LEGITIMATE INTEREST REPRESENTATION
AND EFFECTIVE LOBBYING PROGRAM - IRL
Developing Your Skills and Competencies
Novi Sad, 27 – 29 february 2020
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachments:
- Invitation to ECPD Course on Lobbying
- Brochure on Legitimate Lobbying Course
- Course Program and Agenda
- Registration form
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Prilozi:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter I: Introduction to ECPD UN University for Peace
Origins and Mission
The European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) established in Belgrade, in 1983, as an independent, international postgraduate education and research institution, with exterritorial status, is a Regional Centre of the University for Peace, established by the United Nations.
The ECPD represents a unique institution in this part of the world, and has a special significance to countries of South-Eastern Europe.
The ECPD was established by the University for Peace United Nations with the main tasks and objectives “… to organize and carry out postgraduate studies, research projects and dissemination of knowledge, which contribute to the promotion of peace, development and international cooperation”. Following its mission defined in the Charter of the University for Peace established by UN and its own Statute, the ECPD “… brings together the intellectual potential from all parts of the world for the benefit of implementation of the education and research programmes and projects devoted to the fulfilment of the ECPD aims and objectives”.
Tasks and Objectives
Basic tasks and objectives of ECPD have been incorporated into its program structure, which features:
(A) Studies leading to postgraduate degrees and specialist postgraduate training in the European Union law, International business law, International Relations and Diplomacy, International MBA Studies in the field of strategic, financial, human resources, urban and ecological management and Health Management Studies within the international program of Global School of Health.
(B) Interdisciplinary research on sustainable development issues, regional development, multicultural, multi-confessional and inter-ethnic relations, eco-management and international relations;
(C) Organizing international meetings, conferences, round tables, symposia and workshops on topical issues from its program;
(D) Publishing conference proceedings, professional and scientific texts, research papers, case-studies, textbooks, etc.
Major Activities
Activities of ECPD are carried out by over 150 regular staff and part-time fellows, visiting professors and researchers from numerous European and other countries.
(A) Postgraduate Studies: The ECPD carries out the following international postgraduate studies:
Master of Science level in areas of: the European Union and International Business Law, International Relations and Diplomacy (focused on economic diplomacy), Technology of Solving Development Problems, Strategic, Financial, Human Resources, Urban and Ecological management and Health management within International program of Global School of Health.
Specialist level in areas of: Biomedicine and Traditional Medicine, and Health-Care Management.
Training for refreshing and upgrading knowledge is an important part of the ECPD postgraduate studies. ECPD organizes annually in total about 40 summer schools, specialist courses and seminars. Graduated attendants of these training events receive internationally recognized certificates.
(B) Doctoral studies are organized and carried out in areas of science in which the ECPD conducts its international postgraduate studies and research activities, that is, in human resources and natural environment, social studies, economics, technology, international relations, law and management. Doctoral studies last three years, with two semesters or two years, having three trimesters a year.
(C) Research Activities: The ECPD devotes considerable time and effort to the fulfilment of one of its major tasks – to carry out research activities intended to contribute to solutions of acute and chronic problems, in general, and particularly in South-Eastern Europe. In thirtyseven five years of its operations, ECPD conducted several dozens of large research projects and studies related to issues of sustainable development, international relations and inter-ethnic relations.
ECPD developed, besides other, a number of projects focused on efforts leading to peace building and socio-economic development in South-Eastern Europe. A major ECPD regional research program has been developed under the title “The Balkans in the 21st Century – The Ways Leading to Improvement of Peace, Development and Regional Cooperation”. Within the framework of this program, several projects have been developed, and some are already completed.
Since 2005 ECPD has been involved as partner in several EU – funded projects. Among others, notable impact had GREAT IST (on information society), BIS-RTD (public funding of RTD) and R4R (technology transfer among regions).
(D) International meetings: Since its creation, the European Center for Peace and Development organized numerous international meetings at various levels and of various characters, held in former Yugoslavia (Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Sveti Stefan, Prizren, Brioni Islands, Ohrid, etc.) and in some other European countries, including Athens (Greece), Bremen (Germany), Varna (Bulgaria), Moscow (Russian Federation), Budapest (Hungary), Saint Endreol (France), Trento (Italy), and Vienna (Austria). Most of these meetings were attended by several hundreds of participants (even up to 1000), including former and current heads of states and governments, Nobel Prize winners, leading academics, prominent professors, experts and other important public figures.
