On Thursday, 13 October, Latvian Saeima passed in the final reading the Law on Transparency of Representation of Interests or the so-called lobbying transparency law.
According to the Saeima’s press-service, the law requires the register of interest representation and declaration system, which will be maintained by the Enterprises Register, will start operations on 1 September 2025.
The law currently does not list any administrative penalties, however. Previously, Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee approved the idea to cease using the previously intended approach for administrative penalties. This decision was made because the expected regulation is not simple and it would not be the correct course of action to punish someone who may have accidentally misunderstood the expected requirements, as was mentioned in previous discussions.
The Cabinet of Ministers will have to include in its report for 2025 details regarding the need to ensure administrative liability for failure to comply with duties listed in the aforementioned law.
The goal of the law is to ensure transparency for lobbying interests, promote society’s trust in lobbyists representing interests in public suggestion of different decisions, their development, approval and implementation, as well as ensure equal and fair opportunities for all private persons to participate in representation of interests.
‘Every person has the right to present to the parliament his or her ideas, problems or requests for amendments. This process should be traceable and transparent, because at the moment there is a great deal of distrust towards the way different decisions are made. Society needs a clear and transparent picture of why proposals are made to be what they are,’ as chairman of Saeima’s Defence Committee Juris Rancāns previously said about the legislative draft’s review in the parliament.
The law defines the concepts of representation of interests and representative of interests, as well as presents the duty to register as representatives of interests. It also details the necessity for an interest representation and declaration system. The law also introduces duties for representatives of interests and public power, as well as certain restrictions for the interest representation process. Starting with 2024 the Cabinet of Ministers will need to send reports to the Saeima on accomplishments in this field once a year.
The law was authored by the work group headed by Saeima deputy Inese Voika with assistance from multiple institutions and social representatives.