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EU decision-making, EU presidency
Practical EU Presidency Skills
Acquire the practical skills to survive and enjoy a rotating EU presidency: lead and chair meetings, coordinate or add value to a team, craft compromises, use corridor diplomacy, communicate with impact, get ready for the EP and influence the people around you.
The success of a presidency of the Council of the European Union relies heavily on its ability to ensure momentum and achieve results. The presidency has to deliver results within complex formal and informal processes of negotiation and elaborate cross-cultural and interpersonal communication.
This two-and-a-half day course covers the strategic, practical and interpersonal aspects of the complex formal and informal dynamics of the negotiation processes under the leadership of Council Presidencies. It advises members of ‘presidency teams’ on how to get results collectively and survive individually. It focuses on communication and negotiation performance.
What you will learn
The key objective of the programme is to update and upgrade, in a practical way, the tactical and relevant strategic presidency skills of the participants.
After this training, they will be appropriately equipped to:
- find their place, role and added value during the presidency;
- open, conduct, lead or assist meetings from presenting the agenda to proposing a presidency compromise text;
- read the positions, interventions and tactics of national delegations;
- efficiently manage the relations with the Council Secretariat, the Commission, the national delegations and EP representatives within the required formal procedures and the established informal processes;
- acquire and try out negotiation techniques to bridge the gaps, strike deals and craft compromises, and overcome stalemates;
- prepare for the negotiating culture and habits of inter-institutional negotiations, whether technical or political.
Course methodology/highlights
The programme follows an interactive approach centred on situation rooms, workshops, two simulation exercises, video recording and analyses, exchanges of best practices, as well as a reality check. Throughout the learning process, participants will have the opportunity to audit – and improve – their knowledge and practice of negotiation and communication skills, to appropriately and collectively defend the role, functions and prerogatives of the presidency team members. To optimise the learning experience, participants will be invited to undertake some ‘homework’ between the planned sessions.
The course offers an exclusive and highly interactive method to acquire the indispensable communication proficiency, negotiation techniques and chairing skills to manage the operations of Council preparatory bodies from the ground. Participants will access the benefits of learning-by-doing with several simulation exercises and situation rooms; retain the targeted information and knowledge through workshops and laboratories; realise how to better manage and stand the pressure of the political and legislative agendas of the EU institutions; and improve their skills with the practical know-how and learning points derived from the multiple debriefing sessions and analyses of their negotiation performance by the moderators.
The course is tailor-made for national officials and representatives scheduled to be involved in the management of the negotiations and EU decision-making procedures during an ‘EU Presidency’.
The programme is designed for ‘presidency teams’ that should be made up of the future chairpersons and co- or deputy chairs of Council preparatory bodies; the national delegates representing their country during the presidency; the attachés/counsellors from the Permanent Representation without a chairing role; EU coordinators, and policy managers and experts operating from their country.
Who will benefit most?
- Future working party chairs and deputy chairs;
- Members of the presidency teams and ministry coordinators;
- Brussels-based experts and national delegates.
Course venue
European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA)
O.L. Vrouweplein 22
6211 HE, Maastricht
the Netherlands
Programme Organiser
Ms Noëlle Debie
Tel: +31 43 32 96 226
n.debie@eipa.eu
Fee
The fee includes documentation, refreshments, lunches and a dinner. Accommodation and travel costs are at the expense of the participants or their administration.
Discounts
EIPA member fee
EIPA offers a discount to all civil servants working for one of EIPA’s supporting countries, and civil servants working for an EU institution, body or agency.
Who are the supporting countries?
Civil servants coming from the following EIPA supporting countries are entitled to get the reduced fee: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
For all other participants, the regular fee applies.
Early bird discount
The early bird discount is not cumulative with other discounts or promo codes, except for the EIPA member fee.
Meals
Dietary preferences can be indicated on the registration form.
Hotel reservations
EIPA has special price arrangements with a number of hotels. The hotels are within 10 minutes walking distance from EIPA. Should you wish to make use of this possibility, please book directly via the links below. Payment is to be made directly and personally to the hotel upon checking out.
Confirmation
Confirmation of registration will be forwarded to participants on receipt of the completed online registration form.
Payment
Prior payment is a condition for participation.
Cancellation policy
For administrative reasons you will be charged €150 for cancellations received within 15 days before the activity begins. There is no charge for qualified substitute participants.
