Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by the government, typically by individuals or groups. In the field of youth, lobbying is an important tool for advocating for policy change that positively impacts the lives of young people.
For lobbying to be a legitimate and positive force, equal access for all interest groups to policy makers is critical. Yet, the extensive funds at the disposal of interest groups and the close relationship between the private sector and lawmakers can lead to undue, unfair influence in a country’s policies and create risks for political corruption.
That ‘s why there is a profound distrust about lobbying, especially in countries where this practice is not regulated, which is the case in countries like Portugal. Public confidence in how policies are being formulated, and in whose interest, has been negatively affected by repeated incidences of opaque lobbying practices. That ‘s why it is important to regulate the act of lobbying, to make it as transparent and democratic as possible and to act according to the values of democracy.
Lobbying is part of the democratic process and it ‘s important to guarantee, for a significant public interest, total transparency and integrity of all the process. It’s not surprising, however, that between 2020 and 2021 the Portuguese Government discussed three bills on the regulation of the activity of representing interests, commonly known as lobbying, in a proportionate and adequate manner to its objectives.
These measures ended up not being approved by the Portuguese parliament, causing lobbying continue to not exist in the country, And that contributes to continuing to open doors to distrust in an activity that would be, at first, demonstrative of a healthy democracy. A recent study entitled “The Interest Groups in the Portuguese Political System”, promoted by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, draws attention precisely to the existing legal void with regard to the way in which “interest groups” act with political decision-makers.
The reason is simple: this makes transparency and scrutiny of relations between organizations and Members of the Assembly of the Republic or members of the Government difficult. However, it is curious that it was during the Portuguese presidency of the European Council, in 2021, that the Interinstitutional Agreement was signed, which reinforces the role of the “Transparency Register”, a database of interest groups that make lobbying with the European institutions, in which all actions between political decision-makers and representatives of these groups are registered.
In the European Union, where lobbying is an implemented and regulated practice, the European Parliament is committed to promoting transparency and ethics with regard to this activity. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission itself, it uses a common transparency register to supervise the activities of interest representatives – the “Transparency Register”. Deputies also publish information about their contacts with interest groups.
The European Union institutions interact with a wide range of groups and organizations representing specific interests and carry out lobbying activities. This is a legitimate and necessary part of the decision-making process to ensure that EU policies reflect people ‘s real needs. All types of interest representatives can provide Parliament with specific knowledge and expertise in numerous economic, social, environmental and scientific fields. They can play a key role in the open and pluralistic dialogue on which a democratic system rests.
Under this section, we have classified the lobbying and its steps within the following articles :
