During the opening ceremony of the XVII General Assembly of the Association of Institutional Relations Professionals (APRI), the Minister for Digital and Civil Service Transformation, Óscar López, highlighted the Draft Law on Transparency and Integrity of Stakeholder Activities. López thanked this group for its contributions to the normative project and for the important achievements for democracy achieved during its 17 years of reference in the development of its activity.

“It is time for you to have clear rules of the game to exercise your work legitimately,” the minister said, referring to the so-called ‘law of lobbies’, “the first rule that regulates your professional activity at the state level.”

This law, López continued, is essential for several reasons: because it strengthens transparency, improves democratic quality and equates us to the highest international standards. In addition, it exemplifies how the alliance between government and civil society helps to strengthen the confidence of citizens. “Today more than ever, we must defend public-private collaboration as a habit and not as an exception,” he said.

The rule, set out in the Action Plan for Democracy, defines what a group of interest is and its activities of influence; it defines the public personnel likely to receive such influence; it creates a public and obligatory registry of lobbies and establishes a code of conduct.

Óscar López recalled, among the achievements of this group, how the Spanish Association against Cancer fought for the recognition of the right to oblivion of cancer patients because “institutional relations have always existed and will exist, also when we approve this law”.