A lot of officials are going to be busy preparing new legal proposals. Many for the first time. Here are some practical tips to getting a good proposal through.
1. Make sure the title is innocuous. I’ve found the duller the title, the less agitated people get.
2. Stick the details in the Annex. People don’t read that far. There is a broader challenge that people don’t like reading policy and legal documents. This has upsides and downsides. So if you know you people won’t read more than 300 words- 1 page, use it.
3. Have a lot of real dialogue with those impacted. It gets the issues out in the open and gives you the chance to fine tune the text. And anticipate lines that will be used. Don’t go for the superficial dialogue of the Have Your Say type, that is too common today.
4. Don’t cut corners. Spend a lot of time preparing the proposal. Don’t try and force something quickly. You’ll spend three times as much time with the ep and council. All the proposals I know that got bogged down in the EP and Council were those pushed through quickly to meet the political desire of some youngster in a Cabinet, whose wanted to bypass the dull part of gathering real evidence and consulting those impacted and experts.
5. Get out on the lecture circuit to explain your proposals. You don’t want people misrepresenting your proposals.
6. Explain the proposal in plain English. Clarity is not a sin. It gets rid of confusion.
7. Engage with the EP early, Do it before the proposal comes out the door. It may help you get the rapporteur you want. It helps frame the debate for the proposal and helps get the proposal off to a good start. Sit down with the rapporteur and their team and help them.
8. Engage with the member states. There is no point tabling a proposal that most of the member states won’t support. That’s like repeatedly running into a brick wall wall head first, fast, and without a helmet.
9. Don’t close yourself off in a cloistered room typing up a proposal. Draw in other colleagues who have more experience preparing and drafting legislative proposals. Draw in outside experts. Ask them if the ideas and text will work.
10. Few people are experts in: 1. The issue, 2. Preparing proposals, 3. Drafting proposals, and 4. Legislative negotiators, and 5. Know the rule book for preparing and passing laws. It is a rare combination of good written communicator, clear speaker, good legal drafter, good negotiator, good project manager, good meeting manager, and affable. I’ve known a few people who combine them all. Get trained and coached.
11. Keep your leadership informed with crisp briefing notes. They don’t like surprises. If they read the notes is another thing.
12. Enjoy the experience. It is a great honour to contribute to good law making.
13. Don’t take the work personally. It is not your proposal. You’ve been tasked to take it through by others – head of unit, director, director general, cabinet and commissioner – who are likely going to overrule you or impose on you something you disagree with. That’s their right.
14. Don’t forget you have a real life outside of work. You have your health, friends and family.
15. If your leadership ask you to prepare a major proposal in a few weeks, or stick something silly in the proposal, make a note for the file. One day you’ll be glad that note can be found.
16. When an energised Cabinet official just out of the College starts drafting legal text on a Sunday at 11 pm, remember they’ll forget it, and then the “brave idea” will fall soon enough when sober minds read it.
17. When the proposal is published, make sure the correct version is published, the one without the track changes and comments.
18. Sit down with your press team and explain in plain English what the proposal is about. Do this early, and not the night before the proposal is published, Make sure that their draft is accurate. This is an important task. How the world sees your proposal will be in the media.
19. Sit down with the legal translators early on and help them. Misunderstood words will cause confusion.
20. Not everybody is going to like the proposal. That’s unlikely. But, if people – / interests are not surprised, and have been taken along in the preparation of the proposals, you will be in a good place.
21. There will some who have been hibernating or drunk in a ditch while the proposal is being prepared, or plain cantankerous, who will shocked and appalled at anything you do. Just keep good records of the exchanges with them.
interests/ politicians