Transparency in lobbying still needs to be improved

The Transparency Register Act, which will enter into force at the beginning of next year, does not extend to influencing decision-makers at regional and local level.

Influencing the government's programme in the spring was the last opaque lobbying effort. The government formulator Petteri Orpo (Kok) announced that no lobbyists would be admitted to the government negotiations. However, a wide range of experts, including lobbyists, were consulted in the negotiating working groups. It is not clear whether a consultant is an expert or a lobbyist.

The Transparency Register Act will enter into force at the beginning of 2024. The register, maintained by the National Audit Office, will collect detailed information on lobbying activities directed at MPs, Parliament and ministries. In this way, government negotiations will also indirectly be covered by the register. Not only companies and associations, but also specialised lobbying consultancies are obliged to register.

When lobbying on social decision-making is made more public, consideration should be given to lobbying on both legislative and administrative decision-making. A transparency register will increase transparency in law-making and budgeting, but administrative decision-making will remain largely outside the register.

Lobbying at regional and local level is still completely hidden - unless the target is also a national decision-maker, such as a Member of Parliament. At regional and municipal level, decision-making is mainly administrative rather than normative. The Transparency Register Act was drafted in recognition of the fact that there are more risks of improper influence at regional and local level than in central government.

The new law recognises that lobbying is an important part of a democratic society. Finnish law-making has been characterised by a model of what is known as consensus democracy or corporatism: several interest groups are involved in the preparation of legislation and different views are reconciled in policy-making. This increases the legitimacy of policy-making.

The media use the transparency register.

Traditionally, both experts and interest groups have been widely consulted in the legislative process. There is a long and strong tradition of tripartite drafting in legislation affecting working life. Social partners are involved in the legislative process both as experts and as lobbyists.

Listed companies and other large enterprises also have extensive lobbying activities. Individual companies are less likely to be individually consulted in Parliament, but they have a need to influence legislation at different stages of its preparation.

The Transparency Register makes such lobbying more public than before. Every six months, companies and lobbying consultants will have to report to the register the names of the people they have met, the subjects of their meetings and how they have been contacted. The financial resources used for lobbying must be reported annually. Major players are already putting in place processes to comply with the reporting obligation.

Although the Transparency Register is public, the media will play the most important role in its use by society. It will also help journalists to identify more easily the documents they can request from public authorities under the principle of public access.

The Transparency Register will also provide researchers with the data to produce statistical analyses of lobbying activities and to conduct more in-depth research on the impact of lobbying on social decision-making, in particular on law-making and budgeting.

The new legislation will improve transparency on acceptable and necessary lobbying activities and help businesses and other organisations to structure their lobbying activities in a more structured way. In the light of the experience gained with the Transparency Register, the possibility of extending the Register to cover lobbying at regional and local level will need to be assessed at a later stage.

Original publication date Helsingin Sanomat's Vieraskynä column.

Niilo Mustonen, Managing Partner, Blic Public Affairs

Klaus Nyblin, Partner, HPP Attorneys at Law