SME days on 14.-16.June

On 14. to 16. June FFII organizes up to three days of lobbying for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the European Parliament.

It is important be cause this is the last week before the Legal Affairs committee votes on the amendments which is decisive for the final outcome.

The program is flexible and depending on your travel requirements, the times can be moved individually.

We will support you in travelling directions, Hotel and European Parliament logistics, so you will be able to focus on your talks to your Members of the European Parliament. Learn more about transportation and logistics

Goal of this lobbying activity:

1. Meet with the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and to explain the problems which software patents would cause to you.
2. Make the MEP friendly to receive FFII voting recommendations which FFII will give to MEPs as soon as the amendments are final.

Appointments:

It is neccesary to call MEPs for getting appointments. This should preferably be done by a supporter from the respective member state and the lobbying should concentrate on MEP offices of conservative and liberal parties because they form the cruical groups, many of these MEPs are heavvily lobbied and the direction which they will take is not yet finally decided and it needs to be turned in the right direction.

To make a stronger impression on the MEP, multiple Companies can share one MEP meeting.

To prepare the coordinator of appointments for your country, send him your company profile and tell him, for which days for you will be in Brussels.

Appointment Coordinator for your Company: <Add your name here or find somebody who can do it>

Agenda:

On the evening, Monday to Wednesday:

• until 21:00: Arrival, Check in to the respective Hotel near
  • the Place Rogier (if not yet checked in)
  20:00/21:00: get-to-know and dinner at the "Maison du Dragon"

On the lobbying day, Tuesday to Thursday:

The ranges are moving time slots, not neccesarily occupied time spans:

• 08:30-09:00 - Gathering at the Maison du Dragon / Breakfast 09:00-09:30 - Travel to the European Parliament 09:30-09:45 - Getting accredidation to the Parliament (only once)
  • You need to have your ID card or passport ready for getting the accredidation
  09:45-10:00 - Final talks in preparations 10:00-11:45 - Getting appointments with MEPs and talking with
  • MEPs/Assistants.
  11:45-14:00 - Time for Lunch break 16:00-18:00 - Conclusion of the day and/or Departure (can be earlyer of course)

Organisatoral help provided by FFII:

To maximize your effectivty, we help you in organisational matters which benefit from centralized organisation:

First: Travel and Accomodation

FFII supports participants regarding flights and train connections as well as hotel booking.

All participants stay at hotels near the Place Rogier, a central place of Brussels which is well-connected to all directions and has many hotels around it.

We provide bookings (reservation) of Hotel rooms and propose the following Hotels:

"Maison du Dragon" - features Chinese style and is regularily used by FFII.

"Hotel Belmont" - new ***-Hotel, three blocks from the Dragon

Both hotels have wireless internet, the Belmont also has a Business center, for both it is possible to get a price of 80 Euro at for this week.

An URL with a pdf for pictures and hotel directions is at the bottom of this mail.

Second: Accedidation to the parliament

You need your ID card or passport with you for accedidation to the European Parliament. Otherwise it is not possible to get inside.

We'll organize accedidation, which needs an assistant of a MEP to come down to the accredidation center and then all accedidations can be done at once.

Third: Handouts and supportive materials

FFII will provide Handouts and supportive materials and is available inside the European Parliament to answer questions and to attend your meetings with your MEPs as well.

We prepared an A3-double-sided color handout which is folded to an A4 folder. It presents testimonies from

• http://www.economic-majority.com

and and more material which can be given to MEPs during and after the meetings.

Contact persons/organisation in Brussels

Steffen Maas, steffenm@ffii.org - Mobile phone: +32 484 - 561 020 Bernhard Kaindl, bkaindl@ffii.org - Mobile phone: +32 484 - 540 456 Felipe Wersen, fwersen@ffii.org - Mobile phone: +32 479 - 639 232

The Main contact is Steffen Maas.

Contact person for travelling and booking:

Holger Blasum, holger@blasum.net - Munich FFII Office: +49 89 - 18 9799 27

Hotel information, pictures, links are in the PDF download from http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2005/smeday0614/

We'll be happy to arrange all what's needed. Learn more about transportation and logistics