On December 7, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft law on honest lobbying and advocacy in Ukraine.
This was reported by the representative of the government in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk, and the MP from "Voice" Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The Law on Lobbying and Advocacy is a recommendation of the European Commission regarding Ukraineʼs accession to the European Union, and is also part of the governmentʼs plan against oligarchs.
The document prescribes the concepts of lobbying, lobbying and advocacy, and also defines what it is. Its purpose is to ensure the legal basis of lobbying in Ukraine in accordance with international practices and standards, to provide legal regulation of the interaction of officials with interested parties and lobbying subjects, as well as to introduce transparent mechanisms for the work of lobbying subjects with officials and control mechanisms.
"The revised draft law takes into account the proposals submitted by the coalition of public organizations, in particular, in the part about advocacy. Advocacy is not lobbying, and this is clearly stated in the draft law," Melnychuk emphasized.
The draft law defines terminology in the field of lobbying and advocacy, the rights and obligations of subjects, methods of influence, rules of ethical behavior of lobbying subjects, there is a section on the creation of a transparency register, the procedure for registration in this register and exceptions to it, open and free access to the register and lobbying entity reporting. The document also defines mechanisms for monitoring the activities of lobbying and advocacy entities through monitoring compliance with legislation.
According to the draft law, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) maintains and is responsible for the register. The registry itself is public — lobbying contracts, funding sources, clients and beneficiaries are entered into it.
The adoption of the law on honest lobbying and advocacy in Ukraine is one of the seven points that accompanied the granting of Ukraine the status of a candidate for joining the European Union.
- Ukraine received the status of a candidate country for joining the European Union in 2022. At the same time, the European Commission provided Ukraine with an action plan for the start of accession negotiations. It contains a number of reforms and laws that Ukraine needs to adopt.
- Western media wrote that the EU plans to officially announce the start of accession negotiations in December 2023. The European Commission believes that Ukraine has fully fulfilled four of the seven conditions.