Lobbying the European Commission Successfully

Tips quoted from Networking in the European Union, the 2006 edition of an annual workshop on EU lobbying techniques organized by Wirtschaftskammer Österreich. The whole report is attached to this page and available for downloading at http://portal.wko.at/wk/dok_detail_file.wk?AngID=1&DocID=611253&StID=293619

"The first speaker of the seminar, Mr Hanns Glatz, Delegate of the Board of Management, External Affairs and Public Policy at the Brussels office of DaimlerChrysler, gave the participants a first insight into successful lobbying... Mr Glatz presented the ten golden rules every lobbyist should fulfill:

• "1. Know your trade: ...Know your trade because the Commission and the Parliament do not know enough...
• "2. Make friends even when you don't need them: ...It takes time to get to know people and show your interests. The person who is responsible should already know who you are and that you can be trusted before you need her or him.
• "3. No closed shops: In Austria or Germany most people belong to clubs or "Seilschaften". In Europe the system works completely different... The political parties and families are completely different in all 25 countries... There is not one European party in the EP which has absolute majority. There are no closed lines... You have to be flexible.
• "4. Use information professionally: ...Find ways to filter the right information for you!
• "5. Create coalitions: The more you are, the better it is...
• "6. Use the right arguments: Put forward convincing arguments and evidence for your case. Don’t lose time arguing against your adversary's case. Public trust in most institutions including 'big business' is relatively low. On the contrary, trust in NGOs is high as they represent the whole society.
• "7. Know to act when and where: Being too early is as bad as being too late. You have to know precisely when to talk to whom....
• "8. Be ready to compromise: The European way is to compromise while American lobbyists want to get their objectives through or kill legislation outright.
• "9. No dirty tricks: ...Never cheat, never exploit personal weakness. Remember that Brussels is a village. You may have many friends but you certainly also have enemies.
• "10. No personal rewards: No bribery, if you want it more clearly. Ethical standards among decision makers are high in Brussels. To give personal gifts will raise suspicion that you cheated or that you are not convinced by your own arguments. However, inviting someone for lunch is nothing suspicious. By the way: Lunches are often the only time when EU officials are available..."
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Rory MacMillan... Director of Government Affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Nike... and his team created a 14 step program to ensure lobbying is effective from the beginning to the end: The toolkit. The key points are:

• "First you have to work out what is important... and really bring it forward. You have to sort out ideas.
• "Know where the mandate is coming from: It is increasingly difficult to understand the drivers who are driving new legislation. You have to get behind that.
• "Have a clear set of objectives: What do we want to achieve exactly?
• "Talk to the right people: You have to be focused. In Brussels there are multiple entry levels. First go to the people who write the proposal, then go higher up. Follow the bottom-up-proposal.
• "Right place, right time: Stick to your action plan. Focus on key points. The earlier you engage the higher is your success chance.
• "Know the audience well: Before you go to meetings know in detail who the people are, what you expect from them and what they expect from you.
• "Be precise: Write a one or two page summary with clear messages what you want and expect.... The most important is to be persistent and patient.
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"...Given its size, the Commission is pretty open and easily accessible because people working there know that their decision is only as good as the information they get from the outside world... Start seeing us not as an enemy but as a partner. Show interest in what we are doing, where we are coming from and the work we are doing. You will build up a credit of trust with this behavior..."

"Keep the information short and to the point: No 150 pages. Two pages are fine, five are okay, ten more risky. Carefully choose the moment of your intervention. Be very careful in planning your first contact with Commission officials..."
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Preconditions for successful lobbying:

• Bring with you a brief position paper or fact sheet in order to provide in-depth information.
• Be ready to answer many topic-related questions.
• Know the relevant decision making procedure. Attend the relevant committee meetings, part-sessions and sessions in order to follow the issue.
• Do not write long letters and e-mails with plenty of information and, if possible, do not use attachments. It can be counter-productive as your correspondence could fail to deliver the main message.
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[MEP Edit] Herzog gave the following tips to the audience:
• Try to identify where potential compromises can be made. You have to work as a vector. Know where you start from, where you want to go and how much you can get.
• First you may have 1000 ideas. Someone has to put together the ideas, assemble the pieces and get a ready-to-use product.
• In Parliament, you have to be straightforward and convincing to get the majority. If a MEP cannot build the majority even if he or she likes you, you are lost.
• Use all channels. Do not go only to your MEP, go also to your Mayor, your Chamber of Commerce, any national or European Federation, the press or to anyone who will influence your MEP.
• Remember the most important objective of MEPs: They want to get reelected and increase their political weight.