Relying upon its rich experience in this field, ECPD continues organizing such meetings, often with several international partners. For that purpose, ECPD has established a Standing International Study Group on Inter-ethnic Reconciliation, Religious Tolerance and Human Security in the Balkans and every year holds a major annual International Conference on this subject.
(E) Publishing: ECPD publishes yearly more than twenty books, conference proceedings, textbooks and other publications needed for educational purposes.
ECPD Management
The organizational structure of ECPD is defined in accordance with its international mission and the program of activities. Its management structure consists of the governing and executive bodies.
The main governing body is the ECPD Council, consisting of nine members. The Council defines and directs the ECPD operating policies and monitors its overall activities.
Among others, the Council has been chaired by Saburo Okita, a well-known Japanese diplomat and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassadeur de France, Paul-Marc Henry, a prominent diplomat and a leading executive of several important international organizations and founder of the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), and the well-known French general and geopolitical thinker, Pierre-Marie Gallois, who held this position until 2004. Due to his extraordinary contribution to the development and work of ECPD and its international affirmation, General Pierre-Marie Gallois was elected Honorary President of the ECPD Council. After his withdrawal of this position, on October 2010, H.E. Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former UN Secretary-General was elected as the President of the ECPD Honorary Council, which consists of a group of world-known public figures, politicians, academics and diplomats.
The ECPD Academic Council deals with development and implementation of the ECPD master and doctoral studies program and its research projects. Prof. dr Takehiro Togo, a distinguished Japanese diplomat and professor of international relations at Tokai University, Tokyo, President of the Council succeeded on this position Prof. dr Sinichi Ichimura, President of the ICSEAD until 2014. Recently this position was assumed by the former long-standing President of UNESCO, Federico Mayor.
The ECPD International Educational and Scientific Board takes care of the implementation of the ECPD postgraduate studies and research activities. Academic Branislav Šoškić, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a former president of state of Montenegro and President of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, is currently the President of this Board.
The ECPD Executive Board, chaired by Prof. Dr Jonathan Bradley, University West of England, UK, is responsible for coordination of activities and setting program priorities.
The ECPD organizational structure is based on Executive Staff, consisting of the Executive Director and the ECPD Secretariat.
The ECPD Executive Director Prof. dr. Negoslav P. Ostojić, prominent expert for international economic relations and sustainable development, represents the ECPD and coordinates its overall activities.
The ECPD Secretariat consists of: a) Academic staff, b) Officers, and c) Administrative and Technical staff.
The ECPD Associates, chosen from the ranks of academic and other experts from all over the world, have an important role in ECPD activities. They are appointed as directors of educational program and research projects, as directors of the functional or territorial offices (bureaus, study centers, affiliations), lecturers and professors at international postgraduate study programs or as researchers, consultants or special advisers.
Future Activities
In order to manage successfully its international activities, the ECPD has set up, outside of the headquarters, several operational units (affiliations, postgraduate study centers, research institutes, offices and/or program units) in numerous centers, including Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, France, Republic of Northern Macedonia, UK, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. The most recent regional centre has been opened in Prizren, Kosovo.
As described in detail in this brochure, ECPD has established a new Standing Program on Legitimate Interest Representation and Lobbying (IRL) in order to offer specialist training, coaching and mentoring to diplomats, business and government representatives, as well as professors teaching lobbying, and representatives of non-government organizations. Courses in this domain will be a contribution of ECPD to upgrade the modern communication skills and competencies required for successful and legitimate interest representation and lobbying – as ethical tools for reaching healthy compromises and sustainable solutions serving general and particular interests at local, regional, national and international levels. The director of the IRL Program is Prof. Dr. Boris Cizelj, former Ambassador of Yugoslavia and Slovenia, professor of interest representation and lobbying at ECPD, DOBA Business School, and Alma Mater Europaea, Maribor.
Based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2017 between ECPD and Knowledge Economy Network, KEN, the latter (chaired by Prof.Cizelj) is a special partner in the IRL Programme.
Chapter II The Importance of Interest Representation and Lobbying
What is interest representation and lobbying?
