Lobbying – theory and
practice
dr. Ferenc Nyujtó general-director of department MoAR
Department of Strategic Issues
Budapest, 2009. August 31,.
Outline
1.Introductory words
2.Lobbying in theory
3.Lobbying by countries
4.Regulation of lobbying in Hungary
5. Features of lobbying practice in Hungary before and
after the accession
Preface
• Economist
• Research Institute for Agriculture Economics (1973 –
1983)
• Assistant to the minister of agriculture (1983 – 1987)
• Head of department for agriculture budgetary policy,
subsidies, credit policy, statistics, World Bank’s projects
(1988 -1999)
• Desk officer for the MoARD in Prime-ministerial Office
(1999 – 2002)
• Chef of the Cabinet to the minister of agriculture (2002
– 2003)
• Deputy state secretary, responsible for the EU accession
and acting as a member state (2003 – 2006)
Preface
Lobbying is an ancient art, as old as
government itself.
National government and local
governments, self-governments too.
Mother of all parliaments
The House of Commons
The Hungarian Parliament
The Hall of the Plenary Sessions
I) Introduction (1)
A Hungarian saying
• If I’m involved, it is called lobbying
activity, if I am left out, it is then mafia.
Introduction (2)
• Hungarian delay in socio-economic
development – now we are catching up
• Changing the political regime and introducing
the democratic institutions, having
parliamentary democracy (1990)
• Opening doors to market economy and inviting
foreign investments, capital, expertise
• Joining the European Union (2004)
Introduction (3)
• An average Hungarian first of all looks
for a helping hand in the office instead of
studying the adequate rules. We are
looking for WHOM not WHAT, when we
initiate the solution of a task or problem.
• This approach is very often
CHARACTERISTIC OF the public
affairs, too.
Introduction (4)
Historical heritage (1)
• Hungary was a part of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire
for centuries – presents, bribery (in Turkish
“bakshish”) was needed to settle things;
• The same old story was going on in the administration
of the Habsburg-Monarchy later, when we were ruled
by the Habsburgs, always alliances were needed to
shape a regulation in a “proper” way or reach a better
political compromise (in extreme cases the lobby
activity extended to the so-called national freedomfightings );
• The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s government had its
weaknesses in this regard;
Introduction (5)
Hungarian heritage (2)
• Also, the Hungarian Kingdom between the two world wars
lacked full transparency in administration;
• In a soviet-block country transparency was not the most
important matter, it was the area of politically motivated lobby
activity, like agrar-lobby for more state aid, industrial lobby
for more state-provided investment sources etc.
• We arrived in 1990 at the epoch of parliamentary democracy
with the highest degree of transparency we had ever had in
Hungary;
• After the accession to the EU we have to certify the highest
level of transparency in compliance with the EU regulations at
least in the cases of spending common subsidies, implementing
market regulation, public procurement rules etc.
Introduction (6)
• Hungary is a member state of the Union
and all the rules of the community are in
force in our country. This situation
necessitates to set up requirements of
reshaping our national legal regulation,
too.
Introduction (7)
Great traditions of lobby activity are alive in our society
regarding the former information. The task was how to
regulate it in transparent forms in order to strengthen
our democratic institutions. I will present this topic in
chapter III.: what is the Hungarian regulation like
nowadays. Chapter I. gives us the theory, mainly the
Anglo-Saxon one. Chapter II. tells us about the
regulation of the countries’ and the EU regulation and
chapter IV. considers the Hungarian practice: both in
the frame of national regulation before the accession
and how we implement the rules now in the EU
programmes.
II) LOBBYING in THEORY
Although we know that the severalthousand-year-old social history is about
„lobbying”, its theory extends for only
about two centuries.
Lobbying in theory (1)
By Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
- Definition: lobbying is the practice of influencing
decisions made by government (in groups or
individually). It includes all attempts to influence
legislators and officials, whether by other
legislators, constituents, or organized groups.
- A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence
legislation on behalf of a special interest or a
member of a lobby. Governments often define
and regulate organized group lobbying.
