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Why do the Institutions want to work with you?

Even if Brussels appears to be to the public an inscrutable bureaucracy, the European Institutions only make use of 37 000 civil servants, 24 000 of whom are part of the European Commission. This is not many considering the amount of responsibility that the Union delegates. For comparison purposes, the city of Paris itself had 40 000 civil servants as of January 31 2002. In their work, civil servants have inevitably an increasing need for expertise and competences that they cannot find internally. As a consequence, they call on organisations that work in all sectors of its politics: associations, firms, professional federation, trade unions, local authorities and so on. These organisations are invited to contribute to the development of their politics in order to convey the realities on the ground needed to finalise legislative proposals and community strategy. Professionals from the private, public or organisational sector have become indispensable in the political landscape of the European Union. The only rule is to make themselves known by the Commission by all available means (consultation, position papers, working meetings, networks). The Commission chooses its interlocutors on the basis of their proposals, their initiatives and their will to take on board the Commission's matters of concern.

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