Work of the FFII in the European Parliament in 2005
The FFII is implementing a plan which involves work in the European Parliament, media work and other initiatives. We have a number of highly-motivated and experienced full-time voluntary helpers, who are remunerated 500 EUR per week for their efforts -- this is approximately the same amount paid by "big industry" organisations to their PR professionals per hour. We are striving to increase our funds to implement our plans, and we are also in need of more financial resources for accompanying media advertisements.
Lobbying in the European Parliament
After a concerted effort of heavy lobbying by "industry" groups with multi-million euro lobbying budgets, many Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) now believe that "industry", including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), supports the Council's position. This is because the only SMEs whom they meet in the EP are those sent by the big companies.
The decisions in the main party groups will be taken in May. The FFII's conference is on June 1st. It will be very difficult to exert influence later than that. The final vote of the 2nd reading will be around July 6th.
The FFII maintains an office and an apartment in Brussels. We have one full-time lobbyist located there and a number of other supporters who come for a week at regular intervals. Please consider helping our lobbying efforts with your personal presence.
The European Parliament
Media Work
This involves investigating, documenting and talking to the media and preparing advertisements for certain media, such as the recent one-page ad prepared for the Parliament Magazine.
Some results of our recent media work can be seen on our News page. Pointers to graphically enhanced materials are collected at our PR Materials wiki page. These latter materials should help facilitate your conversation with your MEPs and their assistants when you visit the Parliament.