* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Alumni from our two week course ‘Economic and Political Reporting from Southeast Europe’ in London went to Brussels for two days to meet with various officials are now writing about their experiences.
Session with René Lüddecke, Brussels Representative, EWE AG
One of the 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels, René Lüddecke, tried to answer questions from the 16 journalists from Southeastern Europe on how the European Union capital looks from the inside.
We had more questions than time for the Brussels representative of EWE, the fifth biggest German energy company. The journalists were particularly curious about the work lobbyists do, which can sometimes appear less than clear to us.
“I became a lobbyist to translate and understand things for people in my company,” Lüddecke said about the job he is doing for his colleagues back at the company's headquarters in the Lower Saxony city of Oldenburg.
“Brussels is for them as far as Skopje or Sarajevo is.”
He was not so sure that lobbying could help Southeastern European countries to join the EU, but said lobbyists can help journalists. He gave some advice, and warned of some traps, for journalists speaking to lobbyists.
“Lobbyists are a good source of information,” he said, before asking questions himself, about the energy challenges facing Balkan countries. “Journalists should not be afraid of lobbyists. They are not evil,” he said.