Lobbying in practice (2 )
•
Lobby - what does it mean?
•
1) A hall, foyer, or waiting room at or near the
entrance to a building, such as a hotel or
theater.
2) A public room next to the assembly chamber
of a legislative body.
3) A group of persons engaged in trying to
influence legislators or other public officials in
favor of a specific cause: the banking lobby; the
labor lobby.
•
•
By the American
Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ©
2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company
Lobbying in theory (3 )
•
Lobbying – what does it mean?(Heritage
Dictionary)
•
•
1) To try to influence public officials on behalf
of or against (proposed legislation, for
example): lobbied the bill through Congress;
lobbied the bill to a negative vote.
2) To try to influence (an official) to take a
desired action.
Lobbying in theory (4)
„Friend or Foe?
Lobbying in British Democracy”
A discussion paper by Philip Parvin
Text and graphics © Hansard Society 2007
• It is an important and ground-breaking
study in a number of ways
Lobbying in theory (5)
• Firstly it concludes that lobbying is a broad activity and
not a narrow one.
• Secondly, although their objectives are very different,
corporate and NGO lobbying today pursue very similar
tactics and strategies to achieve them, although as the
report indicates their target audiences (politicians and
policy makers) view their effectiveness very differently.
• Finally, by examining the media, the elected politicians
and the public affairs industry in one single study, the
report is able to look at the totality of what influences
and shapes the political debate and ultimately today’s
government policy.
Lobbying in theory (6)
The paper demonstrates that:
1) Lobbying is more widespread than it is often
assumed to be by its critics and supporters.
2) Public affairs activity is becoming more
professionalised.
3) Ensuring that all those organisations who
engage in lobbying do so transparently and
ethically is crucial to the future health of our
democratic system. Organisations not only have
an ETHICAL reason to be transparent and open
in their dealings, but also a COMMERCIAL
one.
Lobbying in theory (7)
4) Although lobbying organisations are, on the
whole, becoming much more professional in their
approach to engaging with policy-makers and
MPs, they have varying degrees of success in
doing so. Those which have the greatest success
are not necessarily from the sectors that many
people expect.
5) As a result of wider social and political change,
as well as government policy, lobbying
organisations across different sectors are
occupying an increasingly central role not only in
the development of policy, but also in its delivery.
Lobbying in theory (8)
• What is against it?
The recent report by the Power Commission argues that
lobbyists should be forced to disclose their contact with
politicians, because:
• Opinions about the legitimacy and usefulness of lobbying
are not unanimous.
• Many see lobbying as antithetical to democracy; a
corruption of the basic democratic principle that
government should be in the public interest, not in the
interests of those with the money to buy influence and
power.
• This sentiment would appear to run deep among many
activists and campaigners who have suggested that some of
our most basic freedoms and liberties are in jeopardy as a
result of big businesses seeking to maximise their profits.
Lobbying in theory (9)
• What is pro?
1)It is surely the case that the power and access the media has to
influencing policy is vastly more than that of the whole
lobbying industry.
2) „It is the right of any citizen to lobby his
Member of Parliament, and if he considers
that his case can be better advanced with
professional assistance he has every right
to avail himself of that assistance.”
– First Report of Members Interests Committee, 1984-1985 / UK
3)Broader frame in supplying information for legislators
Lobbying in theory (10)
• Two terms ‘lobbying’ and ‘public affairs’
• Effectively influencing policy-makers requires
a wide range of diverse techniques and
practices
• Lobbyists are keen to emphasise that ‘lobbying’
is only one part of what they do
• Effective political communication involves not
merely direct contact with MPs, ministers, and
civil servants, but
Lobbying in theory (11)
a range of other related activities including
• building partnerships with other organisations,
• raising issues with the press,
• engaging with user-groups,
• mobilising grassroots support,
• managing reputations,
• monitoring and predicting political, legal, economic,
and social developments,
• market research,
• providing political intelligence and strategic advice,
and so on.
