Marco Sonsini’s contribution in the webinar “Lobbying at the time of Coronavirus: regulating the representation of interests”
Marco Sonsini of Telos A&S took part in the webinar on “Lobbying at the time of Coronavirus: regulating the representation of interests”, organised by the think tank Geopolitica.info. It was a chance for professional lobbyists to exchange views on why an effective and balanced regulatory framework is still missing in Italy and how the Covid-19 epidemic has changed the way we do our job.
Marco Sonsini’s contribution, which we are showing here, was focused on two questions.
Firstly, is it really so important to have a comprehensive national regulation on lobbying in place? It is, but only if its goal is to ensure full transparency of legislative procedures and equity of access for all stakeholders. It is not, if it is only aimed at profiling lobbyists by adding yet another useless register.
Secondly, why is it that after decades we are still talking about the need for a regulation and no step ahead has been made? One of the many reasons lies in the massive change in the balance of powers between Government and Parliament, in favour of the former, and between politicians and top-level bureaucrats, in favour of the latter, also as a consequence of the decision to merge Ministries that were previously separated from one another. What we have witnessed is a historical process, by virtue of which real power brokers or, as we call them, public decision-makers are now a few unelected high-level bureaucrats, although our Constitution remained virtually unchanged. This was probably not the ideal context for regulating lobbying in a way that improves transparency and equity of access.
Click here to watch Marco Sonsini’s contribution.
SocialTelos