The 2012 Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking is the only country or nation brand ranking which classifies countries by the effectiveness of their country brand strategies (brand tags) and its subsequent impact on the country’s GDP. Brand tags function as the ‘supply’ side of the investor-destination equation. Thousands of brand tags were collected from each country’s official investment agency and then classified into 50 different clusters that relate to workforce, social welfare, strong and stable economy, favorable fiscal benefits, or stable political environment.

In its State of the Union Address 2013, the President of the European Commission Mr. José Manuel Durão Barroso makes a reference to what he said last year  i.e. to present before the European elections, further ideas on the future of the Union and how to best consolidate and deepen the community method and community approach in the longer term. That way, he says  they can be subject to a real European debate. And Mr. Barroso to add ‘they will set out the principles and orientations that are necessary for a true political union.

En prélude à la tenue des élections sénatoriales, législatives et municipales le 26 mai 2013, le chef de l'Etat de la Guinée Equatoriale M. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo s’est adressé le 14 mai 2013, à Malabo, à une centaine d'hommes de médias.

France has 34  sectoral plans for its industrial recovery. The objective is to build a new and competitive industrial offering that is capable to regain lost market shares and to win new ones. It should be pointed that industry represented in 2011 but only 19% of the total French GDP behind Czech Republic (36%), Poland (32%), Bulgaria (31%), Hungary (31%), Austria (29%), Finland (29%), Estonia (29%), Croatia (26%) Germany (28%), Lithuania (28%), Spain (26%), Sweden (26%), Italy (25%), Netherlands (24%), Denmark (22%),UK (22%), Belgium (22%), Latvia (22%).   

That Europe needs to work together because the challenges ahead are too large for any European country to address on their own isn’t really news. Neither is the idea to strengthen the Single Market, to foster the EU’s economic governance, or to continue with the reforms set out in the Lisbon Agenda ten years ago.

Rather than focusing on communication policy, the EU needs to communicate on policy.

Selon le FMI, 22 pays subsahariens atteindront à l’horizon de 2015 un PIB par habitant suffisant pour voir s’y développer une consommation de masse. Industrie automobile, informatique ou même enseignement supérieur, les marchés potentiels attisent toutes les convoitises.

AALEP would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr. Dorel EPURE from Romania. Dorel is currently the Managing Partner of the Bucharest Law Firm Epure, Lizac & Associates www.epure-lizac.ro that provides legal consultancy and public policy advocacy services to private and public organisations. Dorel is a lawyer possessing over 18 years of experience in the field of applied law, out of which 14 years were dedicated to the area of Intellectual Property Law, with a focus on copyright (authors' rights) and related rights.

Professional identity varies greatly within our profession. When one drills down to what each professional does, we quickly discover that each and every professional is unique and each has his/her own particular identity.  We need to recognize and respect the professional diversity amongst those who have chosen to be public policy advocates and strive to represent the diverse interests that make up this unique and dynamic profession.

Government effectiveness is a general indicator providing a summary assessment of the quality of public administration in general depending on its regulatory system, of its impartiality and the quality of the services it provides. The Worldwide Governance Indicators developed by the World Bank summarizes information from 30 existing data sources on views and experiences of citizens, business people and experts in the public, private and NGO sectors.

Here below is the first alphabetical listing of the leadership of the Public Affairs Consultancies that are members of the European Public Affairs Consultancies Association (EPACA). The list compiled by AALEP only considers the top managers (partners and directors) and includes 131 names along with their title and affiliation. The development of this list did require an examination of each consultancy’s website to identify their leadership.