On July 3, Deputy Emilia Almodóvar, of the Socialist Party, met with the representatives of the Viñatigo wineries, which produce a denomination of protected origin in the Canary Islands. The meeting was organized by the Association of Viticultors and Wineries of the Islands. The information is public, appears on the agenda of the parliamentarian on the website of the Congress, but to reach it any citizen has to make a tortuous tour of the eyelashes of that page.
All deputies have a profile in Congress in which they must hang a series of information. Their declaration of activities, of goods and income, and also of economic interests, but also have an agenda in which they can include all their parliamentary activity and also their meetings, the acts to which they attend or even the interviews they provide to the media. But so far it is very little manageable when it comes to knowing what kind of meetings the parliamentarians maintain.
The relationship of deputies with companies and other economic agents has been very much in vogue during the last months among other issues because the Government and Congress have finally taken steps to regulate the figure of interest groups or lobbies, a pending task for many years in the Spanish political system. But he has gained much more interest if he fits after the outbreak of the former Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, charged in a cause for illegally favoring gas companies during his stage in the government of Mariano Rajoy.
The Judge of Tarragona investigated the case gives details on how the Ministry worked with Montoro, who had founded and directed until 2008 a company called Economic team, with a portfolio of clients who benefited from some of the rules he signed when he entered the Executive. The judge ensures that gas companies arrived twice “to write legal texts, all through the payment of important disbursements.” One of these modifications reached the General State Budget Law of 2018.
International Transparency Organizations have long demanded to improve transparency regulation. And the mechanisms that both the Government and Congress have launched this year point precisely to the improvement of information on the relationship between companies and the administration, with the limitation of the so -called revolving doors or the creation of an official registration of interest groups, so that the meetings of the representatives are public, in a similar way to what happens for example in the European Parliament.
Beyond the law that promoted the government, Congress recently approved an open Parliament Plan that among other things seeks to improve the accessibility of information, so that it is much easier to locate the meetings held by deputies with companies, agencies or representatives of civil society.
The Chamber approved a code of conduct a few years ago that forced the deputies to publish their meetings, but without a sanctioning mechanism the measure has barely given results. The last report of the Office of Conflict of Interest, published in February, reveals that in December 2024 only 46 deputies published details of their agenda beyond their daily parliamentary activity. All parliamentarians automatically include their full days or participations in commissions or even presentation meetings.
“But they are a minority in both cameras, despite the recommendations that in this regard have been made in all previous reports, who in addition to the meetings of parliamentary organs, publish other types of activities and meetings held,” says the report the office.
“In addition, it is observed that in many cases these annotations are made occasionally and not regularly and frequently refer to acts, but rarely refer to meetings held with associations and organizations or with the representatives of any entity that has the status of the interest group according to article 6 of the Code of Conduct,” he says about meetings with persons or entities that try to modify or influence “on issues related to the elaboration or modification of the modification. legislative initiatives.
The vast majority of deputies who during this year have published details of their agendas outside the parliamentary activity are from the PSOE. There is some isolated case in the PP, but none in VOX or in add or in the smallest matches, which perhaps have fewer advisors to fill in these types of issues on the agenda. The socialist spokesman, Patxi López, includes in his profile the media interviews and also other meetings. For example, according to the web, on May 26 he had an intense activity in Granada, where he was received by the Dean of the University, he had an act and then ate with students from the association.
In a search conducted by eldiario.es, several socialist deputies include meetings with unions such as UGT, with foundations or associations. A parliamentarian reported a meeting recently with APSITAL and specified that he did it as part of his work in the Public Function Law. The problem is that to get to each of these meetings it is necessary to enter the deputy's file and search day by day, instead of accessing a list of information.
The advertising of these meetings can hardly avoid cases such as Montoro, but it helps track the footsteps of the deputies and also the influence that companies and associations try to exercise in the drafting of laws. Companies dedicate millions of euros a year in consultants or specialized personnel in institutional relations to try to promote specific amendments or favorable legislative changes.
As part of the Open Parliament Plan, Congress is working on a formula to facilitate access to these agendas. One of the points of that text, approved in February, urges to develop an informative guide on the advertising of the agendas. “The General Secretariat of the Chamber, as the body responsible for administrative management, will prepare an information guide that will detail the procedures for the publication of the agendas of the deputies and deputies. This guide will guarantee that the citizens can access updated and detailed information on the legislative activities and commitments, including the meetings held with representatives of entities that have the condition of the group of interest, in compliance with the provisions of the provisions The General Courts, ”he establishes.
Not just that, The plan It seeks that the advertising of the meetings really is an obligation for the parties, with a specific regulation of the interest groups with a concrete definition and a delimitation of the type of activities that are considered part of the influence of these groups in the deputies. And propose the creation of a registration of interest groups similar to the one that operates in the Europarliament. In it, those organizations, entities and people who carry out this activity of influence must register.
“Registration will be mandatory, public and free access, and will be conditioned on compliance with the Code of Conduct. In addition, accessibility will be guaranteed in the registration process and in the publication of information on the registered groups,” explains the Plan, which details that a system of advertising of these visits will be incorporated to make public the meetings of the meetings. “The identity of the intervening parties will be included, the date of the meeting and the general content of the issues discussed and a guide for the management of the agendas will be published according to the following measure of this Plan,” he says.
