Portugal tightens lobbying rules for minister contacts
From Friday, contacts between lobbyists and Portugal’s government must be recorded and, in some cases, disclosed, tightening transparency around attempts to influence policy.
Portugal’s government has approved new rules requiring contacts between interest representatives and ministers to be recorded and, in some cases, made public from Friday, in a move that increases transparency around efforts to influence government decisions.
The regulation, published on Thursday, sets out how the lobbying law adopted in January will work in practice. Each minister must appoint a staff member to ensure interactions are logged on a single electronic platform. The scope goes beyond formal meetings and includes correspondence, the sending of information or documents, events, conferences and participation in consultations on draft legislation or other regulatory acts.
The register must include the date of the contact, the type of interaction, the identity of the interest representative, their registration number in the transparency register, the entity represented when applicable, and a short description of the purpose of the contact. Before any meeting is scheduled, the designated official must check that the representative is properly registered. If a lobbyist is not registered, the meeting cannot be scheduled or held.
The rules also say that if documents are sent without the required identification, representation details and purpose, they cannot be taken into account in the decision-making process. Lists of meetings involving each minister or cabinet will be published quarterly on the government portal, while interactions that materially influenced the preparation of legislative or regulatory acts will be disclosed at the end of the relevant procedure.
Some contacts may remain confidential, including cases involving state secrecy, judicial secrecy, commercial secrecy, personal data, national security, public order or fundamental rights. Even in those cases, however, the interaction must still be recorded, with the legal basis for confidentiality identified. Until the transparency register and electronic platform are fully operational, ministerial offices must keep an updated provisional record of lobbyists and their interactions.
Originally published at Eco.pt
