The Gunship, the Dentist and the Donkey
Unless you are a fulltime lobbyist working and living in Brussels, lobbying the European Union institutions is a very challenging task. It is very complicated to get a grasp on the European bureaucracy.
Consequently, over 6000 companies and organisations in Brussels invest over 1 billion euros per year to represent their professional interests. Besides the commercial industries, which invest a tremendous amount of financial capital, the ngo’s have limited resources, but do have very passionate and driven staff members; they invest human capital.
A full set of political and diplomatic skills is needed to be a good lobbyist in the world of Brussels: negotiation skills, getting to know the right persons, make sure they know you, networking in the right places at the right time, sensitivity to intercultural differences, know what you can offer the other party, use the right lobby strategy, timing is everything, and effectively initiate personal contacts, public pressure, and political action.
Lobby as a civil servant
Again, unless you are a fulltime lobbyist working and living in Brussels, it is quite a challenge to compete against the tens of thousands of paid professional lobbyists. Still, as a civil servant working for a ministry, you want to make sure your professional interests are heard and represented as well.
This is one of the reasons a group of civil servants working for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (DG Agro) participates in a six-month training programme at the Clingendael Academy. One of the topics discussed during this programme is: ‘how to deal with Brussels?’
The course participants met with different experts on the legislative and policy processes of the European Union. To use this theoretical background in practice, the participants received a full day training in Lobbying in the EU, by Tony Bass.
The Gunship, the Dentist, Kofi Annan, and the Donkey
Tony Bass discussed different lobby strategies which can be used, such as the Gunship (aggressive lobbying), the Kofi Annan (constructive engagement, compromise), Good Cop/Bad Cop (1 hardliner, the others go in softly), the Dentist (1st pull out the worst tooth, later come back for further treatment), the Third Party (use someone else to represent you), and the Donkey (bribe or seduce).
Of course you have to find out which strategy suits your personal character and which strategy to use at what time. Lobbying in Brussels always has ‘a shadow of the future’: you can be sure that you will meet the other players again. That is why the personal relationships between the different parties are crucial to play an influential role in Brussels.
Practice makes perfect: visit Brussels
As practice makes perfect, the course participants went to Brussels for 1 evening and 1 day, to discover the Brussels arena. They met with people working at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands over dinner, discussed different dossiers related to agriculture and fisheries with staff members of the European Commission, exchanged experiences with professional lobbyists over lunch, and visited the European Parliament (EP) to informally meet assistants of members of the EP.
After these three days of training, the group was equipped with the theoretical background on the processes, a skills training in lobbying, and a full day of practicing networking and interest representation in the European Union.
Practice through training in The Hague
If you are interested in improving your lobby skills or negotiation skills for your work in Brussels, you can practice through trainings in The Hague: participate in the training in negotiation skills in the EU, or the training in lobbying in the EU.