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Lobbying European style
BY MIKE UNGER AU’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS) has achieved much success with its lauded Public Affairs and Advocacy Institute, which teaches the nuances of lobbying in the United States. Hoping to expand its domestic accomplishments to the world stage, the center this year held its first International Lobbying Institute in Brussels, Belgium, de facto seat of the European Union. From June 25 until last Friday, students took classes on the art of European lobbying, heard from speakers with expertise in the process, and met governmental officials and lobbyists in The Hague, Netherlands. “We have a unique approach that’s done very well here with the domestic institute,” said SPA professor James Thurber, director of CCPS. “I watched the [lobbying] phenomena grow in the [United Kingdom]. Many businesses and associations here have offices there. It’s important for our students to learn the different techniques used over there. I’m always interested in helping find our students a job.” The concept of lobbying is relatively new in Europe when compared to the United States, Thurber said.
“Lobbying there is a dirty word with some people,” he said. “We have run into a bit of a reaction in Brussels. We’ll call it the European Public Affairs Institute next year.” Thomas Korologos, the United States’ ambassador to Belgium, was among the speakers who addressed the students. They also met with members of the European Parliament and the E.U.’s Commission on Environment and Trade. The academic content of the course focused on various case studies, including music and intellectual property, human rights, tobacco, automobiles, and telecommunications. But the main thrust of the institute centered on initiating students to the European style of lobbying. “Here if you want to be successful you’ve got to have grass roots, top grass, Astroturf, fake grass roots,” Thurber said. “It’s all about coalition building. You need to know how to keep the coalition together and use television, print advertising, and finally direct lobbying. In the U. S. you need all that. In the E.U., you primarily are lobbying the E.U. Commission, and to a lesser extent the E.U. Parliament and the nation states. We don’t see as many of the tools as here in the United States, like the use of surveys. It’s more of the direct lobbying of the regulatory process. Here we have a very strict code of ethics as well as laws, and there it’s just beginning.” On the heels of votes in France and the Netherlands rejecting the proposed European constitution, the future of the E.U. remains highly unsettled, a situation that along with a unique kind of lobbying effort—that of Turkey for inclusion in the E.U.—was often discussed during the institute. “This is unique,” Thurber said of the institute. “We know there are other courses like this put on by corporations, but there is no other university that is doing this.”
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