional organisations can be registered as interest representatives. The law also stipulates that all interest representatives should register in the Transparency Register, in order to engage with members of the legislature and the executive . Both interest representatives and members of the legislature and the executive are required to submit a report of their activities on an annual basis, which will be available to the public. The Transparency Register is going to be operational by the end of November 2022. Moreover, a Code of Conduct has been developed to bind registrants to act with integrity, transparency and avoid conflicts of interest, and a procedure was set regarding sanctions in case interest representatives don’t act accordingly. Finally, the Supervisory Authority may impose sanctions in accordance with the relevant procedure in the event of a breach of the obligations arising from the above law.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? The aim is to enhance legitimacy and integrity in the exercise of lobbying activities and to create a framework enabling stakeholders to contribute to decision-making by following specific statutory rules . At the same time, transparency and integrity in the exercise of lobbying activities allow citizens to be informed about these activities, thereby strengthening democratic principles, good governance and trust in the political system. Finally, a change in culture and behaviour is sought, taking into account the public interest.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? All data entered in the Transparency Register is open and accessible to all citizens. E.g. which interest representatives have contacted public officials and what was the subject of the meeting.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? Public officials as well interest representatives have the responsibility to record all lobbying activities, which will be publicly available, thus enhancing accountability. Furthermore, the role of the National Transparency Authority is to maintain and monitor the Transparency Register, and supervise lobbying activities in Greece, in order to foster corporate good governance, integrity and accountability, and achieve long–term value creation and sustainability. Each year the National Transparency Authority will prepare a report presenting statistics on the operation of the Transparency Register for the previous year.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? Through the Transparency Register, citizens will have access to the recorded data and will also be able to report any activity contrary to the law.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs)

Transparency Register | (a) Publication of statistics by the Transparency Register (b) imposition of sanctions and publication of these sanctions in the Transparency Register (c) submission of an annual declaration by institutional bodies to the Transparency Register

Recording of lobbying activities | Annual declarations by interest representatives and public officials.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 7. Lobbying activity

National Transparency Authority (NTA)

For a complete description of this commitment, see Commitment 7 in Greece’s 2022–2024 action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-action-plan-2022-2024-december.

Context and objectives

A 2017 review of lobbying in Europe reported that a more robust regulatory environment for lobbying activities in Greece would help ensure greater transparency, integrity, and accountability in the decision-making process. [1] In 2021, Greece passed the law on “Strengthening Transparency and Accountability of State Institutional Bodies.” This legislation was Greece’s first attempt to regulate lobbying activities between state institutions and interest representatives. [2] As a consequence, the NTA launched the Transparency Register in December 2022 and published a Code of Conduct and Guidelines. [3]

A NTA representative confirmed that current members of the legislature and executive branches of government and their spouses cannot act as lobbyists, and former members cannot engage in lobbying consulting until 18 months after leaving office. [4] They added that non-governmental organizations and professional organizations can be registered lobbyists. Registered lobbyists and members of the legislature and the executive must report annually on their activities in the Transparency Register. Registered lobbyists must declare the policy area, the decision for which they exercised lobbying activities, the name of the person who exercised lobbying activities and the name of the client, the method used and the public official targeted. The NTA, as the supervisory authority, may impose sanctions if interest representatives breach the law. The Transparency Register must publish activity statistics and breaches annually online.

This commitment progresses activities in the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan. [5] Lobbying activities in 2023 and 2024 would be recorded in the Transparency Register and lobbying statistics and any sanctions imposed published. [6] The NTA advised the IRM that it plans to also carry out activities to inform the public about the law and the Transparency Register. [7] During co-creation, civil society had proposed an open and accessible registry, expansion of the definition of lobbyist to register, as part of this commitment. [8]

Potential for results: Modest

As the register was launched in December 2022, technically before the adoption of the action plan, this commitment aims to ensure compliance in practice with the new legislation. A NTA representative suggested the commitment would strengthen democratic principles, good governance, trust in the political system and to encourage publicly a change in culture and behavior. [9] They said all data from public officials and interest representatives in the Transparency Register would be open and public accessible and thus would enhance the legitimacy and integrity of lobbying activities.

