Cyprus faces years of economic hardship. The country’s economy is estimated to contract a whopping 13 percent over the next two years. By contrast, Turkey with a population of almost 75 million boasts an annual output of $ 800 billion compared to Cyprus $ 24 billion. The International Monetary Fund predicts Turkey will grow 3.4 percent this year and 3.7 percent next.

In the past six months, questions have arisen about what France is offering in terms of fresh ideas, and how it is dealing with the rest of Europe. To be certain, France has not opted into the market of ideas for a more political Europe and how it could be organized. There's a shrinking presence, a progressive disappearance of France on most issues that concern the economic agenda. Some European diplomats from a range of member states say that France's voice is nowhere to be heard.

In order to enable individuals and entities to develop their competencies to use public policy advocacy tools and mechanisms effectively and raise their awareness of participation in the decision-making process, the delivery of a multi-modular training programme is viewed as a crucial activity.

National sovereignty, sometimes used to mean national independence, has to be viewed against the background of the interdependence of modern states.

Public Policy Advocacy is an increasingly visible and influential feature of every political system around the world, practised by tens of thousands of people. Most Public Policy Advocates are college graduates, and many have advanced degrees. Of these advanced degrees, the most prevalent is legal training, with other common backgrounds being communications, teaching, public relations and journalism.

The European Business Summit (EBS) is Europe's key meeting place for business leaders and decision makers. Every year, the EBS attracts more than 2,000 participants from over 60 countries, European Commissioners, Prime Ministers, high-level officials and about 200 journalists.

The theme of the 2013 summit is "Unlocking Industrial Opportunities- An EU Strategy for Competitiveness". This deals with the challenge of re-industrialisation of Europe and the promotion of competitiveness through innovation.

Today, the CE marking only signals that all essential requirements have been fulfilled when the product was manufactured. The CE marking is not a mark of origin, as it does not indicate that the product was manufactured in the European Union. Consequently, a product affixed with the CE marking may have been produced anywhere in the world. Given the crisis that the EU is going through, it may be worthwhile to restate the advantages that could be gained by having an EU origin marking scheme.

The interaction of the elements of ADVOCACY, LOBBYING and CAMPAIGNING when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements. Public Policy Advocacy focuses on providing a comprehensive integrated system bringing the components of ADVOCACY, LOBBYING and CAMPAIGNING into one system and ensuring that they function together as a system.

ADVOCACY

"Advocacy means to give a voice to people. It is a system of actions aimed at changing attitudes, policies and practices."

Author: Mr. Emmanouil Patavos, Public Affairs Professional- Article published 2012 and reposted here

" The 'Brussels bubble' is expanding rapidly. Not in the literal sense, the physical borders circling Brussels remain steadfast. However, the actors and activities which define the essence of the 'Brussels bubble' have started to become more prevalent on line.

In France 'Lobbying' is a catch-all term that is applied across the board to private interests, corporate interests, NGOs interests and Member States' interests. In addition, the French have come up with the term COMMUNICATION D'INFLUENCE (Influence Communication).

Influence communication designates a set of processes aiming to arouse, bring about, legitimate or prevent public decisions with the object of promoting or defending the commercial or ideological interests of an organization by using as prime action lever the influence of public opinion.