Elizabeth Crossick

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Elizabeth Crossick,a trained lawyer, is deputy director of APCO Worldwide’s Brussels Office she took up the post in October 2011. This role sees Crossick work with Paolo Nicoletti the APCO Brussels managing director and Michael Burrell vice-chair for Europe. APCO Worldwide is a lobbying firm born out of the Washington-based tobacco industry law firm Arnold and Porter, from which it derives its name. Before tking up this role Crossick had worked for two years as a consultant. Elizabeth Crossick is also a partner at Goodbrand a international sustainability and social responsibility consultancy .

Career History

Prior to this Crossick was head of European government relations and social responsibility for the US drinks company Brown-Forman, owners of Bacardi. Crossicks job was a newly created post at a time when excessive drinking and subsequent harm are threatening to evoke profit harming regulations from policy makers. Crossick’s role with Brown-Forman involved lobbying politicians in Westminster and Brussels in a bid to stave off tougher alcohol control in the UK and Europe.

This article is part of the Spinwatch public health oriented Alcohol Portal project.

Crossick joined Brown-Forman after spending nine years as the director of public affairs in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Brussels office. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is one of the most elite law firms in Europe and Crossick represented them at the Society of European Affairs Professionals, a lobby group that lobbies against the regulation of Stanley Crossick, Elizabeth’s father passed away in 2010, he co-founded the European Policy Centre in 1997, where Elizabeth has also undertaken work. Stanley Crossick was regarded as one of the most influential European lobbyists of all time and is credited with shaping the profession.

Every six months, she spends an evening at The Sanctuary, a day spa for women in London's Covent Garden. "For a few hours, the world stops spinning," she says. "There's no phone, no BlackBerry, and no one can get hold of you. It's priceless – a getaway from the real world."

Lobbying

On disclosing the fees paid for lobbying Crossick told EurActive “I don't think the size of the fees has anything to do with whether the pressure has been exerted badly or not, or in the wrong way, frankly. The fact that clients pay fees for lobbying is part of the democratic architecture. And I also think this is a very dangerous path to go down, because how are we going to prove the fee levels? Is somebody going to go and check the fees invoices? And then there will be incentives for blowing them up!” When Crossick was asked whether she thought that if the EU’s Transparency Initiative (launched in 2005) became law would deter dubious or “border line” lobbying she said:

“There are bad guys in every profession. If you've got somebody who is prepared to break up the law, all laws in the world won't stop him from doing so. What all this does is drawing the attention of a number of people about what is expected of them. I think there is the case here of lots of people not breaking the law voluntarily, but mostly not realising that what they are doing is close to the line. It is not because they want to break the law, or because they are evil, but because of cultural differences.”

Earlier in the interview Crossick had tried :to define what she meant by cultural differences: “For example: when is something a gift? If :a parliamentary assistant is kind enough to open up the door to your client, do you send her :flowers afterwards to thank her, if it is a woman? Southern Europeans would say: absolutely! :But the Scandinavian reaction would be: absolutely not in any way! So, no matter how much :regulation you do, you cannot change cultural ways of doing things.”

Affiliations

BCC EU Committee Chair

References

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