Many organisations spend much of their time considering what Westminster thinks about them. Parliament dominates their thoughts and they rightly build public affairs and stakeholder engagement programmes around Members of Parliament, Select Committees, advisers and the impact they can have. But they wrongly forget about Brussels and the European Union.
Some sectors, such as financial services, are extremely aware of the power of Brussels and spend a lot of time and effort engaging with the European institutions. Others, however, do not give Brussels the care and attention it deserves. That leaves them vulnerable to not only being unaware of policy and regulatory changes that could impact their business and therefore not managing risks effectively, but also means they are failing to make the most of opportunities to input positively into legislation.
With the European elections coming up next year, institutions are considering the work programme for the next Commission. This means that there is a period of 12 to 18 months where this programme is being worked on and priorities arrived upon on. So hundreds of pieces of potential legislation are being sifted through and the priorities for the next Commission will be set. Ideally this stream of work should not be set without your involvement. There is competition between the institutions and the DGs (departments) so do not get squeezed by this.
It is not that people have to become instant experts in how Brussels works. UKREP, the UK Permanent Representation in Brussels, provides an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to engage and wanting to know what is going on in their area. UKREP wants to hear from UK businesses so that they can more effectively ensure that the voice of the UK is heard at all stages of policy development. UKREP wants to deal with the Parliament and the Commission from a position of strength. It will also allow them to ensure influence upstream and build alliances, where necessary.
Whilst the UK, putting a possible referendum to one side, is trying to get better at engagement, the European institutions themselves are making efforts to develop better drafted legislation. EU legislative proposals are now also subject to an impact assessment process of the kind we are used to in the UK. These are though only as good as the data and information that are inputted. Again, this points to a need to effective engagement. In the UK we are used to impact assessments and how they work, many others are not. Cost is being given a lot more consideration and is now seriously considered in policy-making. That is not to say that there is a consistent approach but the moves are welcome nonetheless.
For those wanting to lobby in Brussels, the normal rules of public affairs apply. You need to bring the issues to life and provide evidence and case studies. The development of a workable, deliverable solution is paramount and, of course, needs to reflect the institutional structures and timescales.
The institutional arrangements mean that timescales for policy-making can be much longer but the institutions can move quickly if they need to so do not take this time for granted. It is also imperative that you get your home country on board, so again back to UKREP.
It is also widely agreed that the UK is overly legalistic in its interpretation and implementation of European Directives. This so-called ‘gold-plating’ is considered to be a serious problem so that too requires attention. However, the more you show that there has been involvement in the issues in Europe and the more UKREP already knows and understands the issues then ‘gold-plating’ can be tackled head-on and avoided.
So far from ignoring Brussels and Europe now is the time to ensure that your engagement is serious. Do not get caught out just because you only focused on Westminster.