Analytics, Internet, Legislation, Lithuania, Society, Technology

The NGO says it has looked into legislative proposals registered on the Lithuanian parliament's website over the last eight years. While the majority of them have been submitted by representatives of the state sector, quite a number of them have been initiated by various persons and organizations.

All in all, 987 proposals were submitted to the Seimas by individuals and organizations in 2008-2015, including 593 various interested persons, 358 government representatives and 36 registered lobbyists.

The most active group of interested persons includes the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania (it sought amendment of 117 legal acts), The Law Institute (46) and the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (33).

Among registered lobbyists, lobbyist bureau Vento Nuovo is leading with 55 legal acts and is followed by lobbyist Liudvikas Ragauskis with 26 legal acts.

"Judging from the information we have, we see that a considerably higher number of interested persons want to influence lawmakers, than registered lobbyists. Moreover, it's only the tip of the iceberg as lawmakers are influenced by various ways a lot more often. So we need to expand the definition of lobbyism and make politicians reveal all proposals that are not officially registered and are received in other various forms," TILC head Sergejus Muravjovas said.

According to TILC, members of the Seimas now are not obliged to report received proposals if they are submitted in some different way from the official procedure, and also fail to properly declare their meetings with interest groups.

The TILC analysis was based on publicly-accessible reports from parliamentary committees, published on the Seimas' official page, as well as lobbyists' declarations submitted to the Chief Official Ethics Commission.

From now on, information about various interests group involved in legislation can be found on the updated parliamentary monitoring website ManoSeimas.lt, TILC noted.