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Your monthly shot of EU news
May 2010
What’s Brewing?
Another game of
musical chairs
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Black & White
European Citizens’
Initiative: “You’re a
great person, but…”
CO2 tax: The good
idea that France
wished it never had.
From 1 July the outgoing Belgian
government could potentially chair all
relevant meetings, as happened in the
recent past when the Czech Government
collapsed halfway through its Presidency
Through the grinder
Dawn breaks on the
Attention Age
Behind the counter
Lieneke Slegers on the
importance of focus
groups
Gasping for air
Were you left high and dry by the
volcanic eruption in Iceland?
You were not alone. Business meetings
were cancelled, the Fisheries Council
meeting postponed, and the European
Parliament forced to scale down its
timetable and push back any votes
until the May plenary.
EU business is thought to have lost millions
as a result, at precisely the time when an
economic recovery was appearing on the
– albeit distant – horizon.
Though a largely unprecedented event,
European countries appeared to dither
and dally, before closing their airspace
on their own terms.
Never before has the need for a socalled European Single Sky been so
obvious. If Eyjafjallajokull’s legacy is a
harmonised European system for air
travel, perhaps travellers’ suffering will
not have been in vain.
The fall of the Belgian government
as a result of yet another linguistic
dispute has thrown into all too stark
relief the fragility of Belgium as a
nation state.
But that was then. This is now. And
this is an EU governed by the Treaty of
Lisbon, a Treaty that allows any of the
Presidency triumvirate (Spain, Belgium,
and Hungary) to chair a meeting within
this 18-month period.
Whilst Espresso may be tempted to draw
a parallel between our country of residence
and that of the EU as a whole, at this point
in time it is worth focusing on what this
means for the Belgian Presidency of the
EU, scheduled to begin on 1 July.
Thus, perhaps Spain will decide it
wants to hang on to its role as mediator,
compromiser, and agenda-setter in the
Council Working Parties, or perhaps
Hungary will sense an opportunity to make
a name for itself on the Brussels stage?
It may seem bad timing for the Belgian
Prime Minister to hand in his resignation
two months before his country takes on
the honour/poisoned chalice (delete as
appropriate) of the EU Presidency, but
in truth, with Belgian governments falling
roughly every six months, there was
always a risk of this situation occurring.
There is a real risk that Belgium will be
left on the sidelines during its stint in
the Presidency sun, all of which is a tad
embarrassing for a country which is about
as pro-European as they come.
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The Lisbon Treaty was meant to do away
with the rotating Presidency system and
replace it with a permanent President of
the Council (ex-Belgian Prime Minister
Herman Van Rompuy – how apt!) and a
so-called Team Presidency consisting of
three Member States.
But in reality, it is not Belgium, nor
Hungary, but Spain, the current
Presidency, which is continuing to chair
every Council meeting besides EU
Summits and Foreign Affairs Councils.
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Although Lisbon was meant to streamline
EU decision-making, which it has done
in parts, the EU Presidency remains
a somewhat farcical and uncertain
arrangement in a globalised world where
constancy and consistency rule. Until this
is resolved, whether or not the holder of
the Presidency actually has a government
is neither here nor there.
Robert Francis
Editor
visit: www.grayling.com
espresso Your monthly shot of EU news
May 2010
espresso
Black & White
You’re a great person,
but…
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I think we should just be friends.” How
many times has the EU heard this
common one liner from its citizens?
Yet the EU just keeps insisting.
The latest flit comes from the European
Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a tool brought in
by the Treaty of Lisbon.
Espre o
In a nutshell, the ECI allows citizens to
propose initiatives to the Commission
if they are able to collect one million
signatures from 9 Member States within
12 months. The EU hopes that the ECI
will help create greater cross-border
debate between citizens and bring them
together on a certain issue.
But there are problems to this crossborder debate. The first is that the
proposed Commission draft is fraught with
administrative burdens, since a proposed
initiative will need to go through various
litmus tests to see if it is deemed abusive,
devoid of seriousness, or goes against the
Union’s values. The initiative will also need
to fall within the Commission’s powers to
propose legislation.
The second problem is to jump over the
EU’s linguistic and cultural barriers in 12
months. Finally, even if the Commission
does decide to draft such a proposal, it
will likely be butchered during the EU’s
co-decision process, leaving but the bare
bones of the citizens’ original concern.
The basic idea of the ECI may seem
wonderful, and it has been publicised as
a great policy to integrate citizens into the
EU. Yet the ECI is at root the archetypal
policy “made in Brussels”, thwart with
short-sightedness and technocracy – the
reason why citizens step away from the
EU in the first place.
Maybe – just maybe – though, citizens will
take up the EU’s offer this time round, if
only to let off some much needed steam.
CO2 tax: the good idea France wished
it never had
In the aftermath of the governing
party’s defeat in the March regional
elections, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy flip-flopped on the planned
introduction of a nationwide CO2 tax
in July 2010. Instead of questioning
this U-turn, the question should be
how this crazy project got so far?
The CO2 tax project is one of the outcomes
of the Grenelle de l’environnement, a
broad debate on the environment which
commenced with much enthusiasm in
the summer of 2007.
The first project that came out of JeanLouis Borloo’s hat, the man behind the
Grenelle, was the bonus/malus tax for
vehicles based on their CO2 emissions.
The pilot project has been quite
successful, and in an excess of goodwill it
appeared possible to apply this system to
all products sold in France.
Mais apparemment c’est pas possible, at
least not on a national scale as it would
create unacceptable barriers to the
internal market within Europe.
