Ewa Stenberg: With us foreign power hire lobbyists in stealth

A majority of the Swedish EU-parliamentarians, 11 of 20, said that they have not allowed themselves to be influenced by lobbyists.

Still has almost all of the parliamentarians have given their time to recurring hitting different pressure point. Companies and organizations with headquarters in Sweden, has put at least 440 million per year to influence the EU parliament.

One might ask why they are putting almost half a billion dollars per year on something that is largely unsuccessful. The answer is that lobbningen is likely to give results.

Researcher Camilla Nothhaft, university of Lund have seen examples where the exact wording from the lobbyists gone straight into the legislative text.

Companies are rational, they count to be able to earn more money in their impact than what lobbyingen costs.

with a hidden impact. Transparency International, the organisation that monitors corruption, identifies lobbying as one of the largest korruptionsriskerna in the EU.

this is why The EU-parliament, the u.s. congress and a number of other countries have regulated lobbying.

Sweden is one of the few democratic countries where the voters don't have any insight into what influences our politicians and what they want to achieve.

The Swedish parties tend to defend their unwillingness to settle with saying that the rules are easy to circumvent. And it is true that covert influence can happen also in the restaurants or hotellobbyer (hence the name).

in some situations. It shows the american special prosecutor Robert mueller's Rysslandsutredning. It has not led to any indictment of president Trump, however, sent shock waves through Washington's påverkansindustri. The investigation has led to several charges against the lobbyists who secretly tried to influence american politics for foreign states ' behalf.

Prosecutors have used a law from 1938 that foreign agents must register. Donald Trumps kampanjchef Paul Manafort, has been convicted for that he did not registered that they worked for a Ukrainian political party.

Donald Trump's former security adviser Michael Flynn is being investigated under the same law to have acted as an illegal agent for Turkey, which he recognized. Since mueller's investigation was launched, the number of lobbyists registered as working for foreign interests has increased dramatically.

that pr firms are working for other countries. Saudi arabia tried, for example, hiring an american public relations firm to influence Swedish politics and opinion 2013.

In Sweden, hiding unknown clients behind the pr agencies and manipulated FRA-resistance 2008. It may have been a foreign power, but in Sweden it is such a legal.

So is affected your elected officials by lobbyists

the Swedish actors are lobbying in Brussels for 440 million a year