THE BRUSSELS PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY LANDSCAPE

The EU Transparency Register shows as of 13 March 2013 5,599 Registrants but they are not all based in Brussels. The number of Brussels-based organizations is probably between 4,500 and 5,000. Rather than talking about a total population of 15,000 'lobbyists' it may be more appropriate to talk about 15,000 persons/staff working in the field of public policy advocacy as not all are 'lobbyists' in a professional sense. Actually this figure of 15,000 is probably more in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 taking account activities carried out by non-residents, part-time lobbyists etc.

Number of public policy advocacy groups according to country of origin (Estimates)

1. Germany 17.2%
2. United Kingdom 13.3%
3. France 13.2%
4. Belgium 7.8%
5. United States 7.8%
6. Netherlands 6.9%
7. Italy 6.3%
8. Spain 3.5%
9. Switzerland 3.3%
10. Austria 2.7%
11. Sweden 2.1%
12. Denmark 2.0%
13. Poland 1.4%
14. Finland 0.9%
15. Czech Republic 0.8%
16. Portugal 0.7%, Ireland 0.7%
17. Slovakia 0.6%, Hungary 0.6%
18. Luxembourg 0.5%
19. Romania 0.3%
20. Greece 0.2%, Latvia 0.2%, Estonia 0.2%
21. Slovenia 0.1%, Lithuania 0.1%, Cyprus 0.1%, Malta 0.1%, Bulgaria 0.1%