“NGO Advocacy in European Political Institutions – a Practitioner’s Perspective”

On Wednesday our first presenter Emmanouil Athanasiou, Head of Asia Desk, FIDH, told us about the advocacy and lobbying in the European Union. Emmanouil is a lawyer specialized in international and European human rights law. He was still a student, when he joined to a European program that trained young expert in foreign affairs. In charge of human rights in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, he worked in Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Currently he leads the Asia Desk programs of the International Federation for Human Rights.

The FIDH is the oldest organization that deals with human rights; it was founded by twenty national organizations on the initiative of French and German member organizations in 1922. The FIDH is a federation -as Emmanouil said - 164 human rights organizations throughout the world contribute to the prevention of human rights violations, to the protection of victims of such violations, as well as to the promotion of human rights.

The presentation was very useful and interesting; we learnt some tricks how to influence policymakers in favor of specific causes using personal contacts, sometimes public pressure, or political action to persuade legislators to vote in a particular manner. Emmanouil explained the process of lobby in the EU, and who do they lobby:

• European Commission – for the role in policy formulation and drafting legislation.
• European Parliament – because is accessible and after the Lisbon Treaty the Parliament has become a more important factor in the distribution of the money than before that.
• European Council – for the high policy and position tracking in Brussels.

After the presentation about the advocacy process, Emmanouil gave us documentation about the situation in Burma/Myanmar under the current military rule, one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The paper gives concrete dates about the electoral process in Burma. It explains how to the regime is preparing itself for the day after the elections which are organized with only one am: to ensure that the country will remain still hostage of the military.

Our team really liked this subject, it was clear and realistic about how we can advocate in European political institutions for achieving our goal.

“Team Romania”