Communication Budgets of Brussels’ EU Affairs stakeholders

There are many entities in Brussels, including the EU institutions and the private sector, and they make the market unstructured and chaotic. How does communication fit into the market?

In 2009 EurActiv, Kellen Europe and a consortium of main associations of consultancy agencies (SEAP, EPACA, and ECPA) conducted a research. One of the research topics was the communication budget of some 3.000 EU Affairs interest groups - the total is estimated at 158 million euro per year.

A similar study was done by EurActiv in 2009 on the communication budget of 400 corporations with an EU Affairs office in Brussels – they arrived at an estimate of 71 million euro in total per year. An interesting conclusion is that 49% of the participating companies have an annual budget of over 300.000 euro per year.

Communication in EU Affairs is not standard or traditional, with a focus on the brand. It is a complex, arduous and long road of interaction with all kinds of stakeholders for better positioning of themselves within the ‘EU legislation battles’. The PR and communication representatives in Brussels have as a main object to support the lobby actions and business people know that this is a necessary investment.

Dan LUCA / Brussels