Archive
Year: 2013
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Margrethe Vestager, Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark, Joins for a Discussion on Europe’s Growth Agenda
May 10, 2013
FleishmanHillard Brussels is delighted to announce that Ms. Margrethe Vestager, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic and Interior Affairs of Denmark, will be speaking at our upcoming lunch roundtable. The discussion will focus on the growth agenda in a European Union, which faces a pressing need for both improved government balance sheets and economic growth in order to support an economic recovery. Europe is seeking a path that supports both fiscal consolidation and growth...
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Brands aren’t invented, they’re revealed
May 2, 2013
May 1st 2013 marks a watershed moment in FleishmanHillard history as we unveil the next generation of the FleishmanHillard brand. For many, the concept of branding goes largely unnoticed. It merely exists to distinguish competing products or organisations in an ever more clustered marketplace. “There’s the logo – that’s the yoghurt I buy.” The term itself derives from the method by which farmers used to literally ‘brand’ or mark their cattle in an...
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Italy: Habemus… governum
May 2, 2013
After the attention that the elections of Pope Francis garnered, another wave of excitement has swept across Italy (impacting Italians living abroad like us as much as anyone!) After two months of political stalemate that followed the February general elections (see our analysis of the results), a new Government is now up and running. Interesting to note for the Brussels bubble: Prime Minister Letta himself is a keen Europhile and some of the key Ministers...
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Italy: A New Political Government in Place
May 2, 2013
On 30 April 2013, after two months of political stalemate, the Italian Parliament confirmed Prime Minister-designate Enrico Letta's new Government. Formed by a “Grand Coalition” of three parties (the centre-left Democratic Party, the centre-right Berlusconi-led People of Freedom, and the Centrist Monti-led Civic Choice) the newly appointed Government is a political Government and it marks a clear change from the traditional adversarial and bipolar system that has characterized Italian politics over the last twenty years...
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Where does air quality rank on Europe’s bucket list?
April 19, 2013
We all kick the bucket. It’s a given together with taxes, as the famous saying goes. Before we do, however, there’s that notorious list of life goals that need to be checked off. With the Barroso Commission departing in October 2014 and the European Parliament elections looming in May 2014, Europe will have to start prioritising its own bucket list: the 2013 Commission Work Programme. It’s a legacy year and there’s clearly a lot on...
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Reputation and Public Affairs: inseparable bedfellows
March 26, 2013
Gone are the days where Public Affairs took place in a vacuum. Increasingly, the work of PA professionals must be conducted within the prism of an organisation’s or industry’s broader reputation. This was the message of my presentation at the 2013 European Public Affairs Action Day, now a permanent fixture of the PA calendar. Speaking at the 21 March event organised by the Parliamentary communications and political information firm, Dods, I explored, through 10 principles...
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Agency News: Fleishman-Hillard Recognized as ‘Benelux Consultancy of the Year’
March 25, 2013
ST. LOUIS, March 19, 2013 — Fleishman-Hillard has been named the 2013 “Benelux Consultancy of the Year” by industry publication The Holmes Report. The agency’s Belgian operation was recognized particularly for its public affairs work, and the Amsterdam office was noted for its employee communications work. In its recognition, The Holmes Report also called out the Dutch office for its role in the firm’s global crisis communications and business development.
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Italian Elections: Uncertainties Ahead for Italy and Europe
February 28, 2013
Last weekend Italy held its general elections and unfortunately the results are very disappointing as they do not guarantee a stable majority. Uncertainty and instability are, therefore, likely to become an inevitable trend in Italian governance over the coming months, with the potential for negative impacts on Europe given Italy’s prominence at an EU level. The Italian colleagues in our Brussels office (6 of us!) have prepared an analysis which includes a summary of the...
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Italian Elections: Uncertainties Ahead for Italy and Europe
February 28, 2013
Italy held its general elections on 24 and 25 February 2013. Unfortunately the main outcome is a climate of political uncertainty. Pier Luigi Bersani's centre-left coalition won only a handful more votes than Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party in both Chambers. Monti centristic alliance did not secure the share of votes it was hoping for, coming only fourth. Giuseppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) – an anti-party, anti-corruption and anti-austerity protest movement (although not strictly anti-Europe...
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An Eerie Silence on Cybersecurity? Not for the EU
February 27, 2013
An interesting article popped up in The New York Times (best paper on earth) feed today. Titled “An Eeerie Silence on Cybersecurity,” this editorial takes a look at the reasons so many American companies have been quiet about cyberattacks on their systems. Fear of stakeholder reaction to disclosures? Reputational fallout? Unwanted government scrunity? Possible lawsuits? The reality is that industrial espionage, counterfeiting, data theft and data manipulation together cost companies billions of Euros. In the...