Instinctif Brussels | Our Sectors

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SECTOR EXPERTISE

HEALTHCARE

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ONLINE
SERVICES

TRANSPORT

FOOD & AGRICULTURE

HEALTHCARE

Our health practice has extensive experience in providing strategic advice to clients, creating awareness campaigns and impacting and shaping EU health policies. We use this experience to create award-winning public affairs and communication strategies tailored to each of our clients, whether they are trade associations, multinational corporations or non-governmental organisations.

As an international consultancy, we also collaborate closely with our colleagues in Berlin, London, Dublin, and other offices to assist our clients in achieving their objectives at both European and national levels. Our expertise spans every aspect of the healthcare sector including medical technologies, mental health, patient safety, community care, antimicrobial resistance and health assessments.

Our case studies

At the forefront of ensuring access to safe medicines

Instinctif supports an EU-wide alliance for promoting pan-European awareness campaigns to educate patients about illegal online drug sellers. We are gathering support and commitment to implement the internet pharmacy provisions of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive in the most secure way with special emphasis on the successful implementation of the Common Logo. Thanks to a great collaboration with like-minded stakeholders, we can advocate for governance with the next tranche of top-level domain names (TLDNs).

A platform to promote innovation and safety in health care

We developed the first multi-stakeholder platform in Brussels to address access to innovation. Bringing together patients, healthcare workers, academics and industry, our platform became the voice of innovation in EU healthcare debates through European Parliamentary events, publications, consultations and bilateral meetings with policymakers. We pioneered the debate about healthcare-associated infections, sepsis prevention, diagnosis and raised the debate at European level. By bringing together European health stakeholders, national clinicians, key opinion leaders, and policymakers we added a critical element in the fight against infections and antimicrobial resistance. We launched an interest group to engage with the European Parliament and encouraged them to clearly address public health threats such as HAIs, AMR, and sepsis whilst promoting access to early screening and diagnosis.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

We have extensive experience in advising clients on a range of energy and environmental issues. This includes policy monitoring and analysis, as well as the creation of strategic public affairs campaigns. We have supported and represented both traditional energy producers and those leading the transition to a low-carbon economy, and thus, we are well-rounded in understanding the complexities of the European energy market.

Our case studies

Energising policy making and reform

This includes working on flagship EU policy initiatives such as the European Commission’s Mid-Century Strategy for a
climate-neutral Europe, the Sustainable Urban Mobility guidelines, the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package, the NEC Directive, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive and the F-Gas Regulation, among others. We also offer deep experience in influencing European agriculture and chemicals policies. Globally, Instinctif has monitored policy developments around the Marrakech round of the UNFCCC and the Kigali round of the UNEP’s Montreal Protocol.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

The recent prominence of financial services technology on regulators’ “to-do lists” has brought us to focus and set up pilot projects on FinTech, InsurTech and Distributed Ledger Technology to assess and ultimately influence their potential impact on policy. Our aim is to continuously anticipate developments within the sector, ensuring that our clients stay ahead of the curve as the policy environment evolves. Instinctif Partners Brussels has worked with a range of key players in the sector, including credit unions, payment providers, investment trusts, asset managers, insurers and FinTech companies. Our goal is to help shape and anticipate EU policy and regulatory issues affecting financial services providers and organisations across the EU.

our case studIES

A proven track record in financial services

We have successfully run several EU public affairs campaigns, focusing on alternative investment fund managers (AIFMD), derivatives trading and retail banking issues (EMIR), payment services (PSD2) and capital and solvency requirements. Recent financial services work has included a comprehensive EU strategy and association management for European credit unions, strategic advice to a leader in online loans with respect to the Consumer Credit Directive, and advice and counsel for members of the alternative investment community.

Promoting proportionality in EU financial regulation

In order to ensure that small financial institutions such as credit unions are not unduly burdened by financial regulation designed for large banks, we created the European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group together with Members of the European Parliament to ensure a structured dialogue on financial regulations. The group has not only raised the profile of credit union issues such as the need for proportionality and financial inclusion within the European Parliament and other EU institutions but has also allowed us to cultivate strategic relationships with key MEP supporters as well as other EU stakeholders. Our advocacy efforts have been critical in making policy makers aware of the particular features of credit unions throughout Europe when compared to other financial institutions. This has allowed us to successfully advocate for proportional regulation as well as an exemption of credit unions from key pieces of legislations such as the Capital Requirements Directive and Regulation.

