I’m sometimes asked how to successfully influence the outcome of decisions/votes/proposals at the EU level. This is my model. It draws on working with organisations that have a network in most EU national capitals,e.g. WWF.
It’s been tried and tested for over 30 years. It is based on lessons learned over 30 years from many failures and some successes. It draws on what works, and through refinement, takes on board what works.
It draws on some academic literature, like John W. Kingdon, and writings of experienced practitioners, like Chris Rose, Richard N.Haas, and Edward Tufte, and biographies. It is a limited body of literature.
It may be useful for anyone who wants to positively influence EU decisions. The approach works for industry or NGOs. It is ecumenical and non-partisan.
I find the approach obvious. I learned many of these ideas working with successful political entrepreneurs. I’ve been fortunate to know a few people who have framed EU policy and law.
It is not easy to apply. Most interests looking to influence EU decisions fail. They may do a few of the recommendations that follow, but not most, and they get surprised when they don’t get what they want.
- Have a plan
- Know the process
- Clairity
- Be civil
- Ego is the enemy
- Valuies
- Windows of opportunity
- Evidence
- Solution
- Have the right material
- You need a policy entrepreneur
- A 10-year mindset
- Resources
- Trusted by the key 10
- Know the key people
- All Politics is local
- Walk in 3 weeks before hand in 27 capitals
- Mindset
- Right team
- A focus on action, rather than prevacaation
- Track what gets done – Dashboard
- Keep ideologues, nihilists, misanthropist behind closed doors
- Be prepared
- Political intelligence
- A Hybrid approach
- Able and Willing
- Ideas matter
- Have a Plan
If you don’t have a plan, you will fail.
To paraphrase Karl Rove, if you don’t have a plan, you’ll stumble around and lose. Most people don’t have a lobby plan or a credible plan. I put it down to two reasons. First, if you put it down on paper, you realise you have no chance of getting what you want, and you don’t want to let your colleagues know that. Second, you don’t have evidence, solutions, and resources to bring about change.
If you want to know what to put down on paper, read this article.
2. Know the Process
You need to know the process for changing the EU policy, law(both ordinary and technical /secondary), or an Agency regulatory decision.
You need to have a deep understanding of the steps involved, when the windows of opportunity open up for a short moment of time, what you need to bring to the table, and the votes needed.
It is helpful to know how the process works in reality, rather than on paper. I use a package of process charts and case studies based on recent precedents. I supplement them with checklists/SOPs systemising what has worked.
3. Clear Communication
You will need to demonstrate clear thinking in both writing and speaking. This is a rare skill in Brussels. If decision makers don’t understand what you want, it is going to be hard to persuade them to support you.
If your writing is not clear and concise, the reader won’t understand you. If your position papers, policy memos, studies, amendment and justifications (see longer list) are not clear on the first read through, they will be ignored. They won’t be used as a working text to draw from when decisions are being made.
If you come across as a possessed banshee, speaking in tongues, under the influence of 3 grams of amphetamines, few people are going to understand what you are saying. They’ll likely just avoid and ignore you.
4. Be civil
Some of the most successful lobbyists and lawmakers I have known have one basic quality – they are civil. They are clear yet polite. Being pleasant to officials and politicians, even when you don’t agree with them on an issue, is basic but rare.
Being aggressive, threatening and rude to officials and politicians may work in some countries, but I don’t know where. Some interests are systemically ignored because of the behaviour of their colleagues. If you wish to be ignored for the short, medium and long term, it is the way to go.
Here are some examples of behaviour that I’d not recommend when dealing with officials and politicians: lying, shouting, threatening, intimidating, physical assaults, following them home from the office, or following them into a public toilet to continue the conversation, a toilet for the opposite sex. The list is longer. If you have colleagues who can’t be allowed out in public to meet with officials and politicians, bench them.
5. Ego is the enemy
If you can’t put getting the right outcome first, and can’t park your ego at the door, you won’t win. If you insist on winning only if people agree with your beliefs and position, it is unlikely that you will embrace legislative, policy, or political success. It is a common reason for failure. If you are on a mission to convert officials and politicians to your beliefs, you are going to find the road barren. It may be easier on you to move to a commune/ policy fetish community/madrasses/think tank/ issue team where you only deal with fellow believers.
It is true that in these secluded communities you’ll have no meaningful influence on public policy. If you can’t switch from the conversion to the persuasion mindset, success will prove elusive.
