Written by Kristina Grosek and Eulalia Claros,

The infographic illustrates in broad terms the differences between Member States’ approaches to regulating lobbying (legislation or soft-regulation), as well as the existence of codes of conduct for lobbyists (either provided for by legislation, or through self-regulation by lobbyists’ organisations), and registers of lobbyists (mandatory or voluntary).

Download this infographic on ‘Regulation of lobbying across the EU‘ in PDF.

Code of conduct for lobbyists Legislation on lobbying Register of lobbyists

National provisions

Regulating lobbying is a rather recent concept in the majority of Member States. Currently, only seven Member States (France, Ireland, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) have legislation on lobbying activities, as well as a mandatory register of lobbyists. Hungary’s earlier legislation on lobbying, and register were revoked in 2011. The most recent law has been adopted in France on 8 November 2016. Only codes of conduct provided for in law or by lobbyists’ organisations (self-regulation) are included in the table. In some countries (e.g. Denmark, Germany, Sweden, UK) there are ethical codes of public relations and consultancy agencies, but these are not included.

The remaining Member States – Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden – have no legislation, code of conduct or register of lobbyists.