Before taking over as Director for Europe at EurActiv,
I interacted with industry
federations, consulting firms, regions represented in Brussels or NGOs on a
daily basis for more than 10 years. I realized that it is a niche market and in
2010 I launched a new product: the EU
Federation Knowledge Programme. The programme includes speakers from the main
PR/PA agencies in Brussels, who present topics such as ‘new interest groups’, ‘lobbying
techniques’, ‘dynamics of European media’, and ‘digitization in European
affairs’. It is nice to see that after the success of the past two years, the program
continues in 2013.
It is clear that one needs a real map of the Brussels
European Community, in order to understand the a-typical structures.
Journalists in Brussels are trying to monitor this complex system of
institutional and non-institutional information, but the fear of propaganda is
certainly big. Moreover, the press is quickly bored of large quantities of
technical, specialist information - let alone the general public. I focussed on
these concepts when I developed and launched EurActiv’s Press
Release Service. The journalists can directly identify the community's
press releases issued by European institutions as well as industry federations,
NGOs. And if we think that there are approximately 15,000 EU related press
releases per year, divided by subject, organization or issue date, this is an
impressive product.
For the last 5 years I am directly or indirectly
involved in guiding people to find their way in Brussels. It is a fascinating
place full of opportunities and competition in each sector. This is not meant
to discourage you, but at the same time it is good to have a tailored approach
to the current reality. With numerous courses teaching students everything
related to discovering the EU and Euro-Brussels, it is surprising to see the knowledge
gap most students have. I cannot imagine that most faculties dealing with
courses regarding the EU community, and there are hundreds now all across
Europe, do not give any importance to explain the "European business
market." Motivated by this "niche", I started my consulting
company – DL International - that
coordinates since 2011 a special training about the "50,000
private sector jobs in European Affairs." I have already held seven
sessions, and reactions of the participants included: "But nobody told us
of this," "Why is this market not explained at university",
"I did not succeed in the EPSO competitions for two years, but I did not realize
that I can find a job in an industry federation".
Prospecting the market, I noticed that there is an underappreciated
segment in Brussels: the entrepreneurs, and more specific the intraprepreneurs.
As Richard Branson recently said on the intrapreneur: the employee "who is
offered freedom and financial support needed to create new products, services
and systems that do not need to undergo the company’s usual routines or
protocols". Together with Maria Laptev we launched a new offer, especially
for those who want to conduct business in Brussels. Symbolically entitled
"How
to Make Money in European affairs in Brussels?", we try to guide those
interested in choosing the best path to success. Maria knows Brussels and the
EU private sector business better than any expert and it’s no coincidence that
she now is CEO of ECPA (European Centre for Public Affairs). Again, there are
over a million contracts carried out in the capital of Europe. The amounts
allocated to communication in Brussels by multinationals are huge. A study
evaluating stated that the communication budget of about 400 corporations in Brussels
(only European business offices) is about 71 million annually. And this figure is
only related to the private sector, we can easily add about another 50 million
per year that is available to consultants of the European institutions. The new
initiative, the training on 'Brussels actors' and the consulting services they
can offer, had a fantastic
inaugural public on October 25, 2012. The next presentation, with great interest,
will be in March 2013.
My thoughts are still on Romania, even after 15 years
living in the capital of Europe. In 2003 I founded the “Romanian-EU” Club in
Brussels, a platform for Romanians in Euro-Brussels. A study conducted in 2006
about the "Footprint
of Romania in Brussels" was a project that showed Romania has given a
signal that it wants a structured relationship with the European Union.
Dan LUCA / Brussels
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