Through a referendum the Greeks will, for a change, decide for themselves how they and their country will move forward. The Greeks have had no real opportunity to do so for quite some time. For about a year and a half, Greece has been under foreign administration; it is de facto no longer a sovereign state. The government's most important task has been dragging the austerity programmes and structural reforms through parliament and implementing them. These are dictated by he strict troika of the EU Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

AALEP along with other relevant organizations has been invited by the EP-EC joint secretariat of the Transparency register to attend a meeting on 21 November 2011 to have an exchange of views on various issues related to the Register of transparency, namely concerning the revision of the financial guidelines.  The new financial guidelines will be published on AALEP website.

It is rare to find an EU company that is not developing a market strategy to benefit from the rapid growth of emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and China. As more and more firms copy each others' best practices, many of the remaining critical elements of the business environment are determined by the EU and third country governments. These include, among others, access to foreign markets for investments, protecting intellectual property etc.

Eurochambres' International Affairs Department wants to meet with AALEP to understand the network that we are currently developing in Brussels and beyond and better grasp and discuss our activities in our Action Plan. A meeting has been scheduled on 10 November 2011 with AALEP Chair.

A lot of political tensions are building up among EU member states: Diverging views between France and Germany. Tension between France and the UK , with Sweden and Poland in the background. Tension between France/Germany and Italy along with gestures and expressions that ridicule Italy. The European Commission feels like being sidelined by France and Germany who are running the show. President José Barroso believes that there should not be any separation between Eurozone members and the rest of the EU.

AALEP has been called to organize a high level lobbying seminar in Jakarta in January 2012, initiated by Student-to-student Networking (STUN) in their programme of "Focus on Youth Leadership". The seminar which will span over 5 days will deal with the practice of managing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating lobbying campaigns.

The relationship among ASEAN member nations ( Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) has evolved from a group of countries that compete for foreign investments into an assembly that mutually reinforces progress through greater linkages and trade. 

Policy influence may be broken into four types : expanding policy capacities, affecting policy debates, affecting policy regimes, and developing new policy regimes :  

The World Economic Forum's Center for Global Competiveness and Performance reviews the business operating environment and competitiveness of 142 economies worldwide. The report identifies the advantages as well as the impediments to national growth. Among EU countries only  Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom rank among the top 10 out of 142 countries.

The mood in Europe and North America is deeply sombre, as business leaders, economists and policymakers alike expect the economic climate to get worse before it gets better. Therefore, the business-government relationship is of particular relevance. Business advocacy in trade policy can improve the competitive position of EU exporters in foreign markets by helping governments work out better trade strategies. EU firms need to push for improved foreign market access of their products and support regulations that improve their competitive position.