PRESENTATION OF ELNET

Founder of the EULOBBY-NETWORK (ELNET) (currently present in 17 member states) is Mr. Christian D. de Fouloy who is a well-known multicultural and multilingual expert in government relations, lobbying and advocacy on both sides of the Atlantic. He began his long-standing lobbying career by representing foreign nations to better inform Congress, the White House, Executive Departments and the American public of events and issues that affect foreign relations. A Brussels resident since 1999, Mr. Christian D. de Fouloy is also Founder and President of the Association of Accredited Lobbyists to the European Parliament; Chairman & CEO of Business Advisors International (BAI) a government, media and public relations firm, Co-Chairman of the Transatlantic Small Business Initiative (TASBI). Mr. Christian D. de Fouloy has authored a dozen books on political and economic issues. He is a recognized expert on lobbying laws and last year he was appointed by the Government of Latvia to develop conceptual guidelines for the provisions of lobbying. He’s a frequent guest speaker on government relations and lobbying. He engineered the first MBA in business lobbying and interest representation in Brussels and organized the first ever conference on lobbying in Jordan.

EULOBBY-NETWORK AISBL (International Non-Profit Association) in short “ELNET” was duly constituted under Belgian law and granted civil personality by a Royal Decree on 1 st September 2006.

As of 15 March the Board of Administration includes Mr. Christian D. de Fouloy, as President and Mr. George Stravis as Secretary General

On 7th May 2007 ELNET's Assembly General held in Lisbon, Portugal designated the following persons as Officers of the  Association

Christian D. de Fouloy, Chairman & CEO
Joaquim Martins Lampreia, Vice-President
George Stravis, Secretary General

The Board of Administration is comprised of the the following Members:

Mr. Sergi de Uribe-Salazar representing Spain
Mr. Joaquim Martins Lempreia representing Portugal
Mr. Peter Morenth representing Hungary
Mr. Franco Spicciariello representing Italy
Mr. George Stravis representing Cyprus
Mr. Romas Stumbrys representing Lithuania
Mr. Patrick Zoltvany representing Slovakia

Note:

Romania represented by Ms. Catalina Stan (BDR Associates), Bulgaria represented by Mr. Maxim Behar (M3 Communications Group) and Germany represented by X (Attorney-at-Law) are currently Observer Members only.

EULOBBY-NETWORK  is a formal linking of people engaged in the field of lobbying across the EU and beyond. The network fosters innovative leadership and ensures the highest standards of ethics and professionalism in the field of lobbying. All members of the network are subordinated to Principles for the Ethical Conduct of Lobbying. 

The defining characteristic of ELNET is that it is a member-owned entity with each Effective Member having a seat on the Board of Administration. Since every member is a part-owner of the network, the incentive for membership is at the membership level. The addition of a new member organization benefits both the new member and the network at large. 

Each National Member pursues three core activities 

1. Creation of a representative body of lobbyists (promotion, code of conduct, obtaining the legal recognition of the profession etc.). The purpose is to unify the industry 

2. Education and Training in the field of lobbying (Campaigning/Strategy, Media/Public Opinion, Lobbying/Adocacy, Grassroots, Legal Framework, Ethics, New Technologies) through seminars, workshops, conferences 

3. Pan-European Coalitions based on members' interests and specific issues 

Members of the EULOBBY-NETWORK are

Challenges 

There a numerous challenges to be faced:  

Associations of lobbyists in Member States (whenever they exist) represent public relations/public affairs consultancies leaving out other members of the profession such as lawyers, in-house organization lobbyists etc.. or they are divided.

Some categories of practitioners such as lawyers, in-house corporate lobbyists, trade associations lobbyists don’t have a representative body.

Currently lobbying fails to measure up as a profession on the basis of its existing and/or lack of representative bodies

Instead of focusing on the valuable and legitimate role of lobbying in a democratic society [regardless of whether it is carried out by individual citizens or companies, civil society organizations and other interest groups or firms working on behalf of third parties] professional lobbyists have reinforced the “Lobbyist Syndrome” by failing to inform and educate both the public decision-makers and the public at large proactively about what lobbying is, what it stands for and what they do. Instead, they have been using disguised titles for fear of being called lobbyist e.g. parliamentary relations, government relations, public affairs, political PR, political marketing, parliamentary counselling, political opinion forming, issue management, among others. One clear benefit to lobbyists themselves of being unafraid of the term is that, otherwise, it is in grave danger of being appropriated for use solely by journalists and members of the public to reinforce a notion that influencing public policy is somehow illegitimate and unethical

While acknowledging both that lobbying has had (and continues to suffer from) a poor reputation, and that the term lobbying does not reflect all the activities undertaken by practitioners in this field, lobbyists themselves should be more willing to state openly that they are lobbyists. In how many professions are practitioners unable to decide collectively how to refer to themselves? One consequence of the plethora of job descriptions and definitions that are employed by both academics and practitioners is that individual lobbyists find difficulty in achieving a common view of themselves as members of a professional group. A key step in the rehabilitation of the public perception of their work must be for lobbyists themselves to accept openly and explicitly that they are indeed lobbyists.

‘Lobbyist’ is far from an ideal term: it does suffer from public misconceptions, and it certainly fails to describe adequately the full range of activities which are undertaken by lobbyists. But that said, no term or definition yet employed entirely captures all that lobbyists do. Were lobbyists collectively to become more accepting of the word ‘lobbyist’, it would then be possible for them to move forward in terms of public perceptions and confidence. The term is now generally recognised, and more self-confident and vigorous leadership by organisations representing lobbyists would enable greater efforts to educate the public about the realities of lobbying.

In most Member States, there are no ground rules governing the activity of lobbyists except for Lithuania, Poland and Hungary and the United Kingdom (where the onus is on the lobbied and not on the lobbyists).

The objective is NOT to regulate lobbying which is a legitimate activity but to provide rules for minimum disclosure requirements and registration. It makes no sense to provide for coherence at the EU level when there’s incoherence or a total absence of rules at the Member State level.

There is a need to obtain the legal recognition of the profession throughout the European Union. Lobbying is now a well-established occupation, but it falls far short of having attained professional status. Professions are distinguished by their possession of (1) a systematic theory of the execution of the duties of the job; (2) authority to perform the job, authority recognized by the clientele of the profession; (3) community recognition and approval of this authority; (4) a code of ethics regulating relations with clients and colleagues; and (5) a professional culture sustained by formal organization . This presupposes the development in Member States of an infrastructure of norms, values, organisations.

There is a need for lobbyists need to become more professional and more structured about the training and qualifications of government relations . The area of education and training encompasses both formal third-level qualifications and continuing professional development programmes. Both are necessary, as many people already working as lobbyists have never taken any formal qualification in lobbying or even in politics. Lobbyists have a duty to be properly qualified for the work at which they are representing professional expertise. But there is still no common agreement amongst lobbyists, their employers or clients, or educators as to what constitute a proper qualification. All practitioners could be asked to participate in a recognised or even accredited continuing professional development programme. The ultimate value of education/training in any profession is that it regulates entry to the profession. Lobbyists generally perceive that their profession is held in low esteem by citizens. One of the inhibitions to public acknowledgment of the professional nature of lobbying is that there are no specific educational requirements