Profile raising means helping an organization to build or improve its relationships with government officials. It means supporting organizations wanting to be better known and understood by political stakeholders as they engage with government, parliament or other decision makers.

Public Policy Advocacy means, in a professional capacity, attempting to influence or advising those who wish to influence a government, parliament, legislature, local, regional or at EU level or other public bodies on any matters within their competence.

Public Policy Advocates are those private individuals who in a professional capacity work to influence or advise those who wish to influence, the institutions of a government, in respect to:

Organised on 28 November 2013 on the eve of the 3rd Eastern Partnership Summit of Heads of State and Government, the Eastern Partnership Business Forum will bring together key representatives of the business community and government to address strategic questions ranging from further enhancement of trade, foreign direct investment, boosting of SMEs and developing infrastructure for business success.

The European Union's Partnership Programme aims for stability, prosperity and social development in its immediate neighborhood. Aware of its attractiveness, the EU offers those countries stronger relationships without promising EU membership and urges them to undertake sustainable reforms.

In view of the downside risks of lobbying and the impressive mobilisation of private resources, public pressure is rising worldwide to put lobbying regulations on the political agenda. Transparency, integrity and fairness in the decision-making process are crucial to safeguard the public interest and promote a level playing field for businesses. However, regulating lobbying has proven difficult for decision makers due to its complexity and sensitive nature and many EU countries rely on self-regulation of lobbyists.

Public perceptions of undue influence peddling, in which special interest groups exercise too much sway over government for self-serving purposes, have led to growing demands for the regulation of public policy advocates and transparency of the policymaking process.

The acceptance of public policy advocacy and its style are very diverse in the EU. There is no standardized way of engaging in public policy advocacy in Europe. However, there are certain elements of the way European practitioners conduct political business that shape public policy advocacy activity.

The European Union is dedicated to removing existing obstacles when changing jobs between Member States and promoting professional mobility. To achieve this, the process for recognising professional qualifications must be significantly sped up and simplified for public policy advocates (PPAs) in particular.

A nation brand is a nation’s identity that has been proactively distilled, interpreted, internalized and projected for international recognition and to construct a favourable national image. A country brand strategy therefore is a plan for defining the most realistic, most competitive and most compelling strategic vision for the country.

Our vision is to help to foster global training standards (knowledge, skills and competence for the practice of public policy advocacy). This entails the following: