H2L Commission final green 3
24/04/03
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HOW HIGH IS YOUR SECTOR RATED?
Perceived effectiveness of sector lobbying efforts Chemical Energy Utilities / Public Services IT / Telecom Electrical & Electronics Financial services HC / Pharmaceutical Transport Consumer goods / Food / Drinks Retailing
Rate the following industries on how well you perceive their lobbying efforts on a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 means very poor and 10 means exceptionally good. Base: all respondents.
Commission and Parliament surveys. For example, the retailing sector emerges as the least effective in its lobbying efforts, replicating the results of the earlier survey of MEPs. At the other extreme, the chemicals industry scores highest in this survey, slightly bettering its very close second place in the 2001 survey of MEPs. Overall, Cabinet members and senior DG officials rated the effectiveness of industry’s communication efforts at 6 out of 10. Cabinet members rated the effectiveness of industry lobbying higher (6.5) than officials in the DGs (5.9). All in all, industry lobbying attracts often sharply divergent views from within the Commission. Some officials remark positively on well-presented and documented
information they receive from lobbyists. Others, more critical, see lobbying efforts as untargeted, ill-timed and unsubstantiated. Divergent assessments of the performance of lobbyists also reflect differences between policy areas. Highest scores for lobbyists were given by officials in DG Trade and the Trade Commissioner’s Cabinet (7.8) and by DG Energy and Transport and the corresponding Cabinet (7.2). By contrast, lobbying by industry is viewed as less effective by officials in DGs Agriculture (4.6) and Economic and Financial Affairs (4.8). Creativity and the tailoring of lobbying efforts to the specific needs of an official can be crucial. In this respect, the findings show that in some sectors lobbyists are providing high quality work.
The chemical and energy sectors gain the highest ratings - each scoring 6.6 (out of 10) and confirming them among the survey’s best performers. They also came top in the rating of how well their lobbying efforts are perceived. Lobbyists in the consumer goods/food/drink and retailing sectors scored lowest marks both for creativity and tailoring of messages and for how well their lobbying efforts are perceived. Overall, the results indicate that the performance of industry lobbyists is patchy. Even if the least performing sectors pull themselves up to the level of the best, room for improvement would still exist.
A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE LOBBYING OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
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