A checklist for an ideal EU lobbying team

Yesterday I caught up with two very smart and accomplished lobbyists/campaigners from an industry and NGOs. For some reason, both conversations landed on  what’s the ideal way to influence EU decision making. 

If you want to influence EU public policy this is what I’d recommend:

1. Identify the number of countries that are important in making  decisions in your area. It can range from 27 to 7.
2. In each Member State, gather a team of people who are trusted by political and policy decision makers and influencers on that area, can work well across Political Parties. Have at hand, technical/issue experts who can explain the issues in a clear way to political and policy If you can combine  all 3 in one person, you are in luck. You’ve found a unicorn. Often it is 3 people.
3. Make it their focus to constructively engage with political and policy makers all  the time. They need to become the ‘go to’ person governments contact if they need a workable solution to an issue. They are the people Ministers, Political Advisers, Civil Servants, opposition politicians, and the opinion forming journalists What’s App.
4. This team will ‘mirror’ their national political and policy class.They’ll have good relationships with key national constituencies where the industry is important.
5. This team won’t be your regulatory/scientific/technical people. I’ve found only a few regulatory, scientific and technical experts who can communicate clearly with policy and political decision makers. Keep them on hand and coach them to communicate clearly if the time comes to meet a politician.
6. This team is replicated in Brussels. 
7. I guesstimate that this team will be between 10-30 people. 
8. They need to work and think as a European team. Not focused on ‘parochial’ local issues. Teams can’t go native.  Sometimes you can’t win a country over, and you don’t need to. So, stop the burning of resources when you can’t win in one capital. You are not winning for all. You just need the right number of votes  in the Council and the EP to get your position adopted. 
9. I have a simple test. Ask someone when they last met/spoke to the top 5 decision makers in the area. Do they have their mobile number? Do they know the real decision makers on the issue and do the real decision makers know and trust them.
10. For most EU legislative files, you are dealing with around 250 people in the EU Member States and Brussels who are key to making the decision. 30 are the most important. 
11. The team has to be nimble. It is a team who is ready to be deployed as and when needed and quickly. They are not stuck in ‘reallyimportant important’ internal meetings. 
12. This needs long term funding. It takes around 10 years to bring an really importantssue on to the EU agenda, get a law drafted, adopted, and implemented. See it as an Insurance policy. For many, it would be best insurance policy they could take out. 

This is not impossible. The European  fishing industry . I’ve gone up against up against them. They won in the long term.

Please let me know of any firm, industry or NGO who can tick  most of 1-12.