Luxembourg’s parliamentary lobby register must list additional details of meetings between politicians and outside individuals or groups from September, under changes approved last week.
The new rules are intended to make contacts between MPs and lobbyists more transparent.
The previous register, which only came into effect in December 2021, had been limited to simply listing the names of individual or commercial lobbyists. There is currently no information if or when any meetings took place, how often, or with which politicians.
The following five questions and answers shed light on what is changing – and why this is important.
Meetings between MPs and lobbyists and interest groups are to be documented in the updated register from 15 September.
However, this only applies to those planned meetings “that were explicitly requested or organised with the aim of influencing the legislative work of the members of the Chamber of Deputies or the decision-making process of the Chamber in some way.”
Chance encounters and internal party discussions are exempt from the reporting obligation.
Discussions with professional chambers, members of the European Parliament and state institutions are also not subject to the registration requirement.
It does not matter whether the discussions take place in person or via video conference. However, a mere phone call or a comment at an event, such as a New Year’s reception, is exempt from inclusion.
The date, the location of the meeting, the name of the MP and the interest group (including company address) must be recorded.
In addition, the lobbyist’s position in connection with the legislative work must be described. If a legislative project is discussed, this should be mentioned.
The interest groups must provide the MP with all the necessary information before the meeting. If this does not happen, the MP is to cancel the meeting.
In turn, deputies must provide the parliament with this information within 15 days of the meeting, with the details to be published on the register within six weeks.
The data can be viewed on the chamber’s website for three months after the end of the legislative period, which is due to run until October 2028.
After this period, the details will be stored in a file for five years, and will remain accessible to any person who submits a written request to the president of the Chamber of Deputies.
Parliament last year vowed to review the lobby register, amid calls from some parties for a major revamp.
In April, the Chamber’s Conference of Presidents – a body which oversees the work of the Chamber of Deputies – said it was time for an overhaul of the current register, based on the first report to assess the effectiveness of the system since it was introduced in 2021.
The European Commission also criticised the lobby register in a report last summer, and called on Luxembourg to “step up efforts” to increase the amount of information contained in it.
“It does not cover other important information such as the policy or piece of legislation targeted and nor is there a supervisory function in central government overseeing the transparency in lobbying activities,” the commission said.
Since 2022, two separate registers have existed detailing meetings between external organisations and members of government and civil servants.
So far, however, there is no transparency register covering local councillors across Luxembourg.
Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden is working on introducing similar legislation for councils across Luxembourg, according to a response to a written question from DP member of parliament André Bauler.
The ministry told the Luxemburger Wort that the amendments covering councillors would probably be submitted to parliament for consideration before the summer recess.
(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Translated using AI, edited and with additional reporting by John Monaghan.)