ESBA Finalist in Multiple Categories at European Public Affairs Awards 2017

09 November 2017
by ESBA -- last modified 09 November 2017

Brussels-based public affairs professionals will gather on 22 November to discover who has won this year’s European public affairs awards.

A total of 99 in-house, trade association, public sector, NGO, professional body, think tank and consultant professionals have been shortlisted for the awards to be announced at Brussels’ Le Plaza Hotel at an awards ceremony hosted by Politico Managing Editor, Florian Eider.

The awards cover 22 different categories encompassing all aspects of the Brussels lobbying scene including, for the first time, an award for the best Brexit-related campaign, a popular category where six entrants have been shortlisted.

Also for the first time this year, marking the organisers’ commitment to transparent lobbying, entrants were encouraged to note their identification number on the transparency register jointly run by the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The awards are organised by Government Knowledge, the UK Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and Zetter’s Political Services, with support from the European Centre for Public Affairs, (ECPA) the European Public Affairs Consultancies’ Association (EPACA), the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) and the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO).

Judges, 55 in total, were drawn from across the public affairs scene and headed by six senior judges who are tasked with deciding the winner of the outstanding contribution award.  The six are Michael Burrell, Lionel Zetter, Christophe Lecureuil (ECPA Executive Director), Karl Isaksson (EPACA Chairman), Rui Faria da Cunha (SEAP Director General) and Francis Ingham (PRCA Executive Director).

Burrell said that the judges were impressed by the quality and variety of this year’s entries, noting that many included impressive deployment of social media techniques in support of direct lobbying activities.

The evening’s sponsors include Cambre, ellwood atfield, Grayling, Hume Brophy and Kellen.

The European Small Business Alliance (ESBA) is a non-party political group, which cares for small business entrepreneurs and the self-employed and represents them through targeted EU advocacy and profiling activities. Today, ESBA is one of the largest organisations based on voluntary membership in Europe. Through its direct membership, associate membership and cooperation agreements, the Alliance now represents almost one million small businesses and covers 35 European countries. The two main pillars in ESBA's lobbying are the two main pressing issues for SMEs accross Europe: Access to Finance and Better Regulation.

ESBA - The European Small Business Alliance