Regulace lobbingu v České republice. Od myšlenky ke konceptu a implementaci

[Regulation of Lobbying in the Czech Republic: From Idea to Concept and Implementation]

The Czech Republic does not have any law that defines lobbying, establishes rules of proper conduct between lobbyists and politicians, or provides transparency into those relationships. The purpose of this publication is to bring public attention to the importance of the regulation of lobbying in the fight against corruption in the Czech Republic and to present major legislative recommendations in this area that have been supported by Czech non-governmental anti-corruption organizations. In the last four years, major progress has been made in the conceptualization and analysis of lobbying reform by experts, anti-corruption organizations, and the Czech government. What is needed now is implementation. This publication is intended to provide ideas, recommendations, and specific legislative proposals to make a law on the regulation of lobbying a reality.

Chapter 1 (by me) overviews key principles of the regulation of lobbying, discusses public support for lobbying reform, and explains the progress made to date in the Czech Republic. Chapters 2 (Agnieszka K. Cianciara) and 3 (Craig Holman) overview legislative reforms on lobbying in Poland and the USA, which offer Czech policymakers positive and negative examples of specific legislative measures. Chapter 4 (Vojtěch Prokeš) reviews the recommendations on lobbying reform by Czech experts in the Roundtables on Lobbying of spring 2011, which was arguably the most important forum that has taken place on lobbying regulation between state officials, lobbyists, and civil society. Chapter 5 (Lukáš Kraus and Martin Fadrný) presents a detailed analysis of specific legislative recommendations that grew out of those roundtable talks, and which have been endorsed by many of the most important Czech anti-corruption organizations, such as Transparency International CR, Oživení, Otevřete.cz, and Inventura demokracie. Lastly, a proposed legislative bill on the regulation of lobbying, developed by the public law organization Frank Bold, is included as chapter 6, and which can serve as the basis of either a new governmental bill or parliamentary initiative on this key anti-corruption topic.

The book is available for download.

More about Michael L. Smith: www.michaelsmith.cz