For nearly two decades, Covington & Burling LLP has been among the leading firms helping to ensure that industry’s voice is heard in the European Union’s legislative process. Today, our EU public policy and government affairs team is headed by Senior European Policy Advisor Wim van Velzen, a former leading member of the European Parliament and former Vice President of the EPP-ED, Parliament’s largest political group, and Lisa Peets, a partner based in our London office. In addition, our practice has been further strengthened by the arrival of Ambassador Jean De Ruyt, one of the most experienced diplomats in Europe, who most recently served as Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union and as chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives during the 2010 Belgian Presidency of the Council.
A particular strength of our practice is its trans-Atlantic capability. Our EU public policy and government affairs team works closely with colleagues in our Washington DC office, including, Stuart Eizenstat, formerly U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Al Larson, formerly U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economics and Career Ambassador, and Dan Spiegel, formerly U.S. Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations.
Our Experience
Our team has been active in many of the most challenging and sophisticated legislative and regulatory issues in the EU. We have, for example:
- Represented software companies on EU and national legislation concerning software standards, copyright infringement, electronic commerce, data protection, and many other issues.
- Advised chemical producers and downstream users on emerging rules with respect to the registration, testing, and classification of chemicals (REACH).
- Assisted leading companies on the government affairs aspects of various EU competition law issues, including individual cases, proceedings to adopt Article 82 guidelines and sectoral and cartel investigations.
- Assisted an environmental services company seeking to reform various aspects of the EU’s Emissions Trading System.
- Advised leading consumer electronics companies in proceedings to consider possible reform of national rules on copyright levies.
- Served as secretariat to several informal coalitions working on telecommunications issues and intellectual property protection.
- Designed and executed campaigns on behalf of US producers seeking to avoid EU trade retaliation measures.
- Worked with coalitions of consumer product manufacturers on product liability and product safety legislation in the EU, France, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
- Monitored EU and national legislation for clients in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Our Approach
We seek to offer representation that is distinctive in quality, innovation, and foresight. We take an integrated approach that combines superior legal analysis with skill and experience in issue advocacy, strategic advice, and campaign management. We work hard to understand our clients’ objectives and to provide the tools our clients need to anticipate legislative developments. Our specific services include:
- Legislative Analysis: In the EU as elsewhere, proposed legislation is becoming ever more complex. We have deep substantive expertise in many of the areas of greatest regulatory and legislative activity, including, among others, life sciences, competition policy, chemicals regulation (REACH), the Internet and e-commerce, consumer protection, climate change and the environment, and international trade.
- Mobilizing Coalitions: We have assisted clients in establishing numerous coalitions, associations and alliances to advance their interests in EU proceedings. We draft concept papers to establish new groups, help recruit members, prepare terms of reference and by-laws, develop work plans, and support ongoing work to maintain momentum. We have been centrally involved in organizing associations in the consumer products, tissue paper, satellite, e-commerce, telecommunications, internet, biotechnology, food and pharmaceutical sectors, among others.
- Advocacy: We act both as direct advocates on behalf of our clients and behind-the-scenes support to companies’ own personnel. We have extensive experience in dealing with the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Institutions. We are skilled in providing clients with the full range of effective advocacy tools from classic “one pagers” to extensive “white papers.”
- Strategic Advice: Effective legislative advocacy is not a one time exercise. Policymakers in Brussels take a long term view, and companies and associations need to do the same if they want to establish themselves as successful participants in the process. We help clients think through their positioning in Brussels, integrate their corporate citizenship and governmental affairs efforts, and develop effective long term relationships with policy makers.
- Procedural Expertise: We have extensive experience with the complex procedural rules that govern EU legislative and regulatory proceedings, including the consultation, co-decision, and comitology procedures. We help guide clients through these proceedings and identify the points at which opportunities are greatest to ensure their voice is heard. We have worked on issues at all stages of the process, from pre proposal consultations by the Commission to conciliation between Parliament and the Council.
- Resource Management: Complex legislative efforts sometimes require capabilities that we cannot offer, such as public and media relations, event planning, and specialized lobbying. We can help clients identify such additional resources in the EU and ensure that their work is fully integrated and consistent with the clients’ overall legislative effort. We also are experienced in assisting companies and associations in establishing their own Brussels based governmental affairs offices.
Administrative Proceedings
In addition to our expertise in legislative advocacy, we are well positioned to assist clients in complex EU administrative proceedings. Increasingly, EU legislation is being implemented by means of expert technical bodies to which authority has been delegated to make quasi judicial rulings on market approvals (or other business sensitive classifications) affecting individual products pursuant to “comitology” procedures. We have considerable experience in assisting clients in such proceedings, as well as expertise in the rulings of the European Court of Justice setting forth the rights of defendant companies in this context.
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