March 2, 2009
09:00 Introduction. Evaluation of the questionnaires

10:00

Lobby tools under scrutiny
u Lobbying vehicles: how to intervene? As individual entity? As an existing association? As an ad hocassociation? As an umbrella association?
u Building and developing your upstream and downstream networks
u Coalitions: a strength or a weakness?
u Leadership is essential
u Communication tools, a new approach: position paper, amendments, luncheons, roundtables
11:00 Coffee & Networking Break
11:15 Comitology: the hidden power
u What is comitology?
u Why a reform?
u The execution power split into two categories
u A new balance between the Institutions
u What impact on lobbying
12:45 Lunch
13:45 EU associations often lack influence. How to make them vectors of influence
u Analysing the efficiency and influence of an EU association
u Credibility vs. representativeness
u Characteristics of an efficient EU association
u Re-engineering an EU association
15:15 Coffee & Networking Break
15:30 How to successfully combine EU and national action
u EU and national intervention seen throughout the decision-making process
u The value of lobbying input from the national branches rephrase
u How can national networks bring added value to coalition-building (European Parliament,Council of Ministers)?
u Tools to manage successfully a combined EU-national action: follow-up systems, steering groups, reporting system, consensus vs. majority decisions, …
17:00 End of the day