It is perhaps the highlight for every European lobbyist: the European elections that will take place on 6 June this year. But what does a Covenant lobbyist do in the whole thing? Jochem van Stiphout, adviser on European and International Affairs at the Association, lifts a corner of the veil.
"There are a few things that are important to us. For example, in the run-up to the elections, we organised an election debate with four MEP candidates for information to the sector. At the heart of the debate was their vision of the financial sector."
The lobbyists are also busy getting to know possible future MPs. "We are researching what experience they have, we are already explaining some things to them about insurers and hope to interest them in participating in a committee that is of interest to us. The most relevant one is the Econ committee; it is about economic and monetary policy in the EU."
Wish list to civil servants
Of great importance to the insurance lobby are not only the parliamentarians, but also the officials of the European Commission. These officials are already making an inventory of plans that may be implemented in the next mandate (government period). "What we are doing now from the Association is talking to these officials. We will then come to them with our wish lists. In this way, we try to make it clear with arguments what is not going well and what therefore needs to be solved in the next mandate. We therefore hope that these matters will be on the lists that are ready for the next European Commissioners."
Finally, the lobbyists also focus on explaining to parliamentarians after the elections. "We schedule introductions and explain the role of the insurance sector and how we, as an industry, can contribute to the challenges we are currently facing. They need to know where to find us and understand what role insurers can play and what is or isn't useful from a legislative point of view."
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