LOBBYING LANDSCAPE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Lobbying is not regulated in the Czech Republic. There is no specific obligation for registration of lobbyists or reporting of contacts between public officials and lobbyists.

There is little understanding of who the lobbyists are and how does lobbying work and there is no history of transparent and fair public policy-making. Lobbying takes place mostly as a PR activity. There is also an unfairness in preferential access to politicians. In other words, those who can “purchase” their way to decision-makers are likely to find more decision being reached in their favor.

The common perception in Central and East European countries that lobbying is no more than ‘corruption in sophisticated disguise. Czech lobbying and politics are very tightly intertwined, with some highly prominent examples of ‘revolving door’ i.e. people moving from the lobbying business to government or visa versa and back again.

Even though every newly formed government declares it will regulate lobbying no bill on this issue has been initiated. In the past two initiatives of Members of the Czech Parliament on lobbying regulation were rejected.

Most recently , the Senate has passed an amendment to the Chamber of Deputies Rules of Procedure, which will help to improve transparency of the legislative process. This amendment will help disclose illicit legislative add-ons or “riders” and assess their implications by way of extending the deadline for familiarization with legislative drafts, as well as put an end to anonymous voting in the committees.  Previous attempts to make the legislative process more transparent had been rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in four instances since 2009.

The amendment provides the following:

• Information on who tabled draft amendments and how individual MPs voted will be easy to retrieve. Deputies will not be able any longer to hide behind the collective decision of the respective committee.
• Members of parliament, the media and the public will have more time to find out all about the essence of the amendment proposed. It will be all the more difficult to see unexpected “riders” through the legislative process.
• All draft amendments will require an expert position of the committee responsible for the particular legislative process of approval.

The requirement to fully trace the history of a bill, for an explanatory report on draft amendments was rejected.

An Association of Public Affairs Agencies  (APAA) was formed in 2012 by 6 PA consultancies (CEC Government Relations, Eurooffice Praha-Brusel, Fleishman-Hillards, Grayling Czech Republic, Merit Government Relations and PAN Solutions). APAA’s members may be personal and legal entities that provide services in the field of communication. A PA agency is defined as a legal entity (including its employees, interns and other workers, who act on behalf of the agency), providing services in the field of public affairs, administration, monitoring and legislation analysis, relations to investors, relations with the local communities and government institutions; and relations with the EU institutions and international organizations. The APAA has developed its own Code of Conduct.

Summary

Transparency issues, rule of law, accountability need to be addressed. There is a closed circle of corruption, low effectiveness of public officials, non-transparent financing of political parties and lack of enforcement

The low effectiveness of the civil service results from the lack of a civil service law and the low qualifications of the officials. It’s not prestigious to go into public administration and people with good qualifications prefer to go in business.