Maurice Fraser (Special adviser and lobbyist)

Maurice Fraser is senior counselor to APCO Europe and advises APCO clients on European and international public policy issues. He is a teaching fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science and director of Agora Projects Ltd.

Fraser was special adviser to UK Foreign Secretaries: Sir Geoffrey Howe, John Major and Douglas Hurd between 1989 and 1995, and London correspondent of the French politics weekly, Valeurs Actuelles, between 1996 and 1998. A former chairman of the Communications Committee of the European Movement (1996-97) and the Forum for European Philosophy, a council member of the Federal Trust for Education and Research and the Britain in Europe campaign, and a member of the advisory committee of the Centre for European Reform.

Glossing over neo-liberalism

Fraser is a broadcaster on European and international issues in the UK and French media, and has been editor of the flagship publications for summit meetings of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development . These include Newsdesk Media Group who describe themselves thus:

"We are a broadly based communications group comprising complementary media companies. Headquartered in London and Washington DC , we deliver bespoke customer publications and digital activity in support of our clients' strategic brand and marketing objectives."

They add that they were founded in 1995 by Alan Spence, the Chief Executive, who worked with the FT group, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He was assisted by Anthony Hilton, the financial editor of the London Evening Standard who today is Chairman of the company. The US operation was launched in Washington DC in 2005.

The client list (which includes PR work) includes: AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, Airbus, Asia Society, Atradius (formerly NCM), Bankers' Association for Finance and Trade, Barbican, Berne Union, Defence Export Services Organisation, Defence Logistics Organisation, The Defence Manufacturers Association, Disposal Services Agency (MOD)Eurex, Eurocontrol, Eurofighter, European Banking Federation, European Climate Exchange / Chicago Climate Exchange, Export Credits Guarantee Department, Federation of European Securities Exchanges, The Futures & Options Association, German British Forum, Government of Kazakhstan, International Capital Market Association, International Finance Corporation, International Underwriting Association, London Fashion Weekend, London Metal Exchange, Ministry of Defence UK, NASDAQ, National Association of Pension Funds, New York Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, PEP & ISA Managers' Association (PIMA),Royal Bank of Scotland, South Atlantic Medal Association, TeleManagement Forum, The Trafalgar Weekend, UK.

The Defence Industries and Banking would appear to be the main sectors there with some sensitive work involved. The site has links to various case studies on the above mentioned.

Fraser is the Director, Agora Projects who publish support material for the G7/G8 Summitsnamely its glossy brochures , and he is the editor of 'Shaping a new global economic order', G8 Summit 2008: Growth and Responsibility, Agora Projects and Newsdesk Communications Ltd., London, 2007.

Agora Projects Ltd, share its address, Adam House, 7-10 Adam Street, London WC2N 6AA with LINKS London Information Network on Conflicts and State Building.

Fraser is a trustee of the Franco-British Council along with Nick Butler, Nick Clegg MP, Catherine Fieschi, David Goodhart, François Heisbourg, Dominique Moïsi. The Franco-British Council was created was set up:

...on the joint initiative of President Georges Pompidou and Prime Minister Edward Heath, when Britain joined the European Community. Its setting up was formally announced in a communiqué issued in May 1972 at the end of the State visit by the Queen to France. Basic funding is provided by the two governments.

Although he mentions an advisory position with the CER, this is most likely back in its early days, as he is uncredited in the CER's own account of itself, and bears more relation to his position with APCO, who fund and lobby with the CER. There is a 1998 example of his writing 'Transparency is no panacea?' which stylistically mirrors the "mind-numbing tedium" and "anodyne and the banal" performance of the EU's politicians, by predictably (given his work for APCO) stating that "the policy of so-called openness would diminish the credibility of the Council". This paints a picture of a "horse-trading...stitched up...eerie consensus" where "Greater transparency would simply lead to easier identification of the losers". This is parodied (or parroted) with his observation that:

"In a post-ideological world, the goods which for generations looked inherently contentious (like free markets, tax cuts, deregulation and privatisation) have seen their universal validity affirmed in much of the world."

In Fraser's LSE CV he lists his research interests and expertise as including:

"Influences on policy-making in the European Union [...] development of common European policies in the areas of foreign policy, defence [...] and the validity of Left and Right as explanatory concepts in European politics."

Since 1998 Fraser has perpetuated some tens years worth of "mind-numbing tedium" and "anodyne and the banal" in his journal Policies and Priorities 2008' which communicates the 'eerie consensus' of what Peter Sutherland, Katinka Barysch, the European Round Table of Industrialists, International Crisis Group, KPMG Europe and the Economist Intelligence Unit have to say.

APCO

http://www.appc.org.uk/appc/filemanager/root/site_assets/pdfs/APPC_Register_Sep_06_-_Nov_06.pdf

Advisory council

• Federal Trust
• The Danube Foundation