The Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the NGO Transparency International Estonia, summarized the meetings of the state officials with lobbyists in 2021 and it became clear that most meetings were held at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
In total, 23 state agencies published data on more than 700 meetings. State officials meet most with the private sector, which accounted for more than half of all meetings. Meetings involving the third sector accounted for about a fifth of all meetings. Of legal entities, the Estonian Employers’ Confederation held the most lobbying meetings last year, followed by the Trade Union Confederation and then energy company Eesti Energia.
Data of the lobby meetings can be found here.
Data can be viewed by institutions, state officials, lobbying organizations, names of lobbyists and by topics of meetings.
“We have been asked how big the problem of lobbying is that we should start making meetings public. Now everyone, not just a limited number of people, have the chance to see who and how influences policy makers. Lobbying itself is not a problem - the problem has been the lack of data so far. We hope that the meetings will also be made public by members of the Riigikogu and local governments,” added Steven-Hristo Evestus, Chairman of the Board of TI Estonia.