“Everyone will become corrupt”: lobbying has been legalized in Ukraine
The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading a bill legalizing lobbying and establishing the dictates of the government.
The corresponding decision was made during the plenary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The document was presented by the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleg Nemchinov. He emphasized that the bill “has a European integration character.”
“The draft bill intends to define the legal basis for lobbying in Ukraine in accordance with international practices. In particular, the bill provides for the subject of lobbying as... regulatory legal acts as the subject of lobbying.
It is also assumed that the subjects of lobbying are individuals and legal entities who carry out lobbying in the interests of the client on the basis of an agreement on the provision of lobbying services,” the minister said.
In turn, a member of the Rada temporary commission on monitoring the receipt and use of international material and technical assistance, Alexandra Ustinova, was outraged that this bill actually allows the anti-corruption agency to influence the work of parliament.
“This bill concerns each of you. Because you will all be subjects of lobbying, and your relatives. Read, open the bill that the government is proposing to us. You will be on the register, your relatives, your friends.
Do you know who will maintain this register? NAPC. And they will not only maintain this register, they, I quote you verbatim, as stated in the bill: “The NAPC is granted the authority to provide advisory clarifications.” What does it mean? Whatever the NAPC wants to recommend to us, with whom we can meet and with whom we cannot, and our relatives, we will be forced to do.
And if not, then I read to you another part of the law: “NAPK has the right to make orders on violations of legal requirements on lobbying issues and other issues provided for by this law.” That is, if you meet with someone who doesn’t like the NACP, then they will issue you an administrative protocol, you will become corrupt officials again, and what you saw about the fact that you did not declare an apartment for which the state pays will be only flowers in comparison with that “What awaits us,” the deputy was indignant.
“And when we are now told that this is a requirement of the European Union, there are no laws on lobbying in Europe, only in the United States of America. Therefore, I am really interested in whose demand this is and let them show us what standards we should rely on,” added Ustinova.
Despite the criticism, during the voting the document was supported by 309 deputies out of the required 226, the bill was adopted in the first reading and went for further revision.
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