Not in the current economic situation with
proposals that could harm a country’s
competitiveness in the short term.
Not with limited support, with proposals
watered down to the point where
everyone agreed that they would be
totally ineffective.
In short, only a freshly elected government
which had the CO2 tax on its programme
could push such a project through.
After the defeat of President Sarkozy’s
UMP party in the regional elections, the
government had to do something –
anything! - but it had to be big.
Killing the CO2 tax was an excellent idea,
since nobody had asked for it, and it is
probably not a measure that would have led
to voters’ support. Thus, Sarkozy managed
to demonstrate change whilst simultaneously
getting rid of this deadweight.
Whilst France may have given up going
it alone, it also committed to push for the
adoption of an EU-wide CO2 tax. While
the EU appears to be a much better forum
for the introduction of a tax system that
could allow it to achieve its environmental
targets, it remains to be seen if this
French government still has the political
power and will to obtain even the slightest
progress on this in Brussels.
Talander Jansen
Mike Bourguignon
Please send your comments to the editor: [email protected]
visit: www.grayling.com
espresso Your monthly shot of EU news
May 2010
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Through the grinder!
Dawn breaks on the Attention Age
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Information explosion
Consumers are already exposed to
information overload, yet an increasing
amount of information is produced all the
time. For instance, at the current rate, the
number of photos uploaded to the social
networking site facebook will quickly reach
30 billion/year.
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No-ads mentality
With the advent of Web 2.0
technologies and social media in the
last decade, some are referring to the
times we live in as the Attention Age.
The Attention Age, seen as overlapping with
the Information Age, can be described as a
time during which the “commoditization of
attention” will be ever increasing in relation
to the mushrooming amount of information
available, especially online.
This poses a predicament for businesses
seeking growth, since attention is quickly
becoming a very scarce commodity, and
grabbing it demands a new understanding
of the marketplace.
Whether one wants to sell or buy a product
or service, today’s highly digitalised
marketplace presents several key ‘barriers
to attention’ including:
Too much choice
Business prospects, as well as customers,
have never before been faced with as
many solutions for solving their problems
or as much choice for finding the solutions
they seek.
Blurred vision
With broadband penetration on the rise
globally and an increasing number of
connected mobile devices, more and
more people are constantly connected,
and by trying to focus on everything at the
same time, we end up with no clear focus
of attention.
With individual social networking sites such
as facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Buzz
having up to as many as 400 million users,
advertisers are desperately trying to push
ads out onto every available online avenue,
leading many connected users to simply
block, or ignore the ads.
So what can business to do thrive in this lush
desert of “attention commoditization?”
There are few basic lessons that are worth
heeding.
• Do not underestimate the importance of
social media; it’s here to stay in one form
or another, so rather than ignoring it, try
to understand it and engage your brand
in the discussions that are already taking
place.
• Regard social media as an open,
transparent, communications approach.
• Remember to listen and learn before
acting; learn to crawl before you walk.
• Dedicate internal resources to social
media. Engage actively in discussions
online. Set clearly defined goals,
expectations, and establish metrics for
success analysis (contrary to common
belief, the impact of social media on the
bottom line is measurable).
Taking the step from being a traditional
company to becoming a company fully
steeped in social media technologies is
a scary one, but one that businesses will
ignore at their own risk.
“Now, as we are
getting back to
normal our focus
can shift to relief
measures for the
industry. This is
about practical
measures to provide
relief to the air
transport sector so
they can weather
this crisis. The
Commission is also
proposing structural
changes to ensure
we do not face this
situation again.”
EU Transport Commissioner
Siim Kallas on the fallout from the
recent disruption in air travel
27 April 2010
Please visit our blog
- The EU Lobby - at
www.theeulobby.eu
Emil Valdelin
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visit: www.grayling.com
espresso Your monthly shot of EU news
May 2010
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Behind the counter!
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Name - Lieneke Slegers
Espre o
Job Title - Director
Office - Brussels
Nationality - Dutch
Lieneke Slegers on the importance of focus groups
Grayling Brussels Director Lieneke Slegers recently organised a
major pan-European perception audit and a series of focus groups
for a client. Espresso caught up with Lieneke to see how it went.
valuable to be able to work with our experts on the ground, and
it is true that we went about the discussion groups differently
depending on the country.
What was the main purpose of the audit?
The main purpose was to identify which concerns consumers
have with regard to a certain industry and to find out which
issues related to this industry struck a chord with consumers.
What did you think of the outcome of the groups?
It was striking to see that globally there are issues which are
very similarly perceived, whilst there are also obvious cultural
differences to be taken into account. I recently read an article in
the Financial Times explaining why discussion groups “tell you
the obvious”. Although it’s true that much of what we concluded
had already been predicted through our research, a lot of
surprises also arose.
How did you go about organising the focus groups?
We made extensive use of our network to organize these
groups in several countries in Europe, including the “big three”
(France, UK and Germany) and Poland, as well as in the US,
Brazil and Japan. We carried out a consumer-profiling exercise
to ensure that we had discussion groups not just with random
consumers but also with those related to our client’s sector
and/or with social and political backgrounds. It was very
I feel that Discussion Groups remain an extremely useful tool,
although admittedly the targeted profiling of the participants
adds a great deal of value to the success of the groups and
their outcomes.
Robert Francis
Editor
Rue du Luxembourg 14a, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Please send your comments to the editor: [email protected]
visit: www.grayling.com