Ecpa Presentation 5 Mar 08

The State of Public Affairs

2008

ECPA Conference 5th March 2008

www.comres.eu.com

About the survey:

• 140 respondents took part online between Feb-Mar 2008• thanks to our partners EPAD and EurActiv• filters to verify sample relevance• this year’s sample is more experienced than last year• broad spread across consultancies, in-house corporate, NGOs and trade associations

PA is just as likely to be an independent function as it is to be part of wider team

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

An independent function Part of a broadercommunications team

2007-8 was a good year for budgets

Net balance increase past 12 months

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

2008-9 is expected to show a modest decline in growth

Net balance expecting increase

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Measurement remains a struggle

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Yes

No

For the first time, more agree than disagree that “on the whole, the process of policy development within EU institutions is sufficiently transparent”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

agree/strongly disagree/strongly no opinion

2005

2006

2007

2008

The Council remains perceived as opaque

Decision making is 'very/fairly transparent'

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Commission Council Mins EP

2005

2006

2007

2008

Council is also regarded as inaccessible to lobbyists

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

EuropeanCommission

Council ofMinisters

EuropeanParliament

Accessible

Inaccessible

Commission seen as more balanced in its treatment of business/civil society than in previous years

European Commission

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2005 2006 2007 2008

More likely to be persuaded bybusiness

More likely to be persuaded bycivil society

Entirely impartial to both

Council is also perceived to be less partial

Council of Ministers

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2005 2006 2007 2008

More likely to be persuaded bybusiness

More likely to be persuaded by civilsociety

Entirely impartial to both

But Parliament is still seen strongly as biased in favour of civil society

European Parliament

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

2005 2006 2007

More likely to be persuaded bybusiness

More likely to be persuaded bycivil society

Entirely impartial to both

-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

2005 2006 2007 2008

Corp lobby groups toopowerful

Lobbyist self-regulation successful

NGOs have too littleinfluence

Need for NGOalliances accepted

Consistent view that corporate lobby groups are not too powerful, and NGOs are not too weak

Parliament is expected to continue to grow in strength “over next few years”

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2005 2006 2007 2008

Commission

Council Mins

EP

Evidence that PA is spreading out, especially to EU agencies

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

The EuropeanEconomic and

Social Committee

The Committee ofRegions

The EuropeanCourt

The Court ofAuditors

EU Agencies

Average number of hours committed to:

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Comitology High Level Groupssponsored by the

European Commission

Platforms sponsored bythe European Commission

Treaty of Lisbon would be broadly welcomed

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Yes No No opinion

And most practitioners are “fairly confident” they understand the impact of Lisbon on EU institutional process

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very confident Fairly confident Fairly unconfident Very unconfident

“Have you personally used any of the following as public affairs tools?”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Blogs orBlogging

YouTube Wikipedia Socialnetworking sites(eg. Facebook

etc.)

2007

2008

“Do you know anyone who has used these public affairs tools?”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Blogs or Blogging Wikipedia MySpace/SocialNetworking

YouTube

2007

2008

The media remains well used but with caution

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Media more widelyused than 5 yrs ago

Policy makers resentuse of media to

influence decisions

Using media can bedangerous

J ournalistssensationalise rather

than report issues

2005

2006

2007

2008

Trade associations are generally well regarded

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

T.A.s areneeded to

ensureconsistencyin corporate

positions

T.A.s toooften drivelobbyingdown tolowest

commondenominator

T.A.s are agreat source

of infogathering &

sharing

T.A.s tend tobe less

effective thancorporates

T.A.s oftenoverlap and

are toobureaucratic

Companiesdon't investenough time& money intheir T.A.s

Agree

Disagree

Climate change eclipses all other issues

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Climatechange

Sustainability Energy Globalisation CSR Employeeconditions

Charitygiving

Past 12 months

Next 12 months

Trust “a great deal”

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

2006

2007

2008

Trust “not at all”

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

2006

2007

2008

Overall standards of integrity in EU lobbying are on the up

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

2005 2006 2007 2008

Improved

Remained same

Deteriorated

Regulation of EU lobbyists remains perceived as appropriate

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

2005 2006 2007 2008

Too strong

About right

Too weak

“Lobbyists should only have to register once for a system that covers all EU institutions”

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Agree strongly Agree Disagree Disagreestrongly

No opinion

Proportion of PA work engaged in lobbying with decision makers:

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

0-10% 11-20%

21-30%

31-40%

41-50%

51-60%

61-70%

71-80%

81-90%

91-100%

Would your organisation be prepared to declare its expenditure on:

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Lobbying Public affairs other thanlobbying

Per

cent

age

Yes

No

Acceptable metrics for measuring PA & lobbying engagement in context of registration proposals:

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Man hours Disclosure withinbands of 100,000

euros

No financialdisclosure

Detailed financialdisclosure

Should registration be:

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Mandatory Voluntary No opinion

The Kallas proposal for a register of lobbyists:

Source: ComRes survey of 119 MEPs, summer 2007

Thank you to all who took part!

FULL TABLES AT www.comres.eu.com