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Source: Transparency International Latvia

Key recommendations

Taking into account the size of the country and the small professional lobbying sector, it is crucial to find an effective way to have a balanced approach to regulation. Excessive regulation could prove rigid, burdensome and not cost-effective, especially for the public sector. The main aim is to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws to ensure the public sector’s integrity, equality and transparency. Essential elements to provide an environment for open and ethical lobbying include:

1. Recognition that lobbying and lobbyists are part of the normal processes of democracy;
2. Ensuring transparency of decision making processes by improving legislative footprint legislation and its implementation;
3. Improvement of public access to information, e.g. disclosure of information about visitors to public institutions;
4. Improvement of integrity of public officials, deputies and related employees in the public sector, by providing training, improving declaration of conflicts of interests and ensuring research capacity at Parliamentary level to strengthen the independence of deputies’ opinions.

Recognition of lobbying and lobbyists:

• Recognition of lobbying as part of democracy in existing laws – Parliament Rules of Procedure, Law of State Administration and Cabinet Rules of Procedure – by defining who are lobbyists and what is considered as fair lobbying.
• The Criminal Code should be amended to clarify the concept of trading in influence and to separate it from legal forms of lobbying. 

Registration and disclosure by lobbyists and lobbied persons:

• Create a register where lobbyists are required to register their details on a public sector administered platform.
• The register should be accompanied by a code of conduct which gives clear guidance on ethical lobbying (no gifting, trading in influence, revolving doors, etc.) and disclosure of information on a voluntary basis. Compliance with the code should be monitored and meaningful sanctions should apply for non-compliance.
• Public officials and deputies should report about meetings with lobbyists and follow-up actions, e.g. putting forward lobbyists’ proposals, arranging meetings under the request of a lobbyist or any other action related to decisionmaking processes and the influence of content. Public officials would not have to separately report a contact with a lobbyist if the lobbyist is registered on a government administrated platform and discloses required information. If a public official takes action by introducing lobbyists’ proposals into draft laws, it could be disclosed within the framework of existing laws regulating the transparency of the legislative footprint. 

Improvement of legislative footprint:

• Improve the Law of State Administration and Cabinet of Ministers Rules of Procedure to disclose information about attempts to influence draft laws and other legal and regulatory proposals. The draft law explanatory note should be improved, so that information about the authors of proposals is disclosed, the protocols of meetings are made available online to the public, the information about participants of meetings and comments made about the proposals are disclosed online on the web pages of public institutions or on a common green paper platform, which is currently being planned (the State Chancellery in May 2014 has introduced a concept note to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding a portal for the elaboration and consultation of legal acts).

Improving integrity of public officials, deputies and related employees in the public sector:

• Improve the code of conduct to include provisions aimed to ensure transparency in the lobbying process. The code of conduct should apply to members of the Cabinet and Deputies.
• Improve the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interests, forbidding officials to combine their work as a public official with a position in an organization which is engaged in lobbying.
• Consultants, deputy assistants, or any other employee of Deputies and Parliament should declare their conflict of interests and disclose relations with lobbyists.
• A training or education program should be provided for deputies and public officials to improve skills for working with lobbyists’ information and the ability to make balanced decisions for the benefit of society.
• It is crucial to strengthen the research capacity of Parliament to be able to work with draft laws and lobbyists information.
• To ensure better compliance with and implementation of code of conduct standards and complaint mechanisms, it is necessary to share best practice cases among public institutions and governing bodies about the practical use and the effect of codes of conduct.

Other recommendations, indirectly related to lobbying:

•  Public procurement: - As the area subjected to the most intense lobbying is public procurement, there is a need to regulate the public purchase technical specification preparation process, including the possibility to consult with advisers from industries under confidentiality agreements or to use any other control mechanisms to lower the possibility of conflict of interests and corruption. - Strengthen cooperation between public purchase departments to ensure the best practice related to public purchase technical documentation is shared. - To safeguard public procurement integrity it is suggested to use an ‘Integrity Pact’ – a supervision method for local or EU funded public purchases.
• Strengthening the capacity of NGOs: - Capacity building and support for NGOs is crucial, as they act as an important intermediary between citizens and the state