EACA, the European Association of Communications Agencies is an organisation, which brings together the advertising, media and sales promotions agencies across Europe, enabling international experience and issues to be shared and dealt with on a pan-European basis. It provides an important link between agencies, advertisers and the advertising media in Europe and around the world and participates closely in the setting of standards in many aspects of the business across Europe.

EACA main tasks are to promote:

IAB Europe is the voice of digital business. Its mission is to protect, prove, promote and professionalise Europe's online advertising, media, research and analytics industries. Together with its members – companies and national trade associations – IAB Europe represents over 5,500 organisations.

EuroISPA is a pan European association of European Internet Services Providers Associations (ISPAs). It is the world’s largest association of Internet Services Providers (ISPs), representing over 1800 ISPs across the EU and EFTA countries – including ISPs from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Romania and the UK. The association was established in 1997 to represent the European ISP industry on EU policy and legislative issues and to facilitate the exchange of best-practices between national ISP associations.

DIGITALEUROPE is the voice of the European digital technology industry, which includes large and small companies in the Information and Communications Technology and Consumer Electronics Industry sectors. It is composed of major multinational companies and national associations from European countries. In all, DIGITALEUROPE represents more than 10,000 companies all over Europe with more than 2 million employees and over EUR 1,000 billion in revenues.

EDiMA, the European Digital Media Association, is an alliance of new media companies whose members provide new media platforms offering European consumers a wide range of online services, including e-content, media, E-commerce, communications and information/search services. EDiMA represents the interests of the new media sector in Europe in policymaking.

ACT is an international grassroots advocacy and education organization representing more than 5000 small and mid size app developers and international technology firms. It is the only organization focused on the needs of small business innovators from around the world. ACT advocates for an environment that inspires and rewards innovation while providing resources to help its members leverage their intellectual assets to raise capital, create jobs and continue innovating. In addition to its small business membership, ACT and ACT 4 Apps has several sponsor members including:

The Industry Coalition for Data Protection (ICDP) is comprised of 16 associations representing thousands of European and international companies who are building, delivering, and advancing the digital experience.

Members of ICDP and some of their corporate members include:

The Obama administration has found itself trying to placate the leaders of closely allied nations who have discovered the extent of NSA surveillance in their countries. The flood of spying scandals raises the question over whether the negotiating edge such secret eavesdropping provides is worth the reputational damage to Washington.

The views expressed here after are those of Professor Roland Vaubel, a member of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and not those of AALEP

Reforming the European Parliament

The European Commission’s embrace of interest groups is part of a long history of engagement and interaction. The Commission consults widely with representative associations and civil society during the policy making process. Interaction with interest groups is also institutionalized in the open consultation process, many ad hoc committees , and most explicitly in the Social Dialogue procedure and the two consultative bodies, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee. The logic behind these interactions is simple.