Lobbying in theory (12)
• To put it another way, lobbying and public
affairs activity involves not merely the
development of vertical relations between
organisations and government, but the
fostering of horizontal relationships among all
those different groups involved in policy
development (including government).
• The term ‘public affairs’ has emerged to
capture all these different activities under one
profession or label.
Lobbying in theory (13)
• Lobbying = implementation of overlapping
lobbying techniques which different
organisations use to try to influence the
political process.
• The rise of single-issue politics has meant that
formal political engagement (through the
traditional channels of joining associations like
political parties and trade unions, and voting in
elections) has declined and has been supplanted
by newer forms of political activity.
Lobbying in theory (14)
The Democratic Context of lobbying
• Recent research suggests that people seem less
willing to engage in the formal mechanisms of
representative politics, it seems that they are
willing to look to non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and interest groups to
represent their views on certain issues within
the democratic system.
Lobbying in theory (15)
• Lobbying is often seen as the means by which big
businesses seek to influence politicians in order to
increase their profits. There is some truth in this, of
course: businesses do indeed lobby politicians in
order to increase their profits. But lobbying and big
business are not synonymous.
• Films such as The Corporation, Supersize Me, and
Thank You For Smoking, books like Fast Food
Nation by Eric Schlosser and No Logo by Naomi
Klein, and popular polemics rage at government
corruption and financial scandal.
Lobbying in theory (16)
• In a developed country the policy-making
process is dynamic, fragmented, and subject to a
great many influences from a diverse range of
organisations hoping to shape policy decisions by
communicating with Parliament, government,
and one another in the interests of promoting (or
resisting) change. This direct or indirect lobbying
of policy-makers and other stakeholders is
widespread and deeply ingrained in a developed
democratic system. Indeed it is symbolic of a
healthy pluralist democracy.
Lobbying in theory (17)
• Who are lobbyists? What kinds of organisations are
in the business of shaping and influencing policy in a
country?
• companies - corporate lobbying
• charities and interest groups
• trade unions
• trade associations
• professional bodies
• think tanks
• Government
• The Media
Lobbying in theory (18)
‘Lobbying’ is only one part – and a relatively small part - of
what public affairs practitioners (whether consultants, or
working for companies, trade associations, interest groups,
NGOs, think tanks, or trade unions) do in the name of
raising agendas and issues with decision-makers and other
key stakeholders. Public affairs represents a wide and
diverse range of activities, many of which do not involve
direct lobbying of government or parliamentarians at all.
Consequently, when viewed in this broader way, the
‘lobbying’ process must be viewed not as a top down or
‘vertical’ relationship between external organisations and
government, but a ‘horizontal’ relationship between a range
of organisations, including government.
III) LOBBYING by
COUNTRIES
Recent regulations and practice of
countries
Lobbying by countries (1) USA
Although lobbying is an ancient art — as old as
government itself — it is still frequently viewed
with suspicion.
• It is, in fact, a legitimate activity protected by the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of
America:
"Congress shall make no law....abridging the
freedom of speech....or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances."
Lobbying by countries (2) USA
The term "lobbyist" came into usage early in the 19th
century, although stories of its origin vary.
• 1) One account describes "lobby-agents" as the petitioners
in the lobby of the New York State Capitol waiting to
address legislators.
• 2) Another version of the story describes the lobby of the
Willard Hotel as the meeting site for both legislators and
favor-seekers during the early 1800s.
• 3) A third story states that the term originated at the
Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where it was used by
Ulysses S. Grant to describe the political wheelers and
dealers frequenting the hotel's lobby in order to access
Grant, who was often found there, enjoying a cigar and
brandy. (Why?– his wife prohibited him from smoking at
home)
Lobbying by countries (3) USA
• Either way, by 1835 the term had been shortened to "lobbyist"
and was in wide usage in the U.S. Capitol, though frequently
pejoratively.
• The caricature is as familiar as the name: portly, cigar-smoking
men who wine and dine lawmakers while slipping money into
their pockets.
