There are some simple things anyone/organisation can do in Brussels to become an effective lobbyist. Most of them are contained in today’s Politico Influence’s interview with former Director-General Xavier Prats Monné.
I’ve chunked it down into a useful checklist, and I include some more others:
- Understand and speak the language of the Commission rather than your own.
- Understand how your agenda, your priorities, can actually fit into the agenda and priorities of the European Union and the Commission itself.
- It is really important not to say what is important for you, but how you can contribute to their agenda.
- Convey what you have to say extremely concisely.
- Provide timely information to inform policy development.
- Make sure your information/data is accurate and reliable
- Speak their language, not your own.
- Keep good working relationships with officials, regulators, politicians, advisers and other key people.
- Leverage the right media to communicate your policy agenda and solutions.
- Be credible, trustworthy and consistent.If you aim to be effective at promoting your interests follow these 10 rules. 90% don’t.
Q & A WITH PRATS MONNÉ
NOTES FROM AN EX-DG: Xavier Prats Monné was doing health policy at the EU level before it was cool. In fact, when he was the director general of DG SANTE for three years starting in late 2015, it was decidedly unhip: then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker took a decidedly hard-line view that health policy should be left to the capitals.
Prats Monné left the European Commission in late 2018, at age 62, to work on a passion project that’s also a bit outside Brussels’ competence: Teach for All, the global organization trying to connect high-performing grads with underprivileged students via the classroom. EU Influence caught up with him on the sidelines of the Good Lobby Summer Institute last month in his native Spain to soak up what he’s learned about making the case in Brussels after three decades inside the Commission and nearly four years outside. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You were head of DG SANTE when the president of the Commission didn’t care about health. What advice would you have for people trying to get the Commission to care about their issue?
I’ve thought about that a lot, because this is what I do now.
It is very important to understand and speak the language of the Commission, rather than your own. Meaning, to understand how your agenda, your priorities, can actually fit into the agenda and priorities of the European Union and the Commission itself.
It may seem obvious. But usually it doesn’t happen that way, because most people, especially in mission-driven organizations, feel very passionately about their own issue. But what is really important is not to say what is important for you, but how you can contribute to the agenda.
The other thing is that time matters. It’s still important to be able to convey what you have to say extremely concisely, because the people who may have a say on things that matter for you are usually busy people. Deadlines are everything for a policy organization, whereas if you are outside the Commission — especially for example if you’re an academic — perfection in your work is much more important than deadlines.
Also, most people overestimate what the Commission knows and underestimate what the Commission wants to know. I think the Commission is a very open organization, it’s just that it’s difficult to reach it. It’s a transparent labyrinth.
Both things are compatible: You can be complex but transparent. Therefore this is [not only] a problem for people who want to reach the Commission, but it’s a problem for the Commission, too. I’m sure that some organizations maybe are discouraged or don’t think it’s useful or worthwhile to try to influence the EU Institutions — they’re just too far away. They are far away, but oftentimes, it’s worth trying.
When you say “speak the language of the Commission, you don’t mean, like, ‘framework for a roadmap…?’
If you see it in the reverse way, most people tend to have their own words and concepts that take a huge importance for those that are in your world, but those words are not necessarily comprehensible for the outside. The same happens for the Commission. To make it simple: A clear, explicit link to Commission stated policy and strategic priorities is extremely important.
Do you interact with the Commission in your role now?
Not really, because I don’t have to. I try to help organizations understand the mechanics. I don’t lobby the Commission.
I ask because the recent Uber Files leaks have brought more attention to the revolving door.
I didn’t revolve. I left the Commission because I have a real passion for education, and I wanted to devote myself to this before being tired. A revolving door would have meant that I would be doing the same, I would be doing the Commission from the other side.
Would you criticize colleagues who would choose to do that?
What is important is to have clear, simple rules, because the Commission has to not just be transparent, but to be seen as transparent. Sometimes, some exceptional or maybe even excessive rules may be necessary — not to prevent any wrongdoing, but to be clear and transparent to everybody about the culture of the organization. In the end, in the case of the Commission at least, transparency rules are very strong. What is important is that this is known, and of course, [that] it is enforced.