Interest representation, as well as lobbying are constituent parts of any democratic decision making, be it generally in society, in politics - particularly in the legislative process - and equally in business, culture and sports. Which is the dividing line between interest representation and lobbying? While the first takes place also beyond the direct context of decision-making, lobbying takes place strictly when interested groups or individual organizations are actively and intentionally influencing decision makers - directly, through hired lobbyists or other intermediaries.
The positive attribute of lobbying depends on three levels of requirements. First, full respect of law makes lobbying legal - and that excludes corruption in any form. Second level - legitimate lobbying - implies full compliance with Code of Conduct of the respective Lobbying Association. Moreover, the third level - to be recognized as ethical lobbying - is based on full respect of public interest. In reality, only some cases of lobbying could be labeled as ethical, most cases are in the second category, but unfortunately, many cases fall short to fulfill even the criteria of legality.
These challenges can be addressed by special regulation, laws or other legal acts. Currently only in some 20 countries, a special law has been adopted, while in EU most member states have left it to Union – which is currently moving into a heavily regulated system. The USA have adopted during President Obama already the fifth regulation on lobbying, however since 2009 the number of registered lobbyists have been reduced for over 1/3 (while the reported amounts spent on lobbying have remained the same – about 3 billions USD). Obviously the legislation – though well-intended – is enough.[1] The other approach is self-regulation, which means that lobbying associations accept certain rules (requesting acquisition of documents in a legal fashion, avoidance of conflict of interest situations, transparency of actions, registration in respective Register, and of course prohibition of any type of corruption). The question is to what extent the associations actually apply these rules. There are indications that this is often not the case!
The latest attempt to reduce the abuses of lobbying has been done by Transparency International with several partners by preparing the Guiding Principles for International Standards, which should be respected by all European Lobbyist, as well as respective authorities.
These Principles contain the following very clear statements:
§ Lobbying is a legitimate activity and an important part of the democratic process.
§ There is a significant public interest in ensuring the transparency and integrity of lobbying, as well as diversity of participation and contribution to public decision-making.
§ Any regulatory measures to secure these ends shall be proportionate, fit to purpose and not impede on the individual rights of assembly, free speech and petition to government.[2]
Why lobbying suffers such a bad perception?
In the 2013 Burson-Marsteller’s survey[3] among 600 respondents in 20 European countries, about the views of the public on the role of lobbyists, even 77% of respondents claimed that business lobbyists could act in contradiction to the public interest. In addition, 70% of respondents believed that lobbyists have an important (possibly even excessive) impact on decisions of EU institutions – particularly when not conducted in a transparent fashion.
Interestingly enough, the top three answers point to the easily recognizable deficiencies of lobbying: insufficient transparency, priority on interests of the powerful and rich, and manipulation with data and information.
Generally, the researchers, as well as the media and public opinion, tend to strongly overestimate the actual impact of lobbyists on a certain decision taken, or failure of lobbying – resulting in maintaining status quo. In his article addressing this issue Lowery[4] (2013: 7) argues that, political organizations in USA in his sample were impact-full in only half of cases of lobbying engagements, and - by their own evaluation – have been important in slightly above 20% of cases of lobbying. This is much less than the dominant impression among professional lobbyists, in the public, and even among many researchers.
In absence of more exact research evidence on actual influence of lobbying, one should take into account that professional lobbyists depend in the long run on their professional credibility, which means that they would stay with very few clients if their reputation would be affected by dubious working methods. The same goes for any professional, the so-called “in-house lobbyist” acting against principles of legitimacy and ethical lobbying.
Probably the most suggestive proof of the negative perception of lobbying is the fact that even among the 4 lobbying associations in Brussels (EPACA, SEAP, CPA, IPRA), none of them use the term “Lobbying” in their official names!
The future of Lobbying
Most experts agree that there will be more lobbying in the future than ever in the past. This is because there is ever louder and fully justified public demand for more transparent, open government and inclusive public affairs management. The public, and particularly the organized social actors, including NGOs, will gradually understand that lobbying belongs to their un-alienable rights, and that it is offering an effective tool for exercising their democratic rights (going well beyond the “right to petition”). It is a constituent part of good, inclusive and consensual governance.