ONLINE SERVICES

We have gained deep insight into the core issues facing Europe as it seeks to strengthen its Digital Single Market. Instinctif Partners Brussels offers a first-rate analysis of how the Commission’s proposals will come together and overlap in an increasingly complex and fast-paced regulatory environment. This makes us the ideal consultancy to advise clients with high stakes in this sector, guiding them through the intricacies of EU policy-making.

We have actively engaged on a number of wide-ranging digital issues, including copyright, mobile telephony issues, intellectual property rights enforcement, geo-blocking, audiovisual media services, portability of online content, ePrivacy, data protection, payments, and consumer protection law.

oUR case studIES

Positioning electronic signature technology providers

Starting with an overview of their core business activities and policy positions we created an EU specific position paper that subsequently served as the basis for our active engagement with EU institutions and other private stakeholders (BSA and Adobe for example). We also devised an EU work programme, contributed to Commission consultations and attended industry events on behalf of the client. We monitored relevant EU policy developments, analysed threats and deepened clients’ relationships with key EU policymakers (DG Connect and ENISA especially) through multilateral, private stakeholder meetings and bilateral meetings. Instinctif’s efforts have been important in making European private stakeholders and policymakers (especially the Commission) aware of the particular activities and European priorities of electronic signature providers. This profile-raising subsequently led to the Commission reaching out to the company for policy contributions and further consultation. This work programme also provided them with a thought leadership role in the European eID as well as in trust services spaces.

High-level meetings to debate the future of mobile services

We have successfully created and run a meeting series to broaden the profile of the mobile telephony industry, highlighting its central role in a variety of sectors - from development to big data. The meeting series provided mobile industry representatives with an avenue to build relationships with key policymakers and stakeholders in Brussels. The meeting series continues to be a strong communications tool, with the participation of more than 80 high-level European Commission officials, more than 40 European Parliament members, 40 Council attaches and more than 175 stakeholders.

Hands-on expertise in gambling, all over Europe

TRANSPORT

Transport is an essential component of the European economy. The transport industry, at large, accounts for about 7 % of GDP and for over 5% of total employment in the EU. This sector is rapidly transforming to address changing consumer demands as well as concerns over climate change. This transformation is driving policy developments on new technologies, more integrated transport modes as well as a shift towards sustainable transport and light vehicles. We have experience in advising clients on this profound transformation, with a particular focus on micromobility. Our goal is to continuously anticipate developments within the transport sector, ensuring that our clients stay tuned to the latest changes in the policy environment. Therefore, we provide our clients with monitoring of ongoing changes within the EU policy space and guide targeted public affairs campaigns both in Brussels and in member states capitals.

Our case studies

Driving positive change in micromobility

Instinctif Partners provided strategic advice for major urban mobility players through policy monitoring and advising on specific EU countries. We assisted our clients with media relations, helping them advance their agenda: creating cities for people, free of noise and pollution. We assisted our clients in expanding rapidly, and supported them in their objectives to help European cities to transform urban mobility with light, sustainable alternatives to private cars.

FOOD & AGRICULTURE

Our consultants in Brussels and other offices in Europe, have extensive experience in advising food, drink and agrifood companies on challenges ranging from big-picture societal issues such as obesity and environmental footprints, to food safety, pesticide use, genetically modified organisms and digital farming. We have worked with trade associations, non-governmental organisations, and individual companies to identify policy and commercial challenges, respond to questions from regulators and the media and develop proactive campaigns to build relationships, raise awareness and shape legislation.

Our Business Resilience team is specialised in crisis preparedness, mitigation and management and has extensive food sector experience.

oUR cASE STUDIES

Explaining and defending the tools of modern agriculture

Pesticides and genetically modified seeds are two of the most controversial topics in modern agriculture in Europe, yet widely accepted and used across the world. Brandon Mitchener, the Managing Partner of the Brussels office, has dealt with these issues for more than two decades. As an EU correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, he covered the introduction of genetically modified (GM) seeds in Europe and related topics such as the co-existence of GM and conventional crops, and the GM food labelling debate for six years. As a consultant, he helped European consumer groups refine their core demand for GM ingredient labelling, allowing for consumer choice.

Later, as Head of Communications for Monsanto Europe, he developed an engagement strategy to better explain the role of GM seeds, pesticides and precision agriculture as part of the solution to feeding a growing population by producing more with less. The strategy involved debunking misinformation online and in traditional media; organising site visits and briefings for journalists covering agriculture; creating compelling information materials (such as a Where Seeds Come From brochure), creating an interactive website; and launching a series of social media channels to ensure that Monsanto was both listening and telling its story wherever people were talking about it. The result was an increase in awareness, engagement and favourability across the spectrum, creating a more receptive environment for good policies despite unrelenting attacks by campaign groups and internet trolls.