RULES ON PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY ARE NECESSARY IN COUNTRIES WITH HIGH CPI

According to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2012, the countries herebelow are considered to have the most significant corruption. Governments in those countries need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all public decision-making. Priorities include the definition of public policy advocacy rules (where none exist) and political financing, making public spending and contracting more transparent and making public bodies more accountable to people. There are strong correlations between poverty, conflict and perceived levels of corruption. In Central and Eastern Europe, the link between political actors and economic advocacy groups is not completely transparent posing the question of legitimate public policy advocacy vs. corrupt influence.

The idea behind laying down the rules on public policy advocacy is to raise the level of accountability and transparency. By having a statutory register of public policy advocates citizens may be able to find information as to who is influencing the decision-making process. The citizens may thus hold public office holders and their politicians to account. Hence public policy advocacy rules are intended to achieve transparency and curb corruption, but the public policy advocacy rules are not principally designed to fight corruption.

Ranking of countries with high level of corruption (out of 174 countries):

• Spain 30
• Portugal 33
• Slovenia 37
• Poland 41
• Lithuania 48
• Czech Republic 54
• Latvia 54
• Turkey 54
• Croatia 62
• Slovakia 62
• Romania 66
• Macedonia 69
• Italy 72
• Bosnia and Herzegovina 72
• Bulgaria 75
• Montenegro 75
• Serbia 80
• Greece 94

Now, turning to public policy advocacy rules: 4 types of country can be distinguished:

A. Countries with No Statutory Rules (at present time)

• Spain
• Portugal
• Latvia
• Turkey
• Croatia
• Slovakia
• Romania
• Italy
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Greece

B. Countries with Existing Lobbying Laws

• Lithuania
• Poland

C. Countries debating revision of Existing Lobbying Laws

• Slovenia
• Macedonia

D. Countries considering passing Lobbying Laws

• Serbia
• Montenegro