H. Brown claims that globalization and the use of social media have created “isomorphic pressure on interest groups to adapt new lobbying tactics,..”[5] Through donations, such groups can raise money to engage the best specialists to exert huge pressure upon entities acting anti-socially or unfairly towards various social groups.
Networking as a particular type of structured communication between people sharing some interests, often with substantial social capital, is rapidly evolving - particularly thanks to ICT. This will certainly grow further in the future, facilitating policy networking, as observed by D.F. Hafner[6] (1998: 816-821), and creating a much richer environment for lobbying, as it provides critically verified professional analysis and argumentation, making lobbying more effective, credible and productive.
Education and training for effective lobbying
One of the paradoxes of our time is that the entire educational system, including life-long-learning and professonal training in most countries fails to pay adequate attention to the skills and competencies required by the current and future labour market, and modern system of participatory democracy. It seems that the simple fact that we are social creatures – acting through communication – tends to be somewhat neglected. Economic consequences of this shortcoming are serious, productivity is affected negatively, countries are unable to develop and mobilize fully their human capital to the optimal levels, and that - in ultima linea - prevents many countries to become competitive with the best knowledge economies.
The most critical in this domain are the »soft skills«, like: various types of communication – including interest representation and lobbying – team building and leadership, networking, negotiation techniques, collaborative attitude as well as predictive analytics.
Proper understanding of the role of lobbying and the ability to perform favourably in interest representation efforts is nowadays required in all professions. It is particularly important for diplomats, business representatives, government officials, as well as people from non-governmental organisations. However, for a number of reasons, this subject is offered by very few university curricula, and in only some business schools and diplomatic academies. However, it is often available only among the elective subjects, and many students tend to avoid it due to its generally unfavourable reputation.
One of the key reasons for neglecting the topic of lobbying in most curricula is the negative public perception, according to which lobbying is often linked to or even identified with illegitimate manipulation, if not directly to corruption. The background for this attitude is linked to two factors: (1) politicians and the media (basically for the same reasons: obtaining support) normally refer to lobbying and the lobbyists in a negative tone – though not so seldom justifiably; and (2) there is not enough empirical research on various lobbying actions, demonstrating the positive contribution of lobbying to quality legislation and other decisions.
The final result of this treatment of lobbying is that people who are obliged to undertake lobbying efforts do this without state of the art knowledge and skills, and logically cannot be as successful as they could be if properly trained. In majority of cases they unintentionally harm the interest they are responsible to represent, reduce public perception of the respective organisation, and affect negatively their own professional standing and career opportunities.
As a response, there is now a variety of training opportunities, mostly by specialised consultancies in USA, and more recently also in Europe – primarily in Brussels, as well as in UK. It has been established that lobbyists in the USA, as well as in Europe are among the best paid consultants.
At international level the European Center for Peace and Development is the first in the broader region of Central and South Eastern Europe to launch a Standing Program devoted to training, coaching and consulting various profiles of professionals requiring interest representation and lobbying skills and competencies for optimal perfomance of their organisations. This includes diplomats, business representatives, senior civil servants, as well as executives of non-governmental organisations, as well as professors teaching communications, interest representation, public and government affairs, and lobbying.
ECPD is looking forward to help course participants in building & upgrading their skills in order to increase their effectiveness in representing their countries' or organisations' interests, and lobby for them in an efficient, transparent and legitimate way.
The ECPD activities of the IRL program are provided in the following three packages:
(A) Participation at standard 2½ day courses in various languages and in locations convenient to majority of participants. Due to intense, interactive didactics the number of course participants is limited to 15-20.
Fee: 790 € for a single participant, the second from an organisation is entitled to a 20%, and the third participant to a 30% discount.
(B) Package »B« mentoring/coaching is available to candidates interested in the courses, but being unable to be absent from their offices for the full duration of 2½ days - they can still join some of the sessions (in others they can be represented by their nominated colleague), and are entitled to post-course mentoring/coaching - about 3 hours over a period of 1 month after the course. Fee: 550 €, with the same discounts for further participants from an organisation, as under (A).
(C) Structured consulting-mentoring and educational services is a package of services provided on the basis of an annual contract covering services in varuious areas of interest representation, public and government affairs, and lobbying provided by IRL Faculty members (monthly fees starting from 360€).
