1. The financial services industry (“the City”) is one of the few areas where the UK is a world leader and it is a huge earner. Unlike trade in goods, the UK runs  a very large surplus on trade in financial services, including with the EU. The financial services industry accounts for about 4pc of GDP, about half of which probably represents business done with the EU, or about 2pc of GDP.

Parliament

1. Structure and functioning of the Parliament including the competences of the Parliamentary Committees and the speaker of the Parliament, the prerogatives and competences of the Parliament with respect to control of the executive power, and of the procedures for the adoption of legislation

2. Parliament's rules of procedure and their implementation.

They may come under different names: Parliamentary Friendship Groups, Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Groups or Friendship Parliamentary Groups or Parliamentary Group of Friendship [and Cooperation].

There is a need for the EU to engage in normalization of political relations with Russia. Official contacts between the European Parliament, the State Duma and the Russian Federation Council are currently frozen. In view of the dramatic developments in many regions of the world which can only be solved through coordinated policies of the global community, there is a need to restoring dialogue between the EU and Russia.

1. Give the People A Voice

EU policies that impact on 500 million people are drawn up by distant, un-elected bureaucrats, validated in ministerial meetings dominated by a few powerful nations and rubber stamped by MEPs. Referendums give the people a voice, allowing them to impose directly democratic checks and balances on the shift of power to Brussels.

2. Legitimize EU Policy

Source: Bertelsmann Foundation

France has just started examining new draft legislation on the fight against corruption. Discussions before the French Parliament are expected to begin in April 2016, but one can already understand that this is going to be a milestone event on the French history of anti-corruption laws and a legal revolution. The draft legislation, which has not been published yet, is about to be presented to the French State Council (Conseil d'Etat) for legal validation. The legislative process will only start afterwards.

What kind of Russia does the European Union wish to see as its neighbour, and, crucially, on what basis does the EU wish to engage and/or re-engage with Russia? The obstacles to an effective EU-Russia relationship centre on the paradox that the two are close enough neighbours not to be able to ignore each other, yet on the whole neither currently perceives itself to have a pressing need for the other. In particular the EU has failed to elaborate clear objectives and incentives that can overcome this lack of motivation and thus drive serious engagement.

China’s dumping undermines free and fair trade. A company is ‘dumping’ if it is exporting a product to the EU at prices lower than the normal value of the product (the domestic prices of the product or the cost of production) on its own domestic market. The purpose of dumping is usually to increase market share in a foreign market or to drive out competition. Chinese enterprises dump more products into Europe’s open market than any other country in the world. Indeed, 75% of all the EU's anti-dumping measures in force involve China.

Effective lobbying strategies, tactics and ethics can be taught and learned with a combination of rigorous academic research and applied/practical wisdom from professional advocates. (Practical wisdom involves an understanding about the aims of activities in which one is engaged. It’s about improvising and balancing conflicting aims and interpreting rules and procedures in a particular context. It’s about taking on the perspective of others and learning how the other person feels. Practical wisdom is about blending emotions and values with reason to do the right thing.