For the purposes of the provisions of Royal Decree-Law 21/2026, any person performing public functions with the capacity to intervene in the formulation, execution or supervision of public policies, normative elaboration or administrative decision-making processes, within the General Administration of the State and its institutional public sector, is considered to be a person and/or public office capable of receiving influence.
In particular, they include:
Senior personnel, defined in article 1.2 of Law 3/2015, of March 30, regulating the exercise of the high office of the General Administration of the State.
The members of the cabinets that provide functions of trust or special advice, referred to in article 10 of Law 50/1997, of November 27, of the Government.
The public management staff.
Prospective staff, including those who hold positions of trust or special counsel and who participate in decision-making or public policy design.
The personnel of the General Administration of the State and its institutional public sector who participate decisively in public decision-making, in the processes of elaboration of normative provisions and in the execution of public policies.
Members of advisory bodies and advisors linked to the formulation of public policies within the General Administration of the State.
It must be taken into account that this enumeration is of an enunciative and non-limiting nature, so that any other person in high office or public employee who may be subject to influence in public decision-making will be subject to the provisions of this Royal Decree-Law.
Interest groups are natural and legal persons and groups without legal personality, including platforms, forums, networks or other forms of collective activity, whether acting on their own behalf or on behalf of others, regardless of the form they adopt or their legal status, and which carry out activities of influence on the personnel and/or public office.
They do not have the consideration of a group of interest:
Public administrations and the entities and bodies of their institutional public sector.
International public bodies and organizations and foreign public authorities, including diplomatic missions and embassies, except where such authorities are represented by legal entities, offices or networks without diplomatic status, or by an intermediary.
The political parties, federations, coalitions and groups of electors regulated in Organic Law 6/2002, of June 27, on Political Parties, without prejudice to the fact that entities created or financed by them may be considered as a group of interest.
Professional associations and other public law corporations when performing public functions, without prejudice to the fact that they may be considered a group of interest when they do not perform this type of functions.
Influence activity is any direct or indirect communication of a group of interest with the personnel and/or public office susceptible of influence, carried out by any means or channel, with the purpose of influencing public decision-making, in the design or application of public policies, or in the elaboration, modification or approval of normative projects, for the benefit of own or third party interests.
It is understood by direct communication any contact maintained by the interest group, by itself or through a representative, with the personnel and/or public office, carried out through any means with the purpose of influencing it.
It is understood by indirect communication any contact with the staff and/or public charge through the use of intermediary persons, made for the purpose of influencing.
In particular, they are activities of influence, among others, those carried out by the interest groups consisting of:
a) Organize, for the purpose of exerting influence, meetings, conferences, training courses or other events attended as a guest or speaker by the staff and/or public office.
b) Propose the development of consultations, hearings or other similar public initiatives.
c) Organizing communication campaigns, platforms, networks and similar initiatives aimed at personnel and/or public office for the purpose of exerting influence.
(d) Making available to staff and/or public officials documents relating to public initiatives and position papers and amendments, as well as other materials relating to such initiatives.
e) The use of third parties to transmit positions of a group of interest to the staff and/or public office, including the financing of associations, Think Tanks or other entities to influence public or regulatory debate.
They are not considered activities of influence:
(a) Activities carried out by private entities performing public functions or providing public services, when these functions are legally attributed to them.
b) Intervention in public participation procedures provided for in legal or regulatory rules.
c) Participation in collegiate consultation and participation bodies regulated by legal or regulatory standards.
(d) Activities relating to the provision of legal or professional advice directly linked to the defence of interests affected by administrative proceedings.
(e) Conciliation, mediation and arbitration activities carried out within the framework of its specific implementing regulations.
(f) Activities carried out in the exercise of a constitutionally guaranteed right such as the right to demonstrate or the rights of assembly and petition.
(g) Merely protocol acts.
h) The provision of documentation, formulation of allegations, presentation of means of defense or any other action carried out as a person interested in the administrative procedure, in the terms in which it is defined in article 4.1 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.
As a general criterion, meetings may continue to be held, although the precautions required by this royal decree-law must be observed.
In this sense, given that the public personnel susceptible to influence will be obliged to make public in the Transparency Portal of the General Administration of the State, within a month from its celebration, all the meetings and contacts that they maintain with interest groups registered in the register, as well as with those not registered in the case contemplated in article 7.6 of the royal decree-law, we urge the public personnel susceptible to influence to draw up minutes or minutes of the meetings held with the interest groups that contain date, place, participants, summary of the topics addressed and identification of the documents exchanged, provided that they are not affected by the legally established limitations and, in particular, those articles 14 and 14 of public access.
Such information will be opportunely incorporated into the Register of Interest Groups at the state level.
The activities carried out by the interest groups in order to influence the elaboration and adoption of any normative project and, where appropriate, its impact on it, will be reflected by the competent department in a normative footprint report, which will be referred to in the corresponding memory of the normative impact analysis.
The normative footprint report has an autonomous character and will be published individually, beyond the fact that its content is incorporated into the Normative Impact Analysis Reports.
If you have additional doubts about the content of the Royal Decree-Law and your obligations as public personnel susceptible to influence, you can send an email to Informaciongruposdeinteres@consejodetransparencia.es
