Since professional associations were first conceived, one of their biggest and most constant challenges has been answering the questions, "Why should I belong? What is in it for me?" AALEP is no exception. And, in the tradition of professional associations around the world, AALEP answers those questions with a question of its own: "That depends. What do you want?"

Do you want the sense of pride and accomplishment of giving back to the profession?

A common challenge to establishing public policy advocacy efforts in many developing countries is the prevalence of the informal sector that is frequently excluded from existing forms of business representation. A large informal sector weakens democracy, hinders necessary reforms and excludes millions of citizens from the political and economic system of the country.

With the government’s role in business and the economy expanding, leading international business schools and top graduate schools of public policy collaborate to prepare students for global careers in government affairs and business administration. It’s becoming increasingly critical for global business leaders to incorporate public policy issues into their management approach. The recent financial crisis has taught the world that we need greater cooperation and collaboration between the public and private sectors. Markets alone can no longer provide a stable global order.

In the United Kingdom you have what are called ‘All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) at the Houses of Parliament. They are formed by MPs and Peers with an interest in a particular country or subject. In general, the groups advocate for or about the thing which is on their name and some receive funding usually to cover administration and some events, from those interests who stand to benefit from the group.

According to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2012, the countries herebelow are considered to have the most significant corruption. Governments in those countries need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all public decision-making. Priorities include the definition of public policy advocacy rules (where none exist) and political financing, making public spending and contracting more transparent and making public bodies more accountable to people. There are strong correlations between poverty, conflict and perceived levels of corruption.

Does the Transparency Register (TR) component of EU lobby regulation place it in the vanguard of a ‘new wave’ of strong lobby regulation? If the criterion is the extent to which it places information in the public domain, the answer must be a qualified ‘yes.’ There are now more than 5500 individual entries, of which one-third did not select ‘European’ among the territorial level of interests they represent.

The 2013 edition of 'A Guide to Effective Lobbying in Europe' -The View of Policymakers published by Burson-Marsteller reveals some interesting statistics on how EU member states view lobbying and relevant regulations.

On 5 and 6 June 2013 a special workshop was held in Podgorica, Montenegro on the subject of "Prevention of Corruption: Implementation of Integrity Plan" organized by TAIEX in co-operation with the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice, Directorate of Anti-Corruption Initiative and RACVIAC- Centre for Security Co-operation.

The meeting was well attended and included the following speakers:

On 3 June 2013, Maroš Šefčovič , Vice-President of the European Commission, delivered the following speech at an event organized by Burson-Marsteller for the launch of its "Guide to Effective Lobbying in Brussels".

There is no common regulation concerning electronic cigarettes within the European Union thus far. Member States take different approaches on the issue. The European Commission's proposals submitted to the European Parliament and the Council look at a revision of the Tobacco Producst Directive and classify electronic cigarettes as medicinal products. However, the electronic cigarettes industry claims that their products should be regulated as consumer products because they are neither tobacco nor medicinal products.