Chapter III Program & Agenda, Novi Sad, 27-29 February 2020
International Faculty of the Program
Prof. Dr. Boris Cizelj
Former ambassador, professor of Lobbying at DOBA Business School, ECPD and
Alma Mater Europaea; chairman of Knowledge Economy Network, KEN
Prof. Dr. Daniel Guéguen
Partner EPPA, former Director of PACT European Affairs Consultancy, Brussels; professor of lobbying at College de Bruges and Natolin; former Secretary General COPA/COGECA
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Priebe
Former European Commission Director for Western Balkans, professor at ECPD, member many Advisory boards
Prof. Dr. Marjan Svetličič
Professor of international economics, University of Ljubljana – Department of Social Sciences
Prof.dr.Alberto Alemanno
Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris, Global Professor of Law, NYU School of Law in Paris , Director of The Good Lobby
Tanja Milošević
Director Taraban Lobby, Zagreb; Former Vice Chair of the Association of Croatian Lobbyists
Andrej Drapal
Director Andrejdrapal.Com Consultancy, Ljubljana
former chair of the Association of Slovenian Lobbyists
Prof. Dr. Igor Vidačak
Professor of lobbying at University of Zagreb, Department of Political Science
Mihael Cigler
registered lobbyist, director MC Public Affairs, London, former Chairman Association of Slovenian Lobbyists
Dr. Jelica Minić
President of the International Relations Forum of the European Movement in Serbia, and former Deputy Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council.
Prof. Emeritus dr. Kostadin Pušara
Lecturing at various universities in South Eastern Europe, President of Montenegro Lobbying Association
Prof. Dr. Sean Theriault
Professor of Government, Politics & Interest Groups in American Political System, University of Texas at Austin
Prof. Dr. Siniša Zarić
Professor on institutional economy and business environment at University of Belgrade, Department of Economics, lecturing at many universities abroad.
Prof. Dr. Danica Hafner Fink
Professor of interest representation & lobbying at University of Ljubljana, Department of Social Sciences
Andrea Boccuni
Head of Education and Partnership at The Good Lobby, and Advisor EU Affairs at Hague Corporate Affairs
Prof. Dr. Sergey A. Samoilenko
CARP Laboratory at George Mason University, USA
Nenad Vuković
President Lobbying Association of Serbia, Lawyer and active lobbyist
Miodrag Vuković
Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro, active in lobbying regulation
Prof.Dr.Draško Veselinovič
President, Management Board, SBRA, Brussels; professor at Gea College, Ljubljana
Dr. Mehmet Gokgoz
Former Director TURBO, Brussels; currently member of Turkish Delegation to NATO
Marko Drajić
consultant and author of the book "Corporate Lobbying in the European Union"
Dr.Marjan Tanuševski
Professor of BAS Institute of Management, Bitola and Manager of Macedonian Centre for Lobbying-Bitola, Macedonia
Besides the listed members of the Faculty, a team of more than a dozen specialists (academics and expert practitioners in lobbying) will be available to coach Course participants before and during the course, as well as during the 3-months period after the Course.
The ECPD is proud to offer to its future lobbying course participants such a unique experience of person-to-person training. Only the very best educational institutions around the globe offer this type of personalised interaction, which secures the best possible learning outcome.
Attachments:
- Invitation to ECPD Course on Lobbying
- Brochure on Legitimate Lobbying Course
- Course Program and Agenda
- Registration form
[1] https://www.theopensecret.com
[2] Transparency International, 2015, International Standards for Lobbying Regulations, p.5. Accessible at http://lobbyingtransparency.net/lobbyingtransparency.pdf
[3] Burson-Marsteller (2013): Lobbying survey, pp. 8-11. Accessible at https://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=MariaCarvalhosa%2Flobbying-survey-report
[4] Lowery David (2013): Lobbying Influence: Meaning, Measuring, Missing: Interest Groups and Advocacy. Journal of European Public Policy 11 (4): p.7.
[5] Brown, Heath (2016): Does Globalization Drive Interest Group Strategy? A Cross-national Study of Outside Lobbying and Social Media. Journal of Public Affairs 16 (3): pp.231–244.
[6] Hafner, Fink Danica (1998): Raziskovanje policy omrežij (Research on Policy Networks): Teorija in praksa, Ljubljana, 35 (5): 816–829.
