Muscles in Brussels
As ever greater quantities of Chinese and Moroccan fruit are finding their way onto European markets, the girls were sent by Polish fruit growers lobbying for higher duties on cheap fruit imports to the EU.
Under-represented
Janusz Glinicki, CEO of Sadpol, one of the biggest strawberry farmers in Poland, complained that the interests of Polish fruit growers were not taken into account during the accession-treaty negotiations and that they are still underrepresented in the EU.
"We cannot count on someone dealing with the problem on our behalf. Countries such as France or Spain have no interest in promoting Polish fruit - they've got serious interests in Morocco. But Poles just don't have their lobby groups in Brussels." Glinicki stressed that among the 20,000 EU clerks in Brussels, there are 15,000 lobbyists, but those from Poland number just over a dozen.
Although one-off actions such as the strawberry girls may get noticed, they cannot replace professional, regular contact with decision makers. The CEO of Sadpol is not the only one to think that Polish lobbying in the EU needs a serious boost.
"It's sad but true - Polish interest groups are under-represented in the European Parliament. Poles aren't actively lobbying in favor of their country and, unfortunately, it often happens that we have to look for relevant arguments, analyses or information through lobbyists from Western Europe. So, paradoxically, it sometimes happens that lobbyists from other member states analyze the situation and tell us what will be the best legislation for Poland," explains Małgorzata Handzlik, MEP.
Handzlik explains that the biggest weakness of Polish lobbyists is that they are based in Brussels, so they cannot intervene whenever the need arises.
"When they eventually appear, it's either too late or they only send e-mails, faxes or snail mail. But it's just not enough to lobby efficiently. Each MEP gets a couple of hundred e-mails and letters daily and it's extremely difficult to select the most important matters in the avalanche of issues to tackle every day. It's much better if lobbyists come to us in person in order to present their arguments."
High costs
But in order to be able to pay visits to MEPs on a regular basis, one needs an office in Brussels. At the moment, the only Polish business organization to have a permanent office in the capital of the EU's bureaucracy is the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan. Two other Polish organizations with representatives in Brussels are the National Council of Legal Counsels and the National Union of Farmers' Circles and Agricultural Organizations (KZRKiOR), but the latter is struggling to keep afloat.
"We've spent more than EUR 2.5 [zł.9.8] million over the last five years to support our office in Brussels, but we can't afford to do it anymore. We're looking into different possibilities, including state-budget subsidies. Poland is such a big agricultural country that we should have a big team of lobbyists in Brussels. Instead we have this office with two permanent employees earning EUR 700 [zł.2,744] a month," says Władysław Serafin, president of KZRKiOR. He insists that the office is essential as a contact and information point for anyone who wants to get in touch with Polish farming associations.
Whether KZRKiOR is in trouble because of funding shortages or bad management is a matter of some debate. Recently, credit-card company Diners Club came into conflict with the management of the organization after it allegedly ran up a zł.144,000 debt on its Diners Club card and a zł.189,000 debt on its Travel Account card, which it was unable to pay back.
On its own, a single organization is unlikely to achieve much in the face of EU bureaucracy. Local lobbying groups usually join forces with their EU-level counterparts. KZRKiOR is a member of the bigger European farmers' associations, the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations (COPA) and the General Confederation of Agricultural Co-operatives (COGECA).
Magdalena Kopczyńska, director of PKPP Lewiatan's office in Brussels, also stresses the necessity of buttonholing the bigger players, and PKPP Lewiatan is an active member of the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE). "We make use of their contacts, we help to formulate the organization's aims and thus we have a real influence on what reaches the ears of MEPs and Commissioners," she says.
Money well spent
Being a member of an EU association comes at a cost - and a pretty big one at that. Many organizations decide not to join their EU counterparts because annual membership fees can reach hundreds of thousands of euro. Kopczyńska is reluctant to reveal how much Lewiatan pays for being part of UNICE. "Our fee is changing now. Eventually - in a couple of years - it will be a couple of thousand euro. But the fees generally range from a couple thousand to a couple of hundred thousand euro," she told WBJ.
KZRKiOR's Serafin is less secretive. "We pay EUR 500,000 [zł.1.98 million] annually for our membership of COPA and not a single cent comes back to us. Even if I want to print a leaflet I have to pay the usual price of EUR 0.60 [zł.2.35] per page. Another EUR 500,000 is spent on the maintenance of our office here and all its operations." But he has no doubt that every penny is well spent. "Brussels is not a charity - its organizations are self-financed. The results cannot be overestimated - they are not profits for one person. They are for thousands of farmers, even those who have no idea that we are lobbying for them in Brussels," he explains.
Jerzy Garczyński, director of the Polish Federation of Apparel and Textiles (PIOT), says Polish entrepreneurs still don't understand the purpose of forming a bigger interest group. As a member of Euratex, the European Textile and Apparel Organization, PIOT took part in negotiations in Brussels when the market was threatened with cheap products imported from China. Garczyński was very satisfied with the results.
"In Poland there's still little understanding for the need to belong to trade associations. Entrepreneurs only realize how crucial it is when they face a problem and they urgently need help. Euratex is not just any old organization, it's our organization, we set its goals and decide what's important for the sector," Garczyński explains.
Bad press
Lobbying and lobbyists do not enjoy a good reputation in Poland. Following the bribery scandals of Marek Dochnal and Lew Rywin, public opinion is very suspicious of the profession.
"In Brussels, contacts with representatives of interest groups are very often initiated by MEPs. People don't know everything, nobody is competent in all the fields, so they search for expert advice. Of course, the final decision is on the MEP but it's good for him or her to listen to different points of view. There's nothing wrong in that," says PKPP Lewiatan's Kopczyńska.
Andrzej Szejna, MEP and vice chairman of the European Parliament's Committee for Legal Affairs, says he received thousands of e-mails, reports and visits from different interest groups when he was working on the EU patents directive and says that he finds lobbyists' input helpful. "In Poland the term lobbying is associated with bribery and shady dealings rather than its proper meaning. Lobbying, understood as presenting different points of view to decision makers, is actually a positive phenomenon; it's worth following Brussels' example," he told WBJ.
Regional representative
Szejna is optimistic about the future of Polish lobbyists in Brussels, as they become more and more active in trade associations. Kopczyńska stresses that one of Poland's biggest successes in creating a lobbying network is the fact that all voivodships have already opened offices in Brussels. She adds that the beginnings are difficult for all new members.
"From among the so-called new member states only entrepreneurs from Malta, the Czech Republic and Hungary have had permanent representatives here for a while now. Lithuania opened its office only a couple of months ago. Latvian and Estonian businessmen have no headquarters in Brussels," Kopczyńska says. That's why during the negotiations over the services directive PKPP Lewiatan became the unofficial representative for the entire region.
With more than 2,600 interest groups listed in the European Public Affairs Registers, and annual revenues of the EU's lobbying business estimated at $80-120 (zł.250-376) million, Brussels is certainly a difficult place to make one's voice heard. But the choice is simple - if you don't lobby, at least in the corridors of the Brussels bureaucracy, you don't exist.
Related article: Making Poland's voice heard
