![\"Richard](\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/site\/blog\/icons\/bmjh7648e.jpg\")
\u201cI\u2019ve been lobbied. I am a lobbyist. Lobbying is not a dirty word. It\u2019s a fundamental part of the political process. You should be a lobbyist.\u201d This is how David Bowe, a former Member of the European Parliament and now a professional lobbyist, opened his talk at the Medtronic\u2019s Foundation workshop in Brussels on patient advocacy. I was convinced.<\/p>\n
I have always thought of lobbying as a dirty word. It smacks of money, graft, corruption, wining, dining, and deviousness. And it\u2019s true that large, wealthy bodies, particularly corporations, can hire lobbyists and use their resources to achieve more influence than they deserve. But that\u2019s all the more reason why ordinary folk and smaller organisations should lobby. Most lobbyists are not paid, said Bowe. The first people to lobby him when he became an MEP were three men on motorbikes who had ridden all the way from North Yorkshire, his constituency, because they were bothered about a directive going through the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
The phrase I use almost more than any other these days is \u201cWhole of society and whole of government.\u201d I\u2019m using the phrase as the only possible answer to the pandemic of non communicable disease, but it\u2019s the only possible answer to almost all other big problems\u2014climate change, global poverty, and access to good medicines. Yet I have felt that I\u2019m above lobbying. I help produce evidence, write pieces, and hope that somebody somewhere will pay attention. Well, it\u2019s clearly not enough. I need to learn to lobby.<\/p>\n
Bowe spoke particularly about lobbying in Brussels, but the principles apply everywhere\u2014although he made the point that what works in Washington, a professional and more aggressive form of lobbying, will not work in Brussels, which works much more on consensus. Lobbying in Europe may be particularly important because the European institutions are at the centre of a major economic enterprise, and if your voice can be heard in Europe you not only influence European policies but your influence may ripple around the world. MEPs and people in the commission are very open to lobbying because they lack staff and expertise, and \u201cparticularly in the case of the commission,\u201d said Bowe, \u201cthey don\u2019t live in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be an effective lobbyist you need to understand how the institutions you are lobbying work, and in the case of the institutions of Europe\u2014the Commission, Council of Europe, European Parliament, and others\u2014that\u2019s particularly complex. There is a whole language to learn\u2014of rapporteurs, directives, subsidiarity, and proportionality. You also need to get know to people\u2014the \u201cdesk officer\u201d in the Commission for your issue, the people in the relevant directorate, your MEP. \u201cBrussels,\u201d said Bowe, \u201cworks on people talking to each other.\u201d That\u2019s true of all political institutions and perhaps all institutions. Stay aloof and you remain unheard.<\/p>\n
Next you must set realistic ambitions and be creative in reaching them. \u201cPolitics,\u201d Bowe reminded us, \u201cis the art of the possible.\u201d There is no point wasting your time on the impossible.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most important thing that Bowe said was that you should propose solutions not simply present politicians and officials with problems. I fear that this is where doctors fall down: we are good on problems but less good on solutions. MEPs want to look good, and if you can present them with a workable, evidence based solution to a problem that they can present to the parliament you are likely to achieve something.<\/p>\n
Timing is vitally important, said Bowe, as is providing the right messages to the right person in the right way. A winning lobbyist, summarised Bowe, \u201csets clear realistic objectives, follows the processes, knows the people, has a perfect sense of timing, uses the right instruments at the right time, is equipped with clear concise and relevant messages, tries to demolish the case of the opposition, works for the same goals as the policymaker, and builds alliances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowe also has advice specifically for the British in the audience. \u201cDon\u2019t be nationalistic and bombastic. Europe doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n