Kalinak: Interior Ministry to Unveil Bill on Lobbying by Summer (2)

Bratislava, April 10 (TASR) - The Interior Ministry will unveil government-sponsored legislation by the summer 2025, aimed at regulating lobbying for all parties engaged in the activity, not just the NGO sector, Interior Ministry State Secretary Michal Kalinak (Voice-SD) announced at a press conference held together with Government Proxy for the Development of Civil Society Simona Zacharova. Kalinak added that Voice-SD has already presented its proposal to fellow coalition partners. According to the state secretary, no agreement within the coalition exists at the moment on lobbying legislation, and negotiations are still ongoing. There is also no consensus on the support for the currently submitted legislation concerning non-profit organizations, which is due to be debated in Parliament. “If there had been agreement in the coalition, the bill would have probably been approved without any need for us to discuss it today. But there is no consensus. We have provided an alternative, including our proposed amendments, and offered our lobbying bill draft to coalition partners, because I want to balance these matters in practice,” he said. In his view, the new legal regulation must go through the standard legislative process. Government Proxy Zacharova emphasized that lobbying is an expertise-based and comprehensive matter, and it's not carried out by non-profit organizations only, but also by various businesses and municipalities. A proposed amendment to the legislation on non-profit organizations, submitted by the coalition party SNS, is currently on the parliamentary agenda. It was originally scheduled for debate on Wednesday (April 9), but MPs voted to postpone it to next Tuesday (April 15). The proposal aims to introduce regulation of lobbying by non-governmental organizations and introduces penalties for violations. According to the bill, organizations will only be allowed to engage in lobbying if they are registered as such and will be required to publish a report on their lobbying activities every three months. Trade unions, employer organizations, and sports organizations would be exempt from the definition of lobbying. mf