Modern Experience of Lobbying Interests in Europe

Abstract

The current experience of lobbying interests in Europe requires a detailed study of legislation to provide open public access to the Transparency Register and to promote the use of lobbying transparency mechanisms in European countries and EU institutions. These mechanisms ensure the implementation of relevant regulations and political decisions by political actors with the assistance of interest groups for the effective implementation of public policy. The purpose of the study is to establish the patterns of implementation of interest lobbying policy in Europe and assessing the reliability of lobbying activities in European countries and EU institutions to check the effectiveness of lobbying interests’ modern experience in Europe and mechanisms in ensuring transparency and its integrity in the EU. Research methods: comparative analysis; regression analysis; systematization, generalization. Results. Availability has established the relationship between disclosure by lobbyists and oversight of compliance with the rules of the register and transparency in lobbying. Lobby transparency has been identified as too weak across Europe, as the implementation of the Transparency Register, which aims to regulate lobbying, has not protected against its excessive influence. The largest expenditure on EU lobbying for the period 2017-2018 falls on countries such as Belgium, Germany, and Italy. The current expenditure of EU member states is 91%, more than €2 billion. It was found that lobbying in Europe helps to solve current problems by further improving the legislation that will ensure the implementation of effective EU policy, where the main topics on the agenda are the implementation of the Law on Digital Services and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been established that lobbying in Europe should address barriers to access to public sector information and public data faced by citizens, and require the implementation of measures to regulate the further activities of officials between the public sector and lobbying.