The fight against corruption has been a priority on the political agenda in Serbia since 2002 and an important pre-condition for accession to the European Union. In recent years, Serbia has strengthend the legislative and institutional framework for fighting corruption and, in the last two years, has launched an anti-corruption campaign resulting in an increasing number of corruption related prosecutions and highly publicised arrests of prominent political figures and former government officials.

Lobbying is not regulated in the Czech Republic. There is no specific obligation for registration of lobbyists or reporting of contacts between public officials and lobbyists.

There is little understanding of who the lobbyists are and how does lobbying work and there is no history of transparent and fair public policy-making. Lobbying takes place mostly as a PR activity. There is also an unfairness in preferential access to politicians. In other words, those who can “purchase” their way to decision-makers are likely to find more decision being reached in their favor.

Based on EU Transparency Register on 26 January 2015.

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At first glance it is broadly as expected -- lot of commitments to reform the tax base, fight corruption, and improve Greece’s public sector. There are also several clear concessions to its creditors. Athens is pledging not to reverse the state asset sales that are already underway. And it says it will aim to raise minimum wages in a manner that “safeguards competiveness and employment prospects”, and in consultation with its partners. The government is also promising help for families and businesses who simply cannot pay their debt, while clamping down hard on “strategic defaulters”.

In order to increase the transparency of their lobbying activities organisations and public policy advocates should take the following 10 steps regarding their efforts to influence public policy formation.

The Netherlands is not only a country with a high population density, but also the population of organisations and groups for interest representation and advocacy is comparatively large. There are an estimated 2000 interest organisations of all kinds and sizes making their way to the centres of government and parliament in The Hague, where the interest traffic flow takes place. Existing structures and institutional rules on interest representation and decision-making in the Netherlands make it semi-open (but not truly open) to access for public and private stakeholders.

From at least a contemporary perspective, lobbying is absolutely essential to the success of representative government. Without information, perspectives and proposals flowing from those who are governed, elected and appointed officials can often only dimly guess at what policies will advance the interests of those whom they are duty-bound to serve. Protection and facilitation of lobbying is, therefore, a matter of vast significance, achieved in varying ways in different legal systems.

The Swedish public administration is generally regarded as efficient, providing comprehensive services of a high quality to both citizens and enterprises. The low levels of perceived and experienced corruption in Sweden are linked to the long tradition of openness and transparency of Swedish society and institutions and strong respect for the rule of law.

The lobbying community in Lithuania is underdeveloped, corrupt and negatively perceived by society. This results in rising suspicion in the eyes of the public and government officials which impedes the development of an effective lobbying community. Lithuanian interest groups do not use sophisticated lobbying practices and access is largely based on personal connections and corrupt practices.

No one knows how many active lobbyists there are in Latvia. Often lobbying activities are carried out by lawyers, associations, federations, all kinds of unions, public organisations and PR agencies. Although there is no lobbying industry to speak of in Latvia, there are many professionals who have the competency to carry lobbying activities. They know the decision-making process inside out. They are also masters in providing convincing arguments and writing appropriate reports to sway public opinion in their favour, often by using the media to their advantage.