THE AMERICAN LOBBY IN BRUSSELS
The EU is a highly lucrative market for US-owned firms with large direct investments. The enormous volume of these investments makes it difficult to separate ‘European’ from ‘American’ business interests in the EU. American companies have developed their own political links to the EU. In particular the American Chamber to the European Union (AmCham EU) is an important agent of US influence in Brussels. Most of its members are concerned with ensuring that the political- legal framework in Europe is conducive to their business interests. The most influential American actors in terms of day-to-day EU policymaking are primarily private actors who wield a potent and unique combination of structural and ‘soft power. The AmCham EU is an important information source for U.S. companies, many of which have set up their European headquarters in Brussels.
The American lobby in Brussels combines private and public resources. The US Mission in Brussels is the most important “public” face of the American lobby. It is the arm of the American government which is most often at the front-line of relations with the Union. Admittedly, the US Mission must serve and promote a general “American interest” which is broader than the relatively narrow interests of the members of the AmCham EU. Still, the US Mission and the AmCham EU are usually on the same side of most issues. EU policymaking reinforces this public/private linkage: it is a complex process of mainly informal bargaining between networks of actors, including representatives of European governments and EU institutions. Private actors have important opportunities to promote their own interests and to shape policy at the supranational level, particularly at the crucial, early stages of decision-making when the Commission first formulates formal proposals. The AmCham EU often is consulted (usually discreetly) during the early, crucial stages of policy formulation, when the Commission seeks advice from a relatively few “resourceful interest groups and other policy specialists which are most able to play an active role in influencing decision-making”
The AmCham EU can offer discreet, reliable advice and information that may prove crucial in deciding arguments between different units of the Commission. Consequently, the AmCham EU tends to lead the “American lobby” in Brussels, and thus has a decided advantage in influencing the US position on matters of EU policy.
Ultimately, the AmCham EU is usually the most influential American actor in EU policymaking. It wields a unique sort of power in Brussels. In important respects, it is structural in that it arises from the deep embeddedness of its firms in the EU’s economy. Yet, the AmCham EU’s power is also "soft" in that it arises largely from gathering, processing and disseminating reliable information.
Nearly all of the largest and most powerful American-owned multinationals invest heavily in Europe and belong to the AmCham EU. It is a common perception in Brussels that, compared to their European counterparts, American companies are much more mobile and willing to move their operations around or out of Europe to benefit from market situations. As a consequence, one could argue that American firms possess greater structural power than do European companies.
However, structural power does not translate automatically into influence or access. In fact, while the AmCham EU’s identity as a collection of “European firms of American parentage” is clear and unadulterated, it is a double-edged sword. Despite the effectiveness of its working methods and the quality of its position papers, the AmCham EU is still perceived as representing American-owned industry. There are important limits on the extent to which the AmCham EU can be an “insider” in the Union’s policy process. The AmCham EU thus must work with and through other actors, particularly ones that have a “European” identity. Accordingly, it must develop resources that are fungible , in the sense that they empower any actor regardless of their identity. The AmCham EU’s lack of a European identity and or a national patron which can assure access, means it must nurture its “soft power,” or ability to influence the policy process in subtle ways which do not involve heavy-handed or aggressive lobbying. The solution is information. The AmCham EU produces many position papers on a variety of EU legislative matters. Over time, the high quality of these and other AmCham EU publications have acted to foster its reputation in Brussels for compiling, processing and disseminating reliable and useful information. Commission officials often acknowledge making direct use of data or ideas found in AmCham EU’s white papers . Moreover, members of the AmCham EU appear to share information and cooperate more generally far more readily than is normally the case with American firms. One consequence is that little appears to arise on the EU agenda that catches the largest American firms by surprise. The AmCham EU has developed a complex and expert structure of specialist committees which represent an unrivalled network of advance intelligence within the EU.
