I meet many people who believe that fairy tales and fantasy is real.
These are the people who think that once a piece of EU legislation is agreed and published in the Official Journal that it will be implemented and the policy goals it seeks to bring about will happen as if by magic. That only happens in a fantasy land.
In cold reality, once a piece of law is passed, the hard work starts. And, all too often, progressive interests walk away. They seem shocked and surprised when rules don’t get implemented, governments and the commission backtrack, and the hoped for change gets sidelined in a cul-de-sac.
I was one of them. A long time ago, I was naive enough to think that once a law as passed, it would be implemented in good faith, and the objectives met. I was foolish, young, and wrong.
Progressive change happens because of unlikely alliances and timing. It often happens despite the wishes of civil servants. Once their political masters move on, they are likely to revert to type, and stall. As soon as the MEPs or Ministers who forced change on their system move on or loose interest, as they inevitably will, opponents will work out ways to backtrack.
This is what I’d do today, older and more comfortable with reality.
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Stage 1
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Stage 2
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Stage 3
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Stage 4
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Stage 5
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Stage
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Get Your Issue on the Political Agenda
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Get the Proposal Tabled
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Get the Proposal Adopted
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Get the Law Implemented in Reality
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Get it Mainstreamed
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How Long will this take
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2-5 years
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2 years
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2 years
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5 years
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5 years
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Who Best to Lead
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Campaigners
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Lobbyist & Campaigner
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Lobbyist
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Lawyer & Lobbyist in Member States
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Work with Market leaders and media
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Need to Do
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Create a Public Conversation
Provide a Compelling Story for Change Provide Evidence
Find political allies & champions
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Create the compelling case for the Commission to act
Provide the ‘Better Regulation’ evidence and solutions to lead to your preferred choice
Create the appearance of political and public support for change
Create the incentive for Commissioner/Director-General to back your case and overrule opposition from Services
Create support in the Task Force, ISSG, and ISC Cabinets to back your line.
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Get enough votes in the lead Committee, EP Plenary, Council Working Group and Council to get your issue adopted
Create pressure on Commission’s negotiation team to uphold your position.
Create alliances in the national capitals at the political and civil servant level to back your position
Ensure that your allies turn up, speak and vote the right way
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Work with the Commission on implementing measures
Work with members of the national implementation task forces
Work with the member state experts in the IA MS Committee and DA Expert Groups
Work with national Parliament scrutiny Committee
Keep your allies in the EP alive to the challenge of implementation
Work with the Commission to ensure budgetary constraints don’t derail delivery
Keep a detailed record of the legislative record to see what positions were raised, how people voted, and the legislative intent of amendment/provisions
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Help market place deliver on goals.
Work with market place to correct any unintended errors in the text
Remind Commissioners/Politicians that their actions led to sucess
Show in the mainstream media the success of the action
Bring the success to the attention of the public policy elite community
Keep on top of any reviews, evaluations, so they don’t become an opportunity to walk back on progress
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Goal
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Get the Issue Taken Up by the Commission
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Get the Commission to Add the Initiative to the Work Programme & Adopted
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Get the proposal you want out the door
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Get the law adopted as you want it
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Make the Opportunity Cost of reversing position too high
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This is not for the feint of heart or believer in fairy tales.
You’ll need a long term time horizon. At least 16 years – likely 20.
The only reward is that the policy goal you sought to bring about with a lot of hard work to bring about, is not sidelined in a car park in an empty field, and instead, delivers on the improvements you hoped it would. That is reward enough.