Back in 2012 in Warsaw a meeting of China with the leaders of 16 post-communist European states resulted in an action plan for adding impetus to the already expanding cooperation with Eastern, Central and Southeast Europe (CESEE).

CESEE covers the following countries: 11 EU Member States  (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and five countries from the Western Balkans region which are potential candidates or candidates for EU membership (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia).

The information and views set out in this article are those of Transparency International  and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of AALEP

EFTA-3: Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein

Commission

 General

1. Lobbyists are developing new skills. Speakers of German are more prized- close to par with English-speakers and far more valuable than French speakers.
2. Brussels’ best-known lobbyists still hail from the old Member States, while the new Member States are under-represented in the Brussels’ corps.

 Corporate

Based on Swissinfo.ch (Orginal Text has been edited)

Switzerland has one of the most highly-developed systems of democracy in the world. But the influence of lobby groups on political life is hardly regulated

Switzerland and the EU sustain very close relations. With no other third country has the Union concluded more agreements (more than 120). Thus Switzerland and the EU are intertwined in many policy areas. Examples: Internal market (free trade agreement, free movement of persons agreement), internal security (Schengen/Dublin), transport (overland transport and civil aviation agreements), cooperation in tax matters (taxation of savings and fight against fraud agreements). There are nevertheless several economic challenges of being the outsider.

Norway is closely integrated with the EU through the EEA Agreement and has also signed further agreements with the Union such as Schengen.

The EBO Worldwide Network was created in 2001 between representatives of EU business associations in non-EU countries and specific interest groups from the European Commission. They are mostly privately funded representations of EU businesse in Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, China, Australia, Hong Kong, Macedonia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United States of America, Vietnam.

Public Affairs is an organisation's efforts to monitor and manage its business environment. To actively manage its environment, the organisation must identify all of the stakeholder groups that can have an impact on the organisation in some way; establish positive relationships with each of these groups; and work continuously to extend and deepen those relationships through direct and indirect efforts.