EIPA reserves the right to cancel the activity up to 2 weeks before the starting date. In that case, registration fees received will be fully reimbursed. EIPA accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred (travel, accommodation, etc.).
A few days before the start of the course you will receive the log-in details for accessing the course materials. You can log in here.
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Programme
| 09.00 | Introductory session Presentation of the programme, its objectives and content. Frank Lavadoux, Negotiation Team Project Leader, Senior Lecturer on EU governance, communication and behavioural techniques applied to European and international negotiations, EIPA, Maastricht.Dr Alain Guggenbühl, Director DNA Consulting Europe Ltd. (Diplomacy Negotiation Arbitration), Brussels. |
| 09.30 | What is expected from the presidency? Participants enter a workshop to delimit, define and illustrate what is expected in practice from officials involved with the management of a working group and dossiers negotiated in the Council. They take up a questionnaire of six targeted questions addressing those issues. Participants share their experience, knowledge and intuition to cope with the questions. They relate to the mandate of the chair, the relations with the Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council and the European Parliament, the rules of procedure or the management of national interests when holding the presidency. |
| 10.30 | Break |
| 10.45 | How should a presidency team be organised? Moderators take up, comment on and complete the feedback from participants. Written material circulated sets out points to remember for each of the situations addressed in the questions. They provide concrete learning points with consolidated dos and don’ts. They introduce a methodical analysis of the tasks, knowledge, goal-setting and communication requirements for presidency teams to be efficient and effective. |
| 12.00 | Managing informal processes and corridor diplomacy Simulation exercise Participants take part in an authentic negotiation process to be managed by the EU presidency; they are introduced to a Commission proposal. They experience the deliberation, the exchange of information and the intelligence gathering that take place in the margins of formal meetings. |
| 13.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00 | Chairing a meeting and leading negotiations Role play and simulation of a Council Working Party meeting (video recorded) This session simulates the formal meeting of a Council Working Party with a view to illustrating the role of the presidency in the heat of the negotiation process. The role-playing method is used in particular to experience and demonstrate which essential techniques, professional abilities and behaviour make a successful chair. Several chairing sessions are organised; the presidency team members in the role play take turn in leading the sessions. |
| 16.00 | Break |
| 16.15 | Learning from experience (debriefing 1) In a first debriefing, participants are invited to link the simulation with reality by expressing their views, interrogations and questions regarding the negotiations under the leadership of the presidency. The moderators draw practical and useful learning points as well as recommendations from the simulation exercise. |
| 17.00 | End of the first day |
| 19.30 | Dinner at a local restaurant |
| 09.00 | Chairing and negotiation techniques (video analysis and debriefing 2) The trainers advise on how to make progress when leading a negotiation, by using sufficient pressure while maintaining an appropriate group atmosphere and mastering the rules of procedure, in both formal and informal proceedings. This is possible by applying and interpreting the rules of procedure of the Council on the one hand, and essential negotiation techniques on the other. The session will dive into both aspects. |
| 10.30 | Break |
| 10.45 | Communication skills (video analysis and debriefing 3) In this session, the moderators devote their analysis and recommendations to the communication aspects of Council negotiations, and clearly identify the required skills to communicate with appropriate cultural awareness, from the chair or in the corridors. |
| 13.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00 | Meeting the European Parliament The moderators introduce the main actors and the essentials of the procedures of legislative negotiations in the European Parliament of relevance for presidency teams. |
| 14.30 | Negotiating with the European Parliament (simulation of a trilogue) The exercise simulates the negotiation between the Council and the Parliament with a view to striking an agreement. The Council is represented by the presidency team during the meeting in a trilogue format. |
| 17.00 | End of second day |
| 09.00 | Debriefing of the trilogue negotiation This session aims to highlight the differences in dynamics between chairing interstate negotiations in the Council and trilateral negotiations with representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission. |
| 09.30 | How to negotiate with the European Parliament (debriefing) Moderators share insights and tools to anticipate what happens in the European Parliament before, during and after negotiation rounds with the presidency. |
| 10.30 | Break |
| 10.45 | Reality check and final recommendations for individual performance Video analysis Participants watch the video recording of a Council meeting. It stages some of the essential techniques and skills explored throughout the programme, while also usefully illustrating the do’s and don’ts when chairing meetings and leading Council negotiations. Participants are invited to share their views and apply the learning points of the programme to assess what to do and what to avoid when in the shoes of a presidency team member. |
| 11.45 | Round table and evaluation |
| 12.00 | End of the course |