Lobbying regulation, a condition for OECD membership

A condition for Romania to be admitted to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the regulation of lobbying.

The introduction of a single register of transparency of interests in parliament was discussed for the first time on Tuesday in the special committee to support the OECD accession process.

Basically, it is a transparency of meetings between key senators and MPs and specialized civil society and business groups.

Commission chair USR Senator Violeta Alexandru explained that it is a project aimed at improving the relationship between business and policy makers.

Violeta Alexandru: It will have to fill in some information for anyone who wants to know when a parliamentarian met someone who had to influence a law. It also has ramifications in the area of free competition, in the sense that any competitor, who has met with an MP or senator, knows and can also do so and request a meeting.

The mechanism is similar to the cell implemented at government level in 2016 and involves keeping track of face-to-face meetings by publishing agendas, i.e. key information about who the groups are interested in convincing decision-makers to adopt a public policy or change an existing one.

This is a new attempt to regulate lobbying in Romania, on which the country's accession to the Organization for Cooperation and Development depends, PNL Senator Mircea Abrudean stressed.

Mircea Abrudean: Romania's accession to the OECD depends on the regulation, in one way or another, of this lobbying process. In the current context, I think that we cannot afford to deviate from this path, which is a very dynamic one, 14 closed committees out of 25, means a lot.

Discussions will continue, including with civil society representatives, and at the end of next month, the draft should enter the legislative circuit.

Translated by: Radu Matei