IDENTIFYING THE NEXT MEP CHAMPIONS AFTER THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

The next European Parliament's elections will produce a high turnover of MEPs with up to 75% new members being predicted.

A key challenge will be to identify those who can serve as champions for the proposals you will be trying to push. Our job as public policy advocates will be to identify this group of new MEPs for our initial persuasive efforts. Champions are a group of decision makers that will be dedicated to being tireless, committed advocates for your cause. Champions can help convince their colleagues of the worthiness of the cause or benefits of your proposal. They can help you develop an "inside strategy" and be visible public spokespersons. But in order for the champions to fulfill their role, we will need to provide them with good information about the issue and create visible outside support.

Ideally, a champion is someone

a.  who is influential within the European Parliament,

b   is experienced within at working within the European Parliament,

c.  is knowledgeable about your issue,

d. is dedicated to your proposal, perhaps for personal reasons,

e. works easily with you and/or the organisation you represent.

But given the high rate if new MEPs, it will be difficult at first to determine how much influence they may have and how well they are able to navigate the system.

Since they will be new to the European Parliament, you can help them much by getting them what they need when they need it e.g. information, fact sheets, position papers etc.; by communicating with them extensively; by letting them know what is happening outside the process and finding out what is happening inside; by thanking them profusely and publicly; by making sure your supporters know of their hard work. The key is to develop TRUST with them and this will require time. Grooming Members of the European Parliament to champion your issue is  a very important strategy as is grooming their Assistants.

Our job as public policy advocates is to help educate the new MEPs on certain policy issues, competing policy concerns, the constraints to certain courses of action. By doing so we expose them to various sources of information and different perspectives thus broadening and deepening their understanding of the complexity of issues. Our job is to provide information, advocate, express our opinions, all with the objective of helping MEPs see different sides of an issue and decide on a course of action.

Developing your relationship with the new MEPs will be mutually beneficial, not only by helping to create better public policy but also helping to alleviate some of the more demanding pressures on their time.  The opportunity to develop a solid working relationship will therefore translate into measurable results.... but be patient.