There is an anonymous saying that “A traveler is more experienced than the gray-haired” this saying is very true in the sense that traveling creates a whole lot of opportunities to learn new things, meet new people and widen our horizon in various fields of life.
Therefore, at HAMK International Business, International cum national school trips are an integral part of our studies.
During this year’s Autumn, as part of the doing business in Europe course, we visited Brussels which is the capital of Europe. The visit to Brussels was to enable us to learn the ways of the members of the parliament, their relationship with an independent lobbying business organization and how this relationship influence policies made in the Parliament which affect businesses.
A cross-section of HAMK IB Students and their teachers, During our visit to the European Parliament.
Among different organizations we visited was The Confederation of Finnish Industries, usually addressed with its Finnish acronym “EK” (Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliitto).
Ilari and Salla, giving us a professional presentation during our visit to The Confederation of Finnish industries.
At EK, we met with Ilari and Salla. They gave a presentation about what EK is all about, what it does, how it does them and what it has achieved so far.
From their presentation, we learned that EK is a Finnish Business organization that is specialized in Lobbying. They represent many Finnish businesses, especially SMEs. Their role is to source information about beneficial business programs that Finnish business can take advantage of. Their main office is in Helsinki, however, their presence in Brussels is very important for the various Finnish businesses they represent.
We also learned that to be relevant and be able to influence decisions, they have to collaborate with other business organizations who have the same goals but might be representing other countries. For example, EK is a member of Business Europe, which is made up of other lobbyist business organization.
Our Visit to EK helped us understand clearly the importance of lobbying as regards policymaking.
Ikenna Okanya, Ugur Cevik, Olti Golemi