ASSESSMENT LOBBY RULES/ITALY

Italy

• Partially Mandatory
•  Broad definition of lobbying
• Applies ro Chamber of Deputies and is not strictly enforced, the number of those registered is not particularly high to date. There are 439 registered interest holders (365 legal entities and 74 natural persons). While no national law exists, some Ministries have some voluntary provisions, most notably the Ministry of Enterprise with a lobby register and publications of interactions.
• Register of Lobbyists: Scope: Legilsative Branch
• Register categories: Identification, category, ID of responsible individual, description of activities, activity reports.
• Limited information provided.

Recommendation

Adopt comprehensive conflicts of interest rules and lobbying regulation to establish an operational footprint

Note 

In March 2017 the first official register for lobbyists was established at a national level in Italy, after years of debates without any systematic regulation of lobbying. Actually, between 1984 and 2014 an astonishing number of more than 50 bills relating to ‘pressure groups’ were proposed in Italy. The regulation approved in 2017 only applies to Italy’s Parliament, leaving out the Senate, however, both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have rules that allow them to audit representatives of public and private organizations to acquire news, information or documents relevant to parliamentary activities, being this mechanism used by interest groups to express their needs and to furnish specialized technical inputs to the legislator. By December 31 of each year, those registered in the register are obliged to present to the Chamber a report on the activity of interest representation carried out during the year, which gives an account of the contacts actually in place, of the objectives pursued and of the subjects in whose interest in the activity was carried out, with any changes occurred, as well as employees or collaborators who participated in the activity. Some public affairs associations have their own Codes of Conduct for members such as Il Chiostro , created in 2008, or the Italian Federation of Public Relations (FERPI) created in 1970.