I prefer a more stoical approach, park whatever personal beliefs I may have, and engage with officials and politicians from where they are. Reality may be uncomfortable, but it is more useful than operating in a fairy tale.
6. Engage on their terms/values.
If you don’t engage people on the terms of their ‘values’, your chances of persuading them are low. You need to understand what makes them tick. This powerful approach is detailed in Chris Rose’s ‘What Makes People Tick’.
I use it simply. I list what a client wants to say. I then list what the audience will hear. And, if needed, I adapt the language so it resonates with the audience. Every time I’ve used it, it works. The client wins.
A lot of people don’t want to use it. I think it is due to point 5.
7. Windows of Opportunity
A lot of success comes down to stepping in at the right time. If you don’t step in at the right time, you will spend the next few years/decades frustrated and ignored.
Practically, this means for any problem/issue you are working on, having the evidence, solutions, studies, legislative text, briefings, policy memos, and press releases, etc., sat on a shelf or in a filing cabinet for when the policy window opens up.
You’ll need a policy entrepreneur who is trusted by key decision makers to promote your solution for when the policy window opens, or to create the right environment for the window to come ajar and open up.
8. Evidence
You will need credible evidence from sources that decision-makers trust. Statements of belief won’t cut it. Acclaimations of faith are akin to reciting the Catheism to a group of agnostics and atheists. It will be met with a mix of confusion and anger and will likely be ignored.
I have a weakness for commissioning independent studies from the experts that the Commission uses, following to the letter their own Better Regulation Guidelines. I like to do this ahead of time so when the policy window opens up, the evidence to support a solution is there.
It has one downside. The independent evidence may not support your case. It is better to know early that you don’t have a credible case than spend a lot of time and resources and likely come up defeated later on.
9. Solution
You’ll need to bring a credible solution to the table. Credible must exist in the realm of legal and political reality. If you don’t have a working solution to the issue on the table, you’ll be ignored.
This is important if the officials working on policy development are exhausted. Well-presented, evidence-rich, practical solutions will more likely be openly received and co-opted. If your solution seems to suggest a Treaty change or the overnight de-industrialisation of Europe, you’ll be regarded as at best fringe. These options go on the ‘green-ink’ pile.
Once an issue has moved from the primordial policy swamp to the active political agenda, it is hard to take it off the table. It can be done. The threshold is high. I’ve seen that threshold met once in 30 years
10. Have the right material
Ahead of time, you need a package of materials that are clear to the intended audience. If asked to bring a new issue onto the policy agenda I would recommend this package:
- Policy awareness: Studies in reputable journals of record
- Public Awareness 1: Books, Documentaries, Movies
- Public Awareness 2: Media, B-Roll, Press Releases,Website. Endorsements: celebrity , leading expert
- Policy Package: Agenda, Meeting summaries, Emails, Meeting request, Debate reports, Issue updates, Summaries of Commission proposals/EP & Council Amendments, Policy memo, Persuasive Memo, Position paper, Strategy proposals, Lobby Plans, Advisory notes, Elevator Pitch, Op-Ed, Letter of Support, Meeting with official/politician, Policy Presentation, Public Consultation Feedback, Regulatory Agency Submission, Shadow Impact Assessments, Evaluations
- Delivery Package: Process Charts, Lobby Plans, Agenda, Meeting summaries, Emails, Meeting request, Debate reports, Issue updates, Dashboard
11. You need a policy entrepreneur
You will need a policy entrepreneur who can get your issue onto the agenda and onto the statute book. They are unicorns. I have known 3 of them over 30 years. John W. Kingdon lists their qualities as:
- The person has some claim to a hearing.
- The person is known for his political connections and negotiating skills.
- Successful entrepreneurs are persistent. It implies a willingness to invest large and sometimes remarkable quanities of one’s resources.
Source: John W. Kingdon, Agenda, Alternatives and Piublic Policies, 2nd Ed, pages 180-181
12. A 10 year mindset
It takes at least 10 years to bring an idea from the political ether, into policy and then law. Anyone who wants to bring about policy change is facing at least a 10-year investment programme to bring about change.
This timeframe is going to put off many. It deters many – commercial, philanthropic, NGOs, think tanks – from making the necessary investment in headspace, people, and financial resources to bring about change.
