Between Anti-corruption and Access to the Legislative Process: A Glimpse into Lobbying Regulation in East Central Europe

Abstract

Lobbying is usually associated with corrupt activities, but its regulation is viewed as an especially important tool for eradicating corruption. Nevertheless, countries seem to find it hard to grapple with the matter of regulating lobbying, demonstrated by the fact that such regulation is predominantly lacking worldwide. The paper presents a brief incursion into the field of lobbying regulation in several countries of East Central Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. It delves into some of the specifics of each country’s regulation in this respect or the lack thereof, trying to make sense of the reasons why countries seem to struggle with this regulatory challenge. As a topic that has been marked as important by the European Commission in its Rule of Law Reports, the paper looks into the ways this issue has been approached by the aforementioned countries in the light of their membership of the European Union and the public opinion of their citizens.