The government notes in the action plan that according to the initial proposals formulated in July 2022, this commitment reflects civil society priorities. However, CSOs questioned the value of including it in the action plan, given that the law was adopted in 2021 and is already being implemented. [10] They also note that the law has several deficiencies that inhibit full transparency. Namely, it excludes in-house lobbyists, it lacks a clear timeframe by which lobbyists must register, and the requirement for annual submissions of their lobbying activities allows disclosures to be made long after the activities have taken place. For example, a CSO said it was concerned that the public would not be able in real time (or close to real time) to know who has influenced decision makers in the lead up to the national elections in June 2023, as lobbyists are required to submit their lobbying activities only annually. [11]

Despite the notable limitations, the publication of data in a public lobbying register is a significant step forward as it intends for the first time to give the public a sense of the lobbying landscape in Greece and who is trying to influence decision-makers. However, limitations around the definition of lobbyists mean that the register may not capture much of the lobbying that happens in Greece. The publication of statistics would also help the public and watchdogs to understand the overall performance of the register and legal framework – such as for number of site visitors, number of registrants, sanctions applied etc. Furthermore, there is scope for improvements in the timeliness and regularity for submitting and publishing data, as well as to address concerns around data accuracy and verification. Therefore, this commitment is identified as having modest potential for results because it introduces a positive but limited change to transparency of lobbying activities in Greece.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

Civil society wants immediate publicity of the legislation and promotion of its statutory requirements. [12] They are troubled that the government has not yet carried out the campaign to promote the legal obligation to register, noting that, by March 2023, only two lobbyists were registered, and their information was incomplete and seemed unverified and inaccurate.

Furthermore, civil society say that the Transparency Register needs an improved search functionality and data to be released in open data formats to facilitate public oversight. Currently, searches can be made if you know exactly the name of the lobbyist. [13]

To encourage a more ambitious approach to implementation of this commitment, the IRM recommends:

• The NTA ensure compliance among lobbyists by raising awareness about the Transparency Register’s disclosure requirements. The NTA could hold meetings with interest representatives or run trainings to inform them of their legal obligations. The government could further promote existing guidance materials and produce audiovisual materials to explain the requirements and how to register. While the law stipulates annual updates, the NTA could promote best practice from other countries where submission and publication of the data is timelier to improve the usefulness of the data submitted. For example, in Ireland, lobbyists update the register every four months, in the UK they update the register every three months, and in Lithuania, lobbyists update their records within seven days of conducting lobbying activities. [14]
• The NTA could train public officials on the new rules to ensure compliance among lobbyists. In the same manner of raising awareness amongst lobbyists themselves, the NTA could also raise awareness and provide training for public officials to ensure they are aware of the lobbying transparency rules. In a change of cultural practice, civil servants and public officials could ensure that representatives are registered on the Transparency Register before accepting any meetings with lobbyists. For example, European Commission officials are only able to meet with interest representatives if they are registered in the EU’s transparency register. [15]
• Improve the functionality of the Transparency Register to ensure transparency and public oversight of lobbying activities. Currently, the register has limited search capacities. The search function would benefit from a browse function that allows for more general searches or open access to all entries and updates, for example in order of most recently updated entries. For example, the EU’s transparency register allows for search and browse of the data by keyword or general criteria. [16] Greece’s Transparency Register could also consider allowing download of the Transparency Register dataset in full. This would better serve the objective of providing open and accessible information to the public on lobbying activities.
• Develop a framework for publishing relevant statistics through collaboration with civil society. The Transparency Register is due to contain lobbying and sanctions statistics. However, the details of exactly what statistics, in what format and regularity are details that could be developed in collaboration with CSOs so that the information published is relevant and useful for ensuring public oversight of the functioning of lobbying transparency and regulation in Greece. This would enhance the aim to strengthen democratic principles, good governance, trust in the political system and encourage a change in culture and behavior. Publication of sanctions data (including fines administered) would help to publicize cases of infringement and reinforce adherence to the law. Information on sanctions could be published on the Transparency Register website on an ongoing basis. The statistics could be used to later produce recommendations to improve the register, potentially looking at making it easier to record information, increase the detail of the information collected and published, as well as potentially suggest legal amendments to broaden the scope of the legislation.