Austria

• Austrian Lobbying & Public Affairs Council (ALPAC) www.alpac.at
• Public Relations Association of Austria (PRVA) www.prva.at

Belgium

• Belgian Public Affairs Community (BEPACT) www.bepact.be/en/
• Belgium Association of Public Relations Consultancies (BPRCA) www.bprca.be

Bulgaria

Austria: The Austrian Bundesrat passed "Transparenzpaket" (Transparency package) on 28.06.2012, which took effect on 1 January 2013. This package comprises a series of transparency-related laws, among them the so called "LobbyG" regulating lobbying and interest representation and introducing a register. The transparency package was drafted under high political and public pressure and there was little time for expert debates.

The types of voting equipment used in the United States vary significantly from state to state. Some jurisdictions use electronic devices to record votes. Others use traditional paper ballots, and others still use neither and vote by e-mail.

The following types of voting equipment are used in the United States:

EPIN is a network of European think tanks and policy institutes with members in most Member States and Candidate Countries of the European Union.

Currently there are 41 EPIN members from 27 countries, within and outside of the EU. The 'hard core' work of the network is based on the cooperation of about 15 most active institutes. The member institutes are quite diverse in size and structure, but are all characterized by political independence and the absence of any predetermined point of view or political affiliation.

Source: Transparency International Deutschland e.V. (2013)

It is difficult to precisely define the scope and intensity of lobbying in Germany, as no reliable figures are available. One difficulty lies in the fact that there is still no clarification as to who can be called a lobbyist. This is the challenge faced by future legal regulations regarding the registration, transparency and codes of conduct for lobbyists.

The following estimates can be assumed:

1. When Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. government was 10.6 trillion dollars in debt.  Today, the U.S. government is 19.5 trillion dollars in debt, and Obama still has several months to go until the end of his second term.  That means that an average of more than 1.1 trillion dollars a year will be added to the national debt during his presidency 

It is important to reduce the regulations that federal agencies issue daily.  Businesses have to comply with these regulations.  It takes man-hours in H.R. departments, legal fees, and administrative costs, all of which take away from the essentials of the business such as production, manufacturing, and distribution.

In 2015 daily publication of the federal government’s rules, proposed rules and notices amounted to 81,611 pages. The regulations are printed in the Federal Register, also known as the Coder of Federal Regulations (CFR)

In the last 50 years, the EU has adopted more than 100,000 legislative acts

EU legislation comes in three main forms: Directives, Regulations, and Decisions. Directives are the most important and most general of the three. There are many important regulations as well, but usually regulations have a more narrow focus and limited application time. Decisions are the least general of the three. Directives are like real laws, and regulations and decisions are like government decrees.

A CNN/ORC poll released shortly after the last debate found that Hillary Clinton scored a clear victory over her rival Donald Trump. One problem – the survey sample included 41% Democrats compared to just 26% Republicans. Asked, “Who do you think did the best job in the debate – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?”, 62% of respondents said Hillary while 27% said Trump.