• Simply put, lobbying is advocacy of a point of view, either by
groups or individuals. A special interest is nothing more than an
identified group expressing a point of view — be it colleges and
universities, churches, charities, public interest or
environmental groups, senior citizens´ organizations, even state,
local or foreign governments. While most people think of
lobbyists only as paid professionals, there are also many
independent, volunteer lobbyists — all of whom are protected
by the same First Amendment.
Lobbying by countries (4) USA
• Lobbying is a legitimate and necessary part of
the American democratic political process.
Government decisions affect both people and
organizations, and information must be
provided in order to produce informed
decisions. Public officials cannot make fair and
informed decisions without considering
information from a broad range of interested
parties. All sides of an issue must be explored in
order to produce equitable government
policies.
Lobbying by countries (5 ) USA
• Many jurisdictions, in response to concerns of
corruption, require the formal registration of lobbyists
who come in contact with government representatives.
• Since 1995, under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act
(2 U.S.C. § 1601–1612), most people who are paid to
make direct "lobbying contacts" with members of
Congress and officials of the federal executive branch
are required to register and file reports twice a year.
• If lobbyists neglect to register, they are susceptible to
criminal charges and harsh penalties.
Lobbying by countries ( 6) USA
• A controversial bill, the "Executive Branch Reform Act”, H.R.
985, would require over 8,000 Executive Branch officials to report
into a public database nearly any "significant contact" from any
"private party." Although promoted as a regulation on
"lobbyists," the bill defines "private party" as "any person or
entity" except "Federal, State, or local government official or a
person representing such an official."
• Thus, under the proposal, anyone who contacts a covered
government official is in effect deemed to be a lobbyist, unless the
communicator is another government official or government staff
person. The bill defines "significant contact" to be any "oral or
written communication (including electronic communication) . . .
in which the private party seeks to influence official action by any
officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States."
Lobbying by countries (7) USA
• The bill is supported by some organizations as an expansion
of "government in the sunshine," but other groups oppose it
as an infringing on the right to petition by making it
impossible for citizens to communicate their views on
controversial issues without having their names and
viewpoints entered into a government database. The U.S.
Department of Justice has raised constitutional and other
objections to the bill.
• In an other regulatory case the U.S. Supreme Court has
rejected congressional efforts to regulate grassroots
communications as a form of "lobbying," on constitutional
grounds.
Lobbying by countries (8 ) USA
• The American League of Lobbyists has adopted
the "Code of Lobbying Ethics" to provide basic
guidelines and standards for lobbyists' conduct.
• Currently, there are over 17,000 federal
lobbyists based in Washington, DC. While
many of these lobbyists are employed by
lobbying and law firms and retain outside
clients, others are employed by trade
associations, companies, and state and local
governments.
Lobbying by countries ( 9) UK
• In the United Kingdom lobbying traditionally referred
to the attempt to influence an MP's vote by either their
fellow parliamentary colleagues, by one of their
constituents or by any outside organisation.
• Currently the term often refers to the more narrow
usage of the operation of "lobbyists" hired to represent
the views of an organisation, though "there is no neat
way of defining what is generally acknowledged to be a
porous concept."
• The professional lobbying industry has been steadily
growing in recent years and was estimated by the
Hansard Society in 2007 to be worth £1.9 billion and
employ 14,000 people.
• Their report also suggested that some MPs are
approached over 100 times a week by lobbyists.
Lobbying by countries (10 ) UK
• The House of Commons Public Administration
Select Committee held an investigation into
lobbying, and its 2009 report called for "a
statutory register of lobbying activity to bring
greater transparency to the dealings between
Whitehall decision makers and outside
interests.„
• It also concluded that the self-regulation of the
professional lobbying industry was
"fragmented" and appeared to "involve very
little regulation of any substance".
Lobbying by countries (11 ) UK
• There are two self-regulatory bodies which
UK public affairs companies can join:
• the Association of Professional Political
Consultants (APPC) and the Public
Relations Consultants Association (PRCA)
• the Chartered Institute of Public Relations
(CIPR) which registers individual lobbyists.
