Central Asia is a region the size of Western Europe and contains five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Blessed with some of the richest and most diverse resources anywhere in the world, over the last twenty years the region has shown its commitment to become a reliable, long-term partner of the West.

At the heart of the EU in Brussels, and across European capitals, public relations professionals and lobbying consultants are working on behalf of foreign governments and/or foreign entities. While some firms and lobbyists working for these clients in Brussels are entered in the EU’s voluntary Transparency Register, others do not appear on it at all, and those that do may be omitting controversial clients. Even where they are registered, many of the budgets claimed may be inaccurate.

The EU’s expenditure on NGO’s is opaque and difficult to quantify. The information that is publicly available is inconsistently presented in a variety of different sources.

Which NGO’s qualify for funding?

According to the EU, NGO’s are defined as follows:

Corruption continues to be a challenge for Europe. Affecting all EU Member States, corruption costs the European economy around € 120 billion per year. Member States have taken many initiatives in recent years, but the results are uneven and more should be done to prevent and punish corruption.

Both the nature and level of corruption, and the effectiveness of measures taken to fight it, vary from one Member State to another. Corruption deserves greater attention in all Member States.

Here are some of the main corruption-related trends across the EU:

According to Joost Berkhout, University of Amsterdam, the Brussels lobbying community consists of about 30 per cent ‘residents’ and about 70 per cent ‘tourists’.  The 70 percent ‘tourists’ are organizations that  are either primarily concerned with non-EP, non-EC or non-policy related work, or ‘return’ to their national political environments.

The mission of the Ukrainian Think Tanks Liaison Office in Brussels is to build a permanent, independent communication channel for the Ukrainian think tanks community in order to support and to further European integration of Ukraine. The Brussels Office provides help in the EU for its Ukrainian members and serves as a contact point for the European partners that are interested in Ukraine. The main aim is to spread knowledge about Ukraine in the Member States of the EU.

In order to meet the particularly acute challenge presented by the situation as it was then developing, in mid-2014 the Commission established the Support Group for Ukraine. The Support Group concentrates and coordinates the resources and expertise of the European Commission in order not just to monitor but also to assist Ukraine in the implementation of the Association Agreement and, crucially, in undertaking the deep and systemic reforms that will be necessary if the country is to draw maximum benefit from a closer relationship with the European Union.

Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups in the United States from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs. By industry sector, the biggest clients of PR, marketing and ad services were energy and natural resources associations.

The job of a Public Policy Advocate is the ability to influence others. The fundamental for persuading others is trust. To persuade others in an ethical manner, Public Policy Advocates use these principles:

Published by Ethisphere, the World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. WME honorees not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, they exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today.The World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action.