Change does not happen by accident. But, it does not happen quickly. Every policy and legislative file I have studied and worked on over 35 years has between a 10-15 year cycle from ideation to legislatiove adoption. And, longer if you consider implementatuion.
13. Resources
Bringing about change takes financial resources. Many good ideas don’t get taken up because of the lack of financial backing. They don’t have the resources to get started or to get taken up into law.
Many ideas get filtered out at the start. This affects all interests. You have a 101 things you want to change but the € to deliver 1 or 0.
If you don’t have the € to start and commit for the long term I’d recommend not starting or start with lower levels of ambition. It will prevent a lot of heart ache.
14. Trusted by the key 10
On every file I’ve worked on, there are around 10 key decision-makers and influencers whose support is crucial.
Their trust is accumulated over decades of keeping your word and doing what you said you’d do. It is the byproduct of persistence over time and credibility. A good policy entrpeneur will find them.
Some of the 10 will be hiding in plain sight – Commissioner, Key official and adviser – but others will be the person they look to for approval on any decision. Some will be in Brussels and others in national capitals.
15. Know the key people
As a rule of thumb, on any policy and legislative file there are around 1000 people who are involved in making the decision.
They include: the Commissioner(s), the ISSG, Task Force, ISC; Member States: Minister and Shadow Minister, their political advisors, Director in national ministry leading on file, Head of Unit, national expert, EU Ambassador, Deputy Amnassador, attache, MEPs leading on the file from the political groups, the group co-ordinator, the national group co-ordinartor (if applicable), the Group political advisers, key MEPs political advisors, national parliamentary committee leads. There will be some key influencers: journalists, secientific experts, academics etc.
This is around 30 people for each country – or 1000 overall (including the Brussels based staff). Operationally it is smaller. Some don’t care about your file. In some countries the file is delegated to one person – that is the only person who counts. So, practically, this is about 200 people you need to deal with. Around 7 a country.
You can’t win them all over. Your job is get enough support to get your issue taken on board
16. “All Politics is Local” – Tip O’Neil
You need to make your points land with back home – in the national capital or constiutency. make the issue of interest for back home.
This will mean that your core message will be adapated so it becomes relevant to back home. This may be considered heresy by Federalists and zealous ideaologues. You’ll need to to convert your words and values so it lands back home.
17. Walk in 3 weeks before hand in 27 capitals
The most successful system I’ve seen is colleagues walking in to see Ministers and MEPs 2-3 weeks before any key meeting/vote. Primed with speaking points that spoke to the national agenda/political agenda, Minsiters and MEPs are more likely to come on board. It may lead to civil servants blocking you trying to enter the Council buiilding to meet their Minister, but this is why you’ll have pre-arranged the meeting with the Minister’s political adviser and Party lead.
On key issues, you’ll want the Minister to drop a line to Commissioner to clarify that their support is contigenet on support on your matter. And, when the Minister is in Brussels, meeting Commissioenrs and senior officials, the same message can conveyed.
As a rule of thumb, done as Inter-Service starts has a remarkable outcome. The intervention of a French President or German Chancellor, or the like, may well lead to more than tweaking.
18. Speak their language
Whilst English is the working language of Brussels, I’ve found that back home and with national represenatives in Brussels (MEPs and Attaches), you need a national colleague to pass the message.
They need to be known and trusted by the decision-makers back home on the issue. If they are not, use your Brussels based colleague.
The most successful lobbyist I knew, based in a national capital, far away from Brussels, simply got on a plane and met the key people in 15 Member States.
19. Mindset
All decision making involves compromise. It involves getting to a workable outcome, not a fairy tale perfection outcome.
This means you’ll need to a limited number of must have ask – I like the 1 – some nice to haves – 2- and anything else is nice.
If you find compromise hard, and can’t give your list of what you need and what you can let go, you won’t be taken seriously. You will likely loose it all.
20. Right team.
To pull off the your public policy or legislative goal you’ll need experienced, you’ll want people who have walked across the fire and back a few times. If you prefer to put your fate in the hands of people for who this is new to all this, it is their first rodeo, I wish you the best of luck. It is a common approach, and rarely successful.
I find the successful teams have: technical experts, scientists, policy entrepreneurs, staff writers, communication experts, story telelrs, designers, investigators, project managers, and lobbyists who can get your prooposal tinto a proplsal and thrpough the legislative machine.
