Top place for Paris Dauphine, Sciences Po Bordeaux on the other steps of the podium

This year Paris Dauphine Public Affairs Master degree received the First prize in the school category and the First prize by group. Master Director Ollivia de la Vallière thanked the students for their involvement and the quality of their work.

The second and third prizes by group were attributed to Sciences Po Bordeaux. This university also went second in the school category. Master director Sebastien Guigner underlined the public utility of the Competition, a bridge between university and professional world. Sciences Po Grenoble held the third place.

The need to access expertises

At the opening of the ceremony, Spin Partners Director Christian Harbulot highlighted the deep renewal of the French and European institutions, which requires a serious dialog between lobbyists and political leaders. In this context, EurActiv European Affairs Director Claudia Topalli was invited to talk about her lobbying experience at the community level and reminded that “lobbying is a right, not a possibility” to gain attention.

This analysis of a necessary discussion between actors was shared by Michel Dantin. For the MEP, there is a “need to have access to the stakeholders’ expertise” in order to pass a law which addresses the general interest. Nevertheless “this access implies assessment”. Elected representatives must find a balance between different positions, slightly modified the sponsor.

Complexity of the problems, quality of the work

The ceremony highlighted the subjects’ complexity addressed by the students and their ability to respond to it.

Danone Corporate Public Affairs Director Alice Durand-Réville insisted on the interest of the Competition to raise awareness and explain to the young generation the issues of the food-processing industry, precisely marked by this complexity and the “high reactivity” required to face it.
At the same time Engie Innovation projects Manager Ludovic Parisot pointed out the strategic character of the energy sector and the “necessity to understand its deep changes”, so that the sector’s actors “could take charge of their own destiny”.

Equally aware of the challenges that the students had to deal with, Transdev’s and National Comity Against Tobacco Addiction’s directors granted a prize to three teams. Gold and bronze medals were respectively given to a Paris Dauphine representatives team and another one to Sciences Po Bordeaux for their work on Transdev, while the National Comity Against Tobacco Addiction gave the silver medal to a second group of Sciences Po Bordeaux students.

National Comity Against Tobacco Addiction Director Emmanuelle Béguinot commended all the students for their diligence, noticing the “original approaches” of the work and the presence of interesting elements in each of them. Transdev institutional relations Director Laurent Mazille, who follows the Competition for many years, also emphasized the “difficulty to decide between those very professional works”.

This last assessment was shared by the rest of the jury crew (Emmanuel Guichard, Laurène Guardiola, Antidia Citores and François Mattens), who told about their “pleasure to discover works every time more mature and more professional”.

We would like to thank all the people and organizations of the 2017 edition which made it a great success: sponsors, jury members and of course students and their professors! Let’s meet again in September, with the call for projects for the 2018 edition.

For more details on the Lobbying Competition, please visit the dedicated website.