Since the beginning of this parliamentary term, two thirds of parliamentarians (100 out of 154) published at least one meeting with interest groups and registered lobbyists. Overall, MPs declared 3968 such meetings. This was shown in a review of MPs agendas by „Transparency International“ Lithuanian Chapter, the data of which is available on the website www.manoseimas.lt.
Since March 2017, most meetings were declared by the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union political group’s member Virginija Vingrienė (263), the Liberals Movement political group’s member Simonas Gentvilas (239), Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis (223), current European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius (170), Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis (164), non-attached political group’s member Aušrinė Armonaitė (148), Liberals Movement political group’s member Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen (146), Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union political group’s members Kęstutis Mažeika (133), Aurelijus Veryga (124) and Guoda Burokienė (108).
The most active member from the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party political group was Dovilė Šakalienė, who published 66 meetings with interest group representatives. Most meetings in the Lithuanian Social Democratic Labour political group were declared by Linas Antanas Linkevičius (47), in the The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats – Andrius Kupčinskas (43), in the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance by Jaroslav Narkevič (42).
Most meetings were held with business representatives (1260 meetings), non-governmental organisation representatives (1184) and representatives of education, science and culture (755). Furthermore, 71 meetings with registered lobbyists were declared by 29 parliamentarians.
Almost 8 out of 10 of all meetings were published by MPs serving their first term in office (3065 meetings out of 3968).
Meetings with interest groups were declared by 2 out of 5 political group chairpersons, as well as by 2 out of 5 committees‘ chairpersons.
“Nine out of ten current parliamentarians are running for office again, which means that our assembled data offers a great opportunity to evaluate how active the parliamentarians were during their tenure in office, who they’ve met with and how they fare in comparison to other members of the Seimas. In a way, it is a reminder that a good politician is an active and transparent politician”, says Sergejus Muravjovas, CEO of Transparency International Lithuania.
Parliamentarians declared most meetings during the autumn 2018 session (82 MPs published 737 meetings). The least meetings were published during the most recent session in Spring 2020, when 55 MPs declared 371 meetings, with 1 out of 10 declaring at least on remote meeting (21).
Information for this review was obtained from the MP‘s official working calendars (published in the old and new lrs.lt websites), personal websites and entries of meetings with interest groups made on the website manosusitikimai.lt. Meetings for 7 parliamentary sessions were gathered from March 10th, 2017 until August 16th, 2020.
Due to MP’s changes, there was a total of 154 parliamentarians working during this term.
A short summary of the findings can be found here. More detailed information and data can be found at www.manoseimas.lt.
More information:
Sergejus Muravjovas, sergejus@transparency.lt, +370 5 212 69 51