Lobbying by countries (12 ) UK
• In addition to "open" lobbying, the United Kingdom,
political parties have been accused of trying to raise
campaign funds by offering peerages and other
honors.
• The rules of Parliament do, however, require
participants in debates to 'declare their interest'. The
'sale' of peerages is a criminal offence. To circumvent
this law, it is alleged that some contributions thus
solicited, are given not as outright gifts but as loans.
These issues were also the focus of a Public
Administration Select Committee investigation.
Lobbying by countries (13) UK
• The corporate business is estimated to employ 48000
people in PR activity, the UK PR industry is worth
around £6.5 billion
• The 30% of that was estimated to be the professional
lobbying industry in 2007 to be worth £1.9 billion and
employ 14,000 people.
• The charity, interest group, and wider NGO sector
represents an important and growing locus of lobbying
and public affairs activity. 190,000 charities are
currently registered with the UK Charity Commission,
with a combined annual income of £38 billion –
equivalent to 3.4 per cent of total GDP. The UK charity
sector employs around 600,000 paid staff.
Lobbying by countries (14) UK
• 67 Trade Unions currently make up the Trade Union
Congress, together representing almost 6.5 million people.
Labour Party records show that the trade unions still
contribute to the majority of the party’s funding (around
75 per cent)
• Trade Associations occupy an important place in the
policy-making process. The Trade Association Forum
claims that there are around 3000 bodies in the UK which
might be described as trade associations. Around 600 of
these lobby in a ‘meaningful way’, and around 100 have
‘major full-time staff and government affairs teams’. The
CBI, for example, has around 2,000 individual company
members employing around four million people, plus a
further six million employed by companies whose trade
associations are members.
Lobbying by countries (15) UK
• The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) represents
195,000 members employed across a range of sectors, which
together employ 1.3 million people and have an annual
turnover of over £10 billion. The ABPI – Association for the
Pharmaceutical Industry – represents almost 150 full or
affiliated members who together produce 80 per cent of the
medicines prescribed through the NHS and have an annual
UK trade surplus of around £3.5 billion.
• Professional Bodies: The Law Society, for example,
represents around 116,000 professional solicitors in
England and Wales, lobbies on ‘several Government Bills
each year . . . and [provides] support for MPs and Peers in
Westminster.’27 The Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA) has a 30,000-strong membership in the UK
Lobbying by countries (16) UK
• The British Medical Association represents doctors from all
branches of medicine all over the UK. It has a total membership
of over 138,000.
• Think Tanks: thriving industry of over 100 organisations, policy
institutes, and research centres committed to strengthening
political debate and forging new policy solutions.
• Government: Lobbying and public affairs activity involves not
merely the development of ‘vertical’ relations between
organisations and government, but the fostering of ‘horizontal’
relationships between all those groups and organisations involved
in policy development. And these include government. It is an
often overlooked fact that government itself invests a considerable
amount of time, effort, and resources engaging in those kinds of
activities labelled ‘public affairs’.
Lobbying by countries (17) UK
• The Media cannot be left out of any analysis of
lobbying in the UK. They often take up causes and use
their considerable influence to persuade public opinion
on a variety of issues from Sarah’s Law (tighter
controls on child sex offenders) to dangerous dogs.
• The media is free to act without any significant
regulation or the need for accountability and,
moreover, it is able to claim that this untrammelled
freedom is not a laissez-faire vice but instead is a
democratic virtue.
Lobbying by countries (18) EU
• The fragmented nature of EU institutional structure
provides multiple channels through which organized
interests may seek to influence policy-making.
Lobbying takes place at the European level itself and
within the existing national states. The most important
institutional targets are the Commission, the Council,
and the European Parliament. The Commission has a
monopoly on the initiative in Community decisionmaking. Since it has the power to draft initiatives, it
makes it ideally suited as an arena for interest
representation. There are three main channels of
indirect lobbying of the Council.
