Archive
Year: 2014
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Let’s dance – the impact of the economic crisis on healthcare cues an intricate dance between EU institutions and Member States
July 8, 2014
The issue of healthcare sits in an increasingly delicate place in the European arena. Traditionally, healthcare has been a matter of Member State competence. That continues to be the case, but the impact of the economic crisis and intensified involvement of the European Commission in the economic governance of Member States, means that the institutions are cautiously engaging in a new dance on healthcare. Now in its fourth year, the Commission provides so called ‘country-specific...
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Is LinkedIn the Holy Grail of EU digital policy advocacy?
July 8, 2014
Update (5 March 2015): At a social media-focused event FleishmanHillard hosted last week in Brussels, one of the attendees flat out disagreed with me that LinkedIn was a viable means of doing anything but finding a job. I am so glad he spoke up and I think LinkedIn would be too. LinkedIn is proud to boast that its users now interact 8 times more with content on the platform that's not job-related. It's quietly grown into...
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Building a strong comms culture in the Brussels bubble means getting out more
June 24, 2014
We know that comms matters in the Brussels bubble, but we also know its needs to matter more. With events like last week's first-ever European Digital Advocacy Summit (H/T Andras Baneth of the PAC) signalling a concrete convergence of public affairs and communications, it’s clear that comms is inching its way towards lasting relevance in BXL. Now it’s time for us to make sure we’re worth keeping around. It’s time to share our ideas, successes and...
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EU Commissioners 2014-2019: Intelligence Assessment
June 20, 2014
New EU Commissioners are likely to be formally nominated by EU Member States during July, with policy portfolios allocated thereafter. FleishmanHillard’s Institutional Research Unit prepared an assessment of the current expected changes to the European College of Commissioners that you can download here. This dynamic process is subject to many changes. FleishmanHillard is available for tailored workshops on the EU institutional changes and how they affect your business, for information please contact [email protected] Members of...
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What does it mean to work in comms in the Brussels bubble?
June 12, 2014
Trolling through the organigrammes of interests (public and private) represented in Brussels, odds are you’ll see someone with “communications” in his/her title. Advisors, officers, assistants, managers, counsellors – we’re all communicators by designation, but what purpose do we actually serve in our organisations? Type-casting Brussels communicators What I’ve found is that Brussels expects dramatically different things from its comms folks, but for the sake of brevity, let’s say that there are two types of...
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The most unexpected outcome of the rise of the leftist outsiders ‘Podemos’
June 2, 2014
King Felipe VI: Called to be a Symbol In a turn of events that few would have predicted a fortnight ago, King Juan Carlos I of Spain (76) formally announced today his decision to put an end to his 39-year reign and abdicate in favour of Crown Prince Felipe (46). The decision follows three years of accelerated decline in the popularity of the Monarchy caused by family scandals and a series of major missteps by...
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Not a moment wasted: Potocnik’s last act to ban landfill?
June 2, 2014
Environment Commissioner, Janez Potočnik, is an ambitious and tenacious man. In the dying days of this Commission, he is trying to push out perhaps his most ambitious law to date and overhaul Europe’s Waste law. One of the last acts of his fellow Commissioners will be to back a call to effectively ban the landfill of household waste by 2030. Recycling targets across the board will be ratcheted up. You would have thought that the...
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Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right, Stuck in the Middle with You
May 23, 2014
The headline above refers to a Stealers Wheel song from 1972 made famous (again) by Quentin Tarantino as part of the soundtrack for his deservedly acclaimed 1992 movie, Reservoir Dogs. If you ask my teenage daughters, both of those references are “SO ancient! SO old!” But to me, they are extremely timely. In the next few days, we are likely to see “blood on the floor” from some of the mainstream parties in the European...
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What will European elections mean for financial regulation?
May 22, 2014
You’ve all heard the story of the global financial crisis, the banks that failed, the bets that lost, and the governments that just didn’t know what to do. You’ve probably also heard about the deluge of economic initiatives and financial regulation that poured forth from the public sector in the wake of the crisis to try to make sure that ‘it will never happen again.’ What you may or may not have heard about, is...
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Elections 2014: Business Needs to Look Beyond Borders
May 20, 2014
Martin Bresson writes in leading Danish business paper Borsen on the impact of the European elections. Writing with FleishmanHillard's Danish partner, Flemming Mieth of Rostra PR, Martin argues that Danish business needs to look beyond its national contacts if it is to succeed at European advocacy post the European elections.