At the occasion of each EU-Brazil Summit (the last one took place in February 2014 in Brussels), business communities of both sides organize a Business Summit to assess bilateral economic relations, identify common interests and elaborate joint recommendations. The Business agenda is then summarized in a bilaterally agreed joint statement presented to the Authorities at the end of the meeting.

EU-Brazil Joint Action Plan (JAP) Agenda

From a business perspective, the current JAP agenda presents four main problems:

In Berlin, talk of the political situation in France ranges from real concern about Germany’s most important European partner to contempt at what is seen as a French ‘incapacity’ to reform. France’s failure to emulate the famous ‘German model’ is an all too frequent part of political conversations.

In the short run, one can see a fracture within the French Socialist Party (PS) in two camps : the archeo-socialists (demand policy) and socio-democrats (supply policy).The French Government will have difficulties in getting a majority since the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Left Front (Front de Gauche), a good part of the Greens and the ‘rogue deputies’(frondeurs) are going to fight against the government and might vote against some of the upcoming economic measures, notably the budget scheduled to be voted on in the fall.

Broadly speaking coalitions include both formal alliances of ‘lobbying together’ as well as informal alliances whereby groups mobilize over the pursuit of some shared goal in the policymaking process. The mobilization of more groups amplifies the resources directed toward a common goal. Coalitions provide a low-cost way for groups to expand their lobbying efforts by sharing advocacy resources, both financial resources directed towards lobbying as well as non-tangible resources such as intelligence and expertise.

France’s fate matters to Europe and the world at large. France is the world’s fifth-largest economy (and the second-largest in Europe, after Germany), so what happens in the country impacts growth for the region overall. It is critical for all of Europe for France to get its act together and its economy moving. That, however, is not happening.

The French economy has been in gradual decline for years, without any President or administration having done anything decisive about it. But now, ignoring the problems is no longer an option.

Le gouvernement français n’a plus de majorité au sens strict à l’Assemblée nationale. Cela implique que pour chaque vote majeur, un travail de compromis et d'équilibrisme devra être fait par le gouvernement pour réussir à faire passer son texte. En particulier, ce sera probablement le cas pour chaque loi de finances: loi de finances annuelle, collectif budgétaire, lois de finances rectificatives.

Le gouvernement dispose de huit outils pour réussir à gouverner sans majorité?

The OECD member countries have adopted a Recommendation with Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying as guidance to decision-makers on how to promote good governance in lobbying. Public officials and lobbyists share responsibility to apply the principles of good governance, in particular transparency and integrity, in order to maintain confidence in public decisions.

Priority Checklist

1. Do all stakeholders have fair and equitable access to the development and implementation of public policies?

1. GR Practitioners should comply with any relevant Lobbying Rules. Where any conflict exists between a Code of Ethics and Lobbying Rules, GR Practitioners must abide by the Lobbying Rules.
2. GR Practitioners should comply with any legislation, government resolution or rule relating to donations to political parties and any other matter.

Conflicts of interest have the potential to undermine or compromise the impartiality, credibility or trustworthiness of a GR Consultant due to the possibility of a clash between the Consultant’s self-interest and a professional interest, or their public interest, or their client’s interest. A GR Consultant must avoid situations of conflict of interest, or situations that have the appearance of conflict of interest

Without a permanent office in Brussels, Australian companies and associations have their activities limited to bilateral dialogue mechanisms, or joint participation with larger corporate entities.