Lobbying by countries (19) EU
• First, interest groups routinely lobby the national
delegations in Brussels. The second indirect means of
lobbying the Council is for interest groups to lobby
members of the many Council-working groups. The
third means of influencing the Council is directly via
national governments. As a consequence of the codecision procedures, the European Parliament
attracts attention from lobbyists who target the
rapporteur and the chairman of the committee. The
rapporteurs are MEPs appointed by Committees to
prepare the parliament’s response to the
Commission’s proposal and to those measures taken
by the Parliament itself.
Lobbying by countries (19) EU
• There are currently around 15,000 lobbyists in
Brussels (consultants, lawyers, associations,
corporations, NGOs etc.) seeking to influence
the EU’s legislative process. Some 2,600 special
interest groups have a permanent office in
Brussels. Their distribution is roughly as
follows: European trade federations (32%),
consultants (20%), companies (13%), NGOs
(11%), national associations (10%), regional
representations (6%), international
organizations (5%) and think tanks (1%).
Lobbying by countries (20) EU
• On 23 March 2006, the European Commission
launched a draft Green Paper on the European
Transparency Initiative.
• In this draft, the Commission states that
“compliance with the highest standards of
transparency is an essential condition for the
legitimacy of any modern administration”.
Lobbying by countries (21) EU
Its main Principles to be improved
• provide easy access to existing information about the beneficiaries
of projects and programmes,
• The Commission’s coverage of its register of documents
• the rules and standards on professional ethics of public office
holders in the European institutions
• a review of the “access to documents” legislation revision of the
legal framework for the EU’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)
• more structured framework for the activities of interest
representatives (lobbyists), „Codex of conduct for lobbyists”
• Feedback on the Commission’s minimum standards for
consultation
• Mandatory disclosure of information about the beneficiaries of
EU funds under shared management
Lobbying by countries (22) EU
• In the European Parliament, the mandatory
registration for representatives of interest
groups who wish to have access to its premises
was introduced, as it can only contribute to
meeting the transparency requirement, which
is a key principle for preserving modern
democracy.
• „France has every interest in embracing this
principle and applying it to the regulation of its
own institutions, starting with the National
Assembly. „
Lobbying by countries (23) EU
• The German Bundestag is the only parliament that has
adopted specific formal rules on registration of
lobbyists.
• Each year a public list is drawn up of all groups
wishing to express or defend their views. Interest
groups are required to provide the following
information in order to register: their name and seat,
composition of the board of management and
directors, sphere of interest, number of members,
names of their representatives and the address of their
office. There is no requirement to provide any financial
information. The register is available on the internet.
Lobbying by countries (24) EU
• Other European countries
• Only countries where lobbying is regulated in
parliament bills are: Georgia (1998), Lithuania
(2001) Poland (2005) and Hungary (2006). All
require registration of professional lobbyists.
So far, there is no complex lobbying regulation
in other European countries. There were many
attempts, but with no satisfactory results.
IV) HUNGARIAN
REGULATION OF LOBBYING
What is our legal system like?
Hungarian regulation of lobbying (1)
• Act XLIX of 2006 on Lobbying Activity
• „this Act shall govern activities attempting to
influence legislative or administrative action
under contract for economic consideration”
• Its objective: to ensure publicity for lobbying
activity, to define the rules governing the
relations between decision-makers and
lobbyists and to lay down the fundamental
guidelines for these activities
• Lobbyist is a subject to registration
Hungarian regulation of lobbying
(2)
•
•
•
•
•
The register
Application seeking admission into register
The entitled office keeping the register
Person may not engage in lobbying activity
The issue of numbered lobby licenses to lobbyists (for
a fee)
• Legal consequences of cancellation from register
• Fundamental rules of lobbying (what shall and may
and may not)
• Report on lobbying activities, penalties
Hungarian regulation of lobbying (3)
• „This Act shall have no effect on the provisions
of other legislation concerning fostering
interests and interest representation”
• Government is authorized to decree about the
designation of the office operating register; the
detailed regulations regarding the lobby
licenses; the amount of fee; the procedural
rules for imposing the penalty
• Government decree (176/2006. VIII. 14.)
