How Europe’s Leading Biotech Association Saves Time on Public Affairs with EU Issue Tracker

With more than 2,600 members spanning from startups to multinational corporations, EuropaBio is the largest European association serving as the voice of biotechnology in the continent. The group focuses on two core areas of biotech: industrial, which encompasses biomanufacturing, biomaterials, and novel foods, and healthcare, which deals with the production of medicines and therapies. Additionally, EuropaBio is responsible for advocating for national biotech associations across the region.

Given the vast scope of its mission, EuropaBio’s team in Brussels faced the challenge of efficiently gathering and distilling policy insights to support its members. With a multitude of pressing issues on their radar, including the pharmaceutical legislation package revision, sustainable food systems, and the critical raw materials act, the group’s public affairs team has to keep track of more than 50 issues across the EU — all at once. Here’s how they use FiscalNote’s EU Issue Tracker to succeed.

Saving Time to Focus on Actionable Strategy

Adrien Samson, healthcare policy and public affairs senior manager at EuropaBio, relies on EU Issue Tracker as a vital tool in his daily routine. Together with his team, they use this powerful resource to stay informed about policy issues and proposals that could impact members — particularly the pharmaceutical legislation package, which aims to address systemic shortages and ensure the secure supply of critical medicinal products.

“We enjoy the accurate information delivered and having an overview of policy development along its timeline,” said Samson. “Previously, with another tool, we were inundated with information, sometimes inaccurate, and the platform was difficult to use.”

Convincing his colleagues to adopt the EU Issue Tracker was easy, as it quickly stood out for its exceptional value, high-quality service, and dynamic features that strike the perfect balance between platform support and targeted email alerts. This streamlined approach keeps the EuropaBio public affairs team’s day-to-day needs in sharp focus without cluttering their inboxes.

“The tool certainly saves us time each day, and each week, so we can put that time into preparing our advocacy strategy and helping our members make the best decisions for their organisations,” said Samson. “For instance, we no longer have to follow a three-hour-long debate in the Parliament to get the insights we need."

Adding Bandwidth Without Increasing Headcount

When it comes to EuropaBio’s industrial biotech efforts, EU Issue Tracker has proven to be a game-changer. Its user-friendly interface and wealth of targeted updates have immensely benefited the team. Given the wide range of applications for industrial biotechnology, spanning environmental policy, food safety, agriculture, industrial and chemical policy, and even taxonomy, it can be a daunting task to keep track of the intricate developments across numerous files.

“It can sometimes be strenuous to keep track of detailed developments across such a wide variety of files, especially when there is active progress on multiple initiatives simultaneously,” said Francisco de Araújo Vasquez, industrial biotechnology coordinator at EuropaBio.

The team struggled with juggling multiple initiatives, analyzing a myriad of relevant inputs, coordinating responses, and staying updated on time-consuming parliamentary and Council debates — in addition to other non-legislative public affairs work. “EU Issue Tracker provides a valuable centralised repository of updates and documents, which allows us to work more efficiently and jump from one policy area to another with minimal disruption. We stay continuously informed via the personalised alert system,” he added.

Samson further emphasised the importance of the EU Issue Tracker and the invaluable support provided by its team of analysts in streamlining EuropaBio's policy monitoring efforts.

“Especially with the volume of proposals published in the past couple of years, we’ve had a lot of success in flagging issues to members they may not be aware of. It’s helpful to find those files in the periphery of our core focus, which could grow into bigger issues,” said Samson. “We also have had a great, collaborative experience with the [EU Issue Tracker] analyst team as they provide quick replies to our questions. We really appreciate having an objective source for policy monitoring. I can just send an email, and I quickly get clarification or additional information, which is very helpful.”

EU Issue Tracker: All-in-One Policy Tool to Support Public Affairs

When it comes to staying on top of EU policies and developments, EU Issue Tracker is the ultimate tool for the public affairs team. One of the standout features for Samson is the ability to quickly navigate through different dossiers and access their history and expected development timelines. This allows the team to easily get up to speed and save valuable time.

“We see EU Issue Tracker as a one-stop-shop to save time with accurate, useful information,” Samson said. “I like how I can quickly navigate and go directly to the dossier I need with ease.”

But the benefits of EU Issue Tracker go even further. Compared to their previous service, Samson and his team now has a wealth of information at their fingertips, regardless of the policy area.

“I like that you aren’t limited to one policy area when you subscribe to EU Issue Tracker. You have access to everything, especially now with the stakeholder information available in the platform,” said Samson.

By taking a structured approach to policy intelligence and analysis, EU Issue Tracker become a force multiplier for public affairs teams of all shapes and sizes. By removing the manual work in policy monitoring, EU Issue Tracker saves organizations valuable time and surfaces the information that matters most in one comprehensive solution.