Eight years after its approval, the Law on lobbying activities in Calabria (LR 4/2016) finds its real and concrete application. In recent days, in fact, the Regional Executive, at the request of the President Roberto Occhiutohas decided to establish the Register of representatives of particular interests (Section of the Council and Instrumental Bodies). This act, in fact, represents a significant step towards greater transparency and regulation of the activities of representation of interests that gravitate around the apparatus of public administration.
This is what the Regional Councillor and President of Azione Calabria says, Joseph Graziano who in 2016, at the time of his first Legislature, was the author and promoter of the Law on Transparency of the political and administrative activity of the Calabria Region and its instrumental bodies on the activity of representing particular interests. “A Law – says the Regional Councilor – unique in its kind, without precedent in Italy, aimed at ensuring maximum transparency in the administrative action of the Regional Body towards citizens, which for eight years, however, remained only on paper, unapplied”.
“The particular interests that emerge in complex societies and that require care and protection also from public authorities – underlines the top manager of Azione Calabria – take on ever-changing connotations; a society that wants to be truly mature, however, cannot abstain from regulating such lobbying activity in a democratic and transparent way. Only in this way can we avoid that behind this phenomenon, in itself legitimate, there lies something gray, impalpable and, therefore, dangerous for legality and society”.
One of the distinctive aspects of this legislation, as specified by Giuseppe Graziano, lies in its extension to all components of the regional institutional structure. “The peculiarity of this proposal – he says – consists in the fact of applying the discipline to the current regional institutional structure. In fact, it does not only focus on the Regional Council and its internal articulations, but extends to the Regional Council and departments; not only that, it extends to all sub-regional bodies; just think of the interests that gravitate around sectors such as health, the environment, work, businesses: it is precisely in the instrumental bodies of the Region that deal with these areas that decisions are taken that are often very delicate and that have repercussions on the citizens of Calabria, which is why – concludes Giuseppe Graziano – it is a duty that even in these places the maximum transparency in public decisions is concentrated”.