Hungarian regulation of lobbying (4)
• Every ministries, local governments issue
orders, decrees on implementation of
„lobby act”
• Who are entitled to receive lobbyists?
• Preparation of the agreed minutes is
recommended
• Quarterly report is prescribed etc.
V) FEATURES of LOBBYING
PRACTICE in HUNGARY before
and after THE ACCESSION
What was it like and what are our
challenges?
Features of lobbying (1) HU
• In the eighties and before, heads of the
„agrarian lobby” –they were high ranked
functionaries of the ruling party and managers
of large farms at the same time – negotiated
valuable deals on a political level;
• The government and the MoARD administered
only;
• The politicians - not the open market - decided
on the allocations and investments;
• Results: economic blunders, distortions, losses
and collapse;
Features of lobbying (2) HU
• Reform measures aimed to open those
kinds of secret deals (transparency).
• Making reforms in economic deals was
not enough to introduce the „open
market”.
• We needed an open society (George
Soros), too.
• Parliamentary democracy – 1990.
Features of lobbying (3) HU
• But old habits remained alive
• Socio-cultural changes come more slowly
• Socially conditioned reflexes survived in
society
• New Parliament MP put a question to me
in the Ministry in 1990
Features of lobbying (4) HU
• The story of the MP
• Are the regulations in force obligatory for us,
MPs, too? We are now the ruling force!
• As a public service man explained: according to
the standing rules I will be punished if I
disregard the rules! So, I had to reject his
repeated support claim and say NO!
• MP’s reaction: old-fashioned people in the
ministry can’t understand our destination.
Let’s fire them! (a kind of lobbying)
Features of lobbying (5) HU
• Land law, was passed by the Parliament in 1990
• Ministry prepared 24 versions of the bill and the 25th
was adopted
• Negotiation of the representatives of parties
• Supporters of compensation in kind
• Negotiation of interest-representing groups
• Solicitors´ Association
• Financial institutions
• Foreign lobby groups (emigrants, investors etc.)
Features of lobbying (6) HU
• Compensation law in 1991
• It stood in the limelight of the public interest of the
whole country
• Majority of people suffered confiscation by the state in
the 50s (land, plot, house, workshops, assets, captivity in
war, political captivity etc.)
• Long and overall negotiating procedures
• Minister of Agriculture submitted the bill to the
government, it was approved
• Minister came back and then calculated his own
upcoming value, turned out it is too small
• The whole procedure was restarted
Features of lobbying (7) HU
• Law on the agriculture cooperatives
• The government submitted, wishful to corrupt
them (political bill)
• Cooperative share and member fee
• Standing coops were obliged to pay in cash for
every disclosing owner in a dictated price
• Constitutional Court repealed the complete bill
Features of lobbying (8) HU
• Law on privatisation (1990)
• Wide range of activities were performed by
different lobby-groups in the legislation and in
the implementation (examples)
• Privatisation of the food-industry
• Agricultural producers vs financial investors vs
professionals
• The result: short term interests; 70% of the
industry in foreign ownership; fragmentation
in agro-business
Features of lobbying (9) HU
• Privatisation of the state-owned wholesale and
retail sectors (1989 – 1995)
• Why and how?
• 60% of the food procurement in the hands of 3
purchasing companies
• They are the real players in „shaping” the
agrar-policy in Hungary
• The question of the president of the French
Agricultural Chamber
Features of lobbying (10) HU
• Negotiation process at the accession (quotas,
derogations, standards)
• Protection of the market of agriculture land by
2011
• Quantities of production (milk, cattle etc)
• Standards: 2,8% fat content of milk
• Financial frame (25% or more, ARDOP,
ARDP)
• Intervention of maize
• Sugar reform
Features of lobbying (11) HU
Programming
PHARE
ARDOP
ARDP
New Hungarian Rural Development
Programme
Features of lobbying (12) HU
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Standard vs SAPS
Lobbying for the differentiated TOP UP system
Introduction of SPS, the debate around it
Landowners lobby
Producers lobby
The desintegrated agrar-lobby
The outcome: Constitution Court
Thank you for your attention!