I find the hardest skill set to find is a story teller who can take the technical gibberish and turn it something that makes lands with decision makers. Story telling is as an old as human civilisation itself. Good story tellers are worth their weight in paladium.
And you need themin as many national capitals as you can.
21. A focus on action, rather than prevarication.
Success is not delivered through internal committee meetings. It is based on action. This involves meeting the right people, finding and presenting the right evidence and solutions, and making sure that what needs to be done is done.
Success does not come fom prevaracation and delay. Endless loops of internal; self talk and belly button gazing in internal ritual chanting sessions, will not persuade anyone outside. Many defeats come down to self-dialogue.
When you know the steps in the process, you’ll be prepared. You’ll have the right information to present, at the right time, and in the right way. Your plan will set you to act rather than prevearaciate.
22. Track what gets done – Dashboard
Create a tracker of what needs to be done, by whom, and by when. If people slack, call them out. If they continue to not deliver, replace them with someone who can do what’s needed.
Too often changes don’t happen because some people are not interested enough, or are too busy, to do what needs to be done. You can take things off their plate, replace them, or know that you are embractng self-made failure.
On a complex file, head space of anyone is going to be limited. If you ask someone to work on several key files at once, your chances of success deplete.
23. Keep ideologues, nihilists, and misogynists behind closed doors.
I’ve found these three groups find it difficult to persuade people. I’ve seen them all at work. It’s always been a disaster. Disaster snatched from the jaws of victory.
24. Be prepared
There is not a single policy, legislative or regulatory file I know that came out of the blue. There were no surprises when it came onto the policy or political agenda.
I have not inherited the ability to read the political tea leaves. On any given issue, tracking the public policy dialogue, coverage in scientific publications, journals of record, party manifestos, speeches of key officials and politicians, listening to national and European parliamentary debates, and legislative initiatives will let you know what’s on the horizon.
When something is on the horizon prepare the material that you need (see 10). If you wait until a proposal is tabled, you’ll likely be too late. The best investment I have made is recommending scientific studies and indepth public policy studies on emerging issues to provide the information that would, soon after be asked for.
25. Political intillegence
There is a lot of information in the public domain. It tends to be reportage. And, on the rare moment it is accurate, it is too late to do anything with.
There are a few journalis of record , e.g. eurocomment – who give ytou an accurate assessment of reality and what’s deriving events. A subscription here will give fly on the wall type insight. You’ll need to keep a good supply of reliable political intillegence on your issues. This comes best speakign with the from people making the decisions or close proximity to those decisions.
The purpose is to help you understand what is really driving the agenda on your issue. From that, you can adapt your case, and speak to what is of concern to decision-makers.
26. Change your focus – a hybrid approach
If you think only in terms of your nationality, and think that your national capital, be it Berlin, Dublin or Paris is all important, you’ll be dissapoiunted. Similiary, if your perspective is only Euro- Brussels, you’ll find it hard to understand why decisions are made.
Rasising points that only benefit your country will fall flat with the Commission, and likely 26 other Member States and their MEPs. If you find it hard to speak to the common interest, and are fixated in local political gossip from Berlin, Dublin or Rome, you’ll have little to bring to the table to change outcomes.
In many ways this mind switch is hard for many people to pull off. They can only indeitfiy thesmelves in terms of where they were born, and carry their passport as integral to their self-indeity. Maslow’s self actualisation is far away.
27. Able and Willing
There are many issues that are not solved because people are not able and willing to do what needs to be done.
There are many reasons for this. Working on too many issues is one reason. Not wanting to pass bad news up the decision making tree is another common reason. An aversion for action is normal.
Likely the most important is refusing to deal with anyone who does not agree with you. If you find it hard to deal with people who don’t have the same world vision as you do, the very idea of engaging with those non-believers is painful and repugant. You believe that if you are silent it will all go away. It rarely does.
28. Ideas matter
Good ideas, crafted by story tellers, presented at the right time, by the right people, right message, right values, and the right evidence move policy and political mountains.
I’ve seen it happen more than a few times. There are some core reasons why those good ideas got co-opted by policy makers and into law. And, bad ideas can use the same tools to get taken up.
The simple steps mentioned above are not hard to individually do. What is hard to do is to join all of them together and working in sync. I’ve seen been at the coal face and seen it happen a few times. Mountains moved.
AMcL
8 March 2026