The POS, a coalition of civil society actors, expresses its concern with regard to the draft law “On Lobbyist Activities” that was approved by the government and submitted to the RA National Assembly.  We believe that if the current version of the draft law “On Lobbyist Activities” is approved by RA National Assembly, it will become a serious obstacle for any civil society participation in formulation of the legislative framework as well as for any democratic participatory process in policy analysis and development in the country.

The draft law “On Lobbyist Activities” raises several concerns which include, but are not limited to the following:

1.    The institution of lobbyist activities has not emerged in Armenia and the regulatory mechanism that is suggested is not conducive for formation of such institute.

2.    The Republic of Armenia has embarked on the process of European integration and is approximating its laws with the European law.  However, the European Union legislation does not include legal acts on lobbyist activities and the national legislation of the European countries does not include such laws, with the exception of one country.  Moreover, while the European countries have lobbyist activities and organizations, they have not adopted and/or exercised such restrictive system of certification and registration of lobbyists, which is suggested in the draft law “On Lobbyist Activities”.

3.    The draft law does not clearly define its scope and subject of regulation. For purposes of legislative regulation the term “lobbying activities” should be limited to professional and commercial activities of lobbyists aimed at representing and defending third parties’ interests on paid basis. However, as per the draft law every person or organization, whose activities are aimed to adopt, amend and/or abrogate legislation, should be considered as a lobbyist. This will have the effect of severely hampering public participation in the policy making process.

4.    The draft law proposes restrictive preconditions for lobbying activities, which include double registration, reporting, notification and other requirements, which are greatly disproportionate to the stated aim.

5.     The draft law contains several mutually exclusive provisions that will make practical application of the law impossible.

One of the main and most important conditions for formation and development of Armenian civil society is the opportunity to influence decision making process in the country at all levels. The regulatory model proposed by draft law “On Lobbying Activities” would be inappropriate and unjustified restriction of such opportunity. The draft law contains many provisions, which restrict advocacy opportunities of NGOs and wider public, and their participation in decision making by executive and legislature.

In the view of the above-mentioned, the Partnership for Open Society urges the government of RA:
-    to withdraw the draft law from the National Assembly for further discussions and review;
-    to reconsider the necessity of draft law “On Lobbying Activities”;
-    to exclude application of the law toward NGOs.