Information only translates into power if it is managed carefully. In this context, the AmCham EU is highly-skilled at “issue management:” the early identification of an impending EU proposal, the making of contacts with the appropriate officials and the writing of timely position papers. The AmCham EU often offers complete and explicit alternatives to proposed legislation. It often develops “ready-made” amendments to Commission proposals which can be picked up and “run with” by the European Parliament. Above all, the AmCham EU has become the primary source of reliable information on single market legislation. The AmCham EU’s extensive track record as a source of reliable information is crucial because of the way in which benefits accrue exponentially to actors which are present, reliable and useful to the EU’s hard-pressed and under-resourced institutions for long periods of time.
“Soft power” imposes limits. The AmCham EU cannot change EU decisions outright, or force the Union into doing anything that it would not otherwise do. But the EU’s command of information gives it access to and often influence within multiple Directorates-General (DG) within the Commission. Crucially, it thus can influence the outcomes of games of bureaucratic politics, which are a primary feature of EU policy-making. Thus, the AmCham EU has long nurtured its links to many DGs.
AmCham EU Members
- 3M
- AbbVie
- Accenture
- ADM
- AES
- Afore Consulting
- Albermarle
- Alcoa
- Amazon.com
- American Airlines
- American Express
- Amgen
- Amway
- APCO
- Applied Materials
- Arnold & Porter LLP
- AT&T
- Avon
- Baker Botts
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Barclays
- Baxter
- BDO
- Biogen
- Boeing
- BorgWarner
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- British American Tobacco
- Brunswick
- Burson Marsteller
- CA Technologies
- Cabinet DN
- Cargill
- Caterpillar
- Charles Schwab
- Chevron
- Chubb Insurance
- Cicero
- Cisco
- Citi
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
- CNH Industrial
- Cognizant
- Covington
- Crowell Moring
- Daimler
- Dell
- Diageo
- DLA Piper
- Dow
- Dow Corning
- Du Pont
- EPPA
- Ernst & Young
- ExxonMobil
- FedEx Express
- Fidelity Investments
- First Data
- First Solar
- Fleishman Hillard
- Foley & Lardner LLP
- Ford
- Freshfields
- FTI Consulting
- General Electric
- GM
- Goldman Sachs
- Goodyear Dunlop Europe
- Gore Creative Technologies
- Gowan Group
- GSK
- Hasbro
- Herbalife Nutrition
- Hill + Knowlton Strategies
- Hogan Lovells
- Honeywell
- HP
- IBM
- Intel
- Interel
- International Paper
- J.P. Morgan
- John Deere
- Johnson and Johnson
- Johnson Controls
- Keller and Heckman LLP
- Kreab Gavin Anderson
- Latham & Watkins LLP
- Levi Strauss & Co
- Liberty Global
- Lilly
- Linklaters
- LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
- LyondellBasell
- Mars Incorpoarted
- Marsh & McLennan Companies
- MasterCard Worldwide
- Mattel
- Mayer Brown
- Mc Donald
- McGuireWoods
- McKinsey& Company
- MetLife
- Michelin
- Microsoft
- Monsanto
- Morgan Lewis
- Morgan Stanley
- Motorola Solutions
- MSD
- Nielsen
- Nike
- Norton Rose Fulbright
- O’Melveny & Myers LLP
- Oracle
- P&G
- PartyLite
- Pfizer
- Philip Morris International
- Pitney Bowes
- Qualcomm
- Quinn Emanuel
- RELX Group
- SAS
- SheppardMullin
- Shire
- Sidley Austin LLP
- Skadden
- Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services
- StanleyBlack&Decker
- Steptoe
- Swift
- Symantec
- Syngenta
- Synopsys
- TE Connectivity
- Tenneco
- The Carlyle Group
- The Coca Cola Company
- The Walt Disney Company EMEA
- Thomson Reuters
- TimeWarner
- Tyco
- United Technologies
- UPS
- Van Bael & Bellis
- Verizon
- Weber Shandwick
- WestRock
- White & Case
- Wiley
- WilmerHale
- Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co
- Yahoo!
- Zurich
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