If you want a policy solution or a proposal to be tabled, there are some obvious things you need:
- A strong public policy case that is clear
- Evidence (data, studies, and anecodotal evidence)*
- Text of what you want
- Timing
- Luck
- Support from the pen holders and the mainstream
The How
Be clear about the legal, legislative or regulatory pathway.
Action at the EU level:
- OLP
- DA
- RPS Measure
- Implementing act
- Guidance
- Practice
Action at the National Level:
e.g. get a national government to approve building some power lines, or remove an arcane national rule that benefits only candlestick makers (or fax machine makers).
5 Simple Reasons to Hand Over the Working Solution
You’ll be specific and granular. You will lay out the case for action and how to deliver the solution.
This is important for five basic reasons:
First, you may ask for something that is not in the Commission’s Political Guidelines or Annual Work Programme. And, you want action in weeks.
Second, you may think that your solution can be delivered by way of an implementing act. The only sticking point is that the Legal Services of the Commission, Council, and EP are on the record that you need OLP to fix the issue.
Third, the legislative and procedural fix you want is spelt out clearly in the enabling legislation, and it is not something you like.
Fourth, you may disagree with the interpretation of the only legally viable solution, and you have an army of well-heeled lawyers writing that you can do it your way. Unfortunately, the Commission’s legal service (plus Council and EP) keeps returning to a recent ECJ judgement that blocks your preferred approach.
Fifth, after the avalanche of proposals under that VDL I Commission, officials are exhausted, and their collective brain space for fresh and innovative thinking is running low. It is up to you to join the dots and provide a well-designed, clear, and coherent (evidence, policy, and legal) case and solution. You may strike lucky and find an official who is not burned out or siloed in their approach, to take up your case.
If you opt to skip over this, you are all but guaranteed not to get what you want. You can spend the rest of this Commission wailing from the rooftops that you were ignored. If you don’t do what is needed, you are just coping out.
* The evidence has to be presented on time, not after the decision has been taken.