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John Robinson, a UK national and resident in Brussels for the past 35 years, has been professionally associated with EC/EU developments and everyday activities over that period as journalist, Commission spokesman, and for many years now as senior EU adviser to leading international corporations.
In the past he has written extensively on matters relating to the EU and its predecessor organizations (EC/EEC/Common Market). He was sole editor of the Commission’s landmark book on 1992 (which launched the Internal Market Programme), and the author/co-author of several EU policy reports. This was in addition to (earlier) reporting on EC issues for The Economist and The Washington Post, for which he served as special correspondent in Brussels in the late ’70’s.
He served 4 years as the Commission spokesman on social and employment policy (1981-1985), during which he authored “Multinationals & Political Control”. This book was a comprehensive survey of the regulatory framework affecting international business in the EU and in the broader international framework.
Following this he entered the (then) nascent EU consultancy sector. He co-founded Robinson-Linton Associates in 1989, merging in 1998 with Burson Marsteller where he has since been a managing director. He is European vice-chairman of BKSH, the world-wide government relations division of Burson Marsteller.
Companies come to Robinson for his understanding of EU procedures and practices, and in particular of how they impact business. He provides knowledge, advice and judgment on how to tackle the challenges and opportunities corporations face in an EU characterized by frequent change and by arcane procedures which, for all the lip-service paid to transparency, often tend towards obscurity.
Robinson’s involvement for clients is in sectors like information technology, foodstuffs, packaging, consumer goods, chemicals, and in EU policy areas like competition/anti-trust, internal market, agriculture and the environment. Increasingly, comitology and regulatory decisions are replacing legislative procedures as the main impact and focus for business. This trend in EU activity is set to solidify following legislative slowdown after the 2004 enlargement and the 2005 debacle over the constitution.
Robinson’s professional career in Brussels began in 1972 as founding editor of European Report (now EIS), and as EIS Board member from 1976-1980. He was author/co-author of the following reports:”EEC business strategy: threats and opportunities” (1986); “EEC business regulation: its role in encouraging industrial cooperation and social dialogue” (for the Commission, 1986); “The cost of non-Europe: obstacles to trans-border business activity” (for the Commission, 1987).
Robinson holds an M.A. in Government and a B.A. in French (First Class) from Manchester University