The Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, has approved, in the second round, the draft law on transparency and integrity of the activities of interest groups. This is the first time that relations between the so-called ‘lobbies’ and holders of public posts in the General Administration of the State, which are likely to receive influence, are regulated within the scope of the General Administration of the State and its institutional public sector, in order to guarantee greater transparency, participation in public decision-making and prevention of conflicts of interest.

The regulation of the activity of the interest groups is a very important factor in the construction of a culture of transparency, public participation and accountability, and with this step taken by the Government, within the framework of the Action Plan for Democracy, several objectives are met as contemplated in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, in the 2030 Agenda and in the IV Open Government Plan (2020-2024). In addition, it helps to comply with the recommendations made to Spain by both the EU and the OECD.

The draft clearly and precisely defines what is a group of interest, the activity of influence and the public personnel susceptible to this influence, and creates the register of interest groups of the General Administration of the State and its institutional public sector.

In this sense, interest groups are those natural and legal persons, groupings without legal personality, including platforms, forums, networks, or other forms of collective activity, whether acting on their own behalf or on behalf of others, regardless of the form they adopt or their legal status, and carrying out activities of influence on public personnel.

On the other hand, public administrations and their institutional public sector, international public bodies and authorities (including diplomatic missions and embassies), political parties, trade union and business organizations and professional associations in the exercise of public functions will not be considered as a group of interest. It will be understood that a trade union or business organization exercises influence when these do not correspond to the exercise of its constitutional functions.

High-ranking personnel of the AGE, members of cabinets that perform functions of trust or special advice, public managers and other personnel of the general administration of the State and its institutional public sector who participate in public decision-making, in policy-making processes and in the implementation of public policies are considered to be influential public personnel.

Interest group registration and regulatory footprint

This registration will be public, free and interoperable with that of other Public Administrations and will be managed by the Office of Conflicts of Interest (OCI).

The data contained in this register will be available and accessible to everyone through the transparency portal of the General State Administration and the OCI website.

The registration of these ‘lobbies’ will be mandatory and those who are not registered will not be able to exercise influence activities with public staff. In addition, the application for registration shall expressly indicate whether natural persons who are going to carry out activities of influence or their representatives have worked in the service of the State Administration or any entity of its public institutional sector in the two years prior to the development of such activities or the registration of the interest group.

Specifically, article 15 of Law 3/2015, of 30 March, regulating the exercise of the high office of the General Administration of the State, is amended to indicate that persons included in the scope of application of this law may not carry out professional activities of influence to the service or for entities registered in the register of interest groups in any of the matters related to the competences of the department, agency or entity in which they provided services as senior personnel during the two years after the cessation of that office.

The Register shall contain, at a minimum, the list of natural and legal persons who exercise the activity of influence, as well as their domicile or registered office. It shall also include financial information relating to the last accounting year, indicating which part is attributable to the activity of influence.

These ‘lobbies’ will be subject to a code of conduct and their infringements will be typified in a sanctioning regime. The commission of a very serious infringement will be punished with the cancellation of registration and the prohibition to re-apply for registration within a maximum period of two years.

Another new development has to do with the obligation to incorporate the so-called legislative footprint report into any policy-making process. The report will include the activities carried out by stakeholders in order to influence the development and adoption of policy projects. It will therefore include the identity of the public personnel who have had contact with these groups, as well as the set of contributions and observations made by them, the identification of the interest groups, the date and the object of the contact.