LOBBYING LANDSCAPE IN LITHUANIA

The lobbying community in Lithuania is underdeveloped, corrupt and negatively perceived by society. This results in rising suspicion in the eyes of the public and government officials which impedes the development of an effective lobbying community. Lithuanian interest groups do not use sophisticated lobbying practices and access is largely based on personal connections and corrupt practices.

Negative perceptions of lobbying and the ineffective Lobbying Law contribute to the burgeoning and unrefined state of lobbying in Lithuania. These pessimistic public attitudes are amplified by the fact that the Lithuanian Lobbying Law  presents significant obstacles to the formation of interest groups (extensive registration processes) and the implementation of lobbying activities. The prevalence of corruption and long-established personal connections are major lobbying tactics and result in a dichotomy in the minds of the public in differentiating between private and public interests. The present law also fails to elucidate increased transparency and legitimacy of lobbying activities, which are the core artifices of an efficient democracy.

The business community has transitioned to sophisticated interest group and lobbying systems. This is due to its extensive resources and contacts that businessess have with the Lithuanian Parliament and the executive branch. It can be said that only those interest groups with a great deal of resources have power in Lithuania. A significant factor to take into consideration in business lobbying is the financial resources that these communities have. Furthermore, there are more than 100 members of the Lithuanian Parliament that have business connections and interests but only four that represent labour. There are few professional lobbyists who are registered . Many groups come to the Lithuanian Parliament with their complaints but fail to suggest possible solutions and courses of political action to solve problems.

The lack of a professional lobbying community in Lithuania may persist in the future because the use of personal contacts to contact public officials makes the development of a lobbying bodies redundant, the lack of knowledge among groups about sophisticated lobbying tactics may include a lack of knowledge about the value of professional lobbyists, and the small population of Lithuania infers that informal politics prevails as a result of personal contacts. Hence, there is not enough pressure or incentive to develop advanced interest group techniques including professional lobbying groups.

Corruption is widespread in Lithuania and affects the interest group system. It affects how people go about ‘lobbying’, including using bribes to public officials, passing contracts to friends etc. Corruption in the system contributes directly to the very negative view of interest groups and lobbying by the public . Corrupt methods of lobbying (bribery and gratuities) are not accepted as ethical, but identified as the most effective and practiced methods of lobbying that can be used for interest group to achieve desired results.

The Law on lobbying activities has been in force since 1st January 2001. It was amended in 2001 and 2003. The Law defines a lobbyist as a natural or legal person and lobbying activities as ‘actions taken for or without a compensation in an attempt to exert influence to have legal acts amended, supplemented or repelled or new legal acts adopted or rejected in the interests of the client lobbying activities'.

Lithuania's registration system only includes contract lobbyists who attempt to influence the legislative branch of government, specifically excluding both in-house lobbyists, who are considered part of a corporation's permanent staff, and non-profit lobbying organizations. Lobbyists in Lithuania submit an annual report of their lobbying activities to the registry. In addition to name, address, phone number and certificate number, a registered lobbyist must also record his or her income from and expenditures for lobbying activities, and the title(s) of the piece legislation target of influence.The reports are published in the Official Gazette of Lithuania.

 Under the Law, lobbyists may

1. Participate in the drafting and drafting legal acts and submit explanations.
2. Conduct expert examination of drafts to submit conclusions to clients of lobbying activities.
3. Explain to the public and convince State and municipal institutions that a certain legal act should be adopted/rejected/amended/supplemented/repelled.
4. Inform the public, enterprises, agencies and organisations about draft legal acts which are prepared in the Seimas (Parliament), the Government and other State or municipal institutions.
5. Report through mass media and participate in public events
6. Collect data and information about the legislative procedure and submit it to clients.
7. Propose to legislators to initiate amendments of effective legal acts.
8. Organise meetings of legislators with representatives of clients of lobbying activities.
9. Organise public opinion polls regarding the adoption or implementation of legal acts.
10. Organise representational and other events on legislative issues
11. Organise meetings of state politicians (public officials) with the public on legislative issues
12. Obtain copies of draft of legal acts and other information if this is in compliance with laws.
13. Authorise another person to present a report on lobbying activities in the name of the lobbyist.

Activities not considered lobbying 

1. Activities or work of mass media owners, publishers or their employees, related to information about effective and draft legal acts, publication of their texts in full or in part, their review, comments (if not receiving compensation for lobbying activities).
2. Participating upon invitation of State and municipal institutions or agencies, in the preparation, consideration or explanation of draft legal acts as experts or specialists for or without compensation.
3. Actions taken by State politicians, public officials or public servants with their official powers granted to them by legal acts.
4. Activities of non-profit organisations aimed at exerting influence to have legal acts amended, supplemented, repelled, adopted or rejected in the common interests of their members.
5. Activities of scientists (pedagogues) except acting in the interests of a client lobbying activities.
6. An opinion expressed by a natural person regarding a proposal to amend, supplement, repeal, adopt or reject a legal act- except that person acts in the interests of a client of lobbying activities.

Assessment of the Law

The Lobbying Law is unsuccessful in Lithuania because it is too restrictive. While many individuals engage in activities that are legitimate lobbying, negative views on the part of the public and public officials along with a troublesome registration process and expensive registration fee, dissuades most individuals engaged in lobbying activity from registering. The general consensus is that the lobbying law is not feasible, is ineffective and is likely not applicable to a developing democracy with an emerging interest group system like Lithuania.

Since there are very few registered lobbyists, most lobbying is conducted through unregulated and non-transparent means. Thus the law does not account for the predominant amount of the actual lobbying that takes place in Lithuania. A regulatory system that would be more efficient is a monitoring system which requires reporting of lobbying activity, more information and transparency on lobbyists and their interests, and also providing information on the money that is spent on lobbying. Since the Lithuanian Lobbying Law is associated with corruption and negative perceptions, registering is a major disadvantage for those who legally register as paid lobbyists. Overall, there is a disincentive to do so.

By simply integrating lobbying laws into a regulatory system will not result in dramatically reducing corruption levels. Lobbying practices should be transparent to the public. Civil society needs to understand the need for the lobbyist’s activities and be active advocates of it, and therefore transform them into a crucial component of a functioning democracy.

Taking into account the suspicion that most citizens hold and their wariness of most political moves, they must learn and understand that such politics are legitimate and acceptable. To achieve this, it may be plausible to introduce studies of legitimate lobbying activities in school/university curriculums. In the Lithuanian system the most difficult aspect to change is probably the civic society ideals and beliefs and the attitudes of the Lithuanian population and elites. Lithuanian democracy is nearly two decades old and clearly the interest group and lobbying system has not emerged as a strongly constructed cornerstone. The lack of citizen knowledge about the significance of an independent and politically sophisticated civil society for modern democratic politics indicates that the core requirement of a transparent lobbying system was amiss from the beginning.