After each European election nearly half of the outgoing Members of the European Parliament re-enter the EP for an additional legislative term.

President François Hollande, seeking to reduce France’s punishingly high unemployment rate, has called for a “responsibility pact” with businesses that would reward companies that hire more people with lower taxes and greater flexibility.

Although some progress has been made, there is still an under-representation of women in national parliaments (in both Lower or Single Houses and Upper Houses or Senates of the EU Member States (see table below). Countries that have less than 20% women representation in their Lower Houses include: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Malta, Romania , Cyprus and Hungary. For Upper Houses countries that have less than 20% women representation include: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Romania.

A growing number of  women have joined the public policy advocacy profession and they are moving into all sectors. Also as the ranks of women lawmakers have widened, more organizations have sought women public policy advocates. Today there's not a separation of labor and there is no group of any size or any consequence that doesn't have a female lobbyist. And, those lobbying groups reap the benefits of women's experience.

En tant que praticien possédant une longue expérience du lobbying, la réalité c’est que le lobbying ne peut-être enseigné à partir d’un livre et/ou d’une façon purement théorique ou académique. En vérité les compétences pour réussir dans ce domaine reposent plus sur les relations et un esprit critique que les gens ne le supposent. Ainsi lorsque quelqu’un s’inscrit à un cours sur le lobbying,  il devrait considéré non pas le lobbying en tant que sujet comme tel mais comme une compétence qui doit être développée individuellement.

As a practitioner with a long experience in public policy advocacy, the reality is that public policy advocacy can’t be taught out of a book and/or in a purely theorist/academic mode. Indeed the skills needed for success relies more on relationships and critical thinking than people think. As such, anyone who enters a class on public policy advocacy should really look at public policy advocacy not as a subject to be learned but as a skill that must be developed individually.

There are 5 key services that Public Policy Advocates provide. They include Strategic Agenda Development, Advocacy, Coalition Building, Programme and Project Support, and Positioning.

Strategic Agenda Development

• Clarifying the context within which a policy or programme request will be considered.
• Detecting key EU funding opportunities.
• Crafting a detailed plan that leads to success.

Advocacy

Défendre la souveraineté nationale, c’est défendre l’Europe, une Europe forte, capable de défendre ses intérêts. Etre patriote, c’est voir dans l’Union européenne la seule réponse possible à l’émergence des nouvelles puissances et à l’instabilité du monde. Je propose de

- Constituer un noyau dur autour de la France et de l’Allemagne qui doivent faire converger leurs économies et leurs fiscalités.

- Doter la zone euro d’un véritable gouvernement économique dirigé par les chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement.

Corruption in the 28 EU member states undermines citizens' fundamental rights, good governance and the rule of law. Corruption occurs in old and new EU Member States alike. Research shows that the trust of EU citizens in Member States and the EU to fight corruption is very low.

• Claus Larsen-Jensen MEP, replaces Dan Jørgensen at the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
• Zbigniew Zaleski, a Polish politician and former MEP, has returned to the Parliament as part of the European People's Party.
• Anne-Laure Gassin has been appointed as policy officer in the European Commission.
• Danièle Nouy has been appointed by as chair of the supervisory board of the single supervisory mechanism at the European Central Bank.