Challenge

Alber & Geiger assisted a US Fortune 500 chemical company to tackle the issue of illegal trade of refrigerants. For years, illegal trade of old generation refrigerants in Europe, prevented and delayed the introduction of high-end, climate friendly solutions. In parallel, the ongoing revision of the EU F-Gas Regulation was not delivering the expected results on phasing down the use of HFCs, as stricter penalties and measures to control illegal trade could only be enforced on a Member State level.

Strategy

Our team therefore embarked on a legislative initiative in Germany, which would offer a national solution that would inspired other Member States to use the German law as a blueprint. Alber & Geiger enforced a strategy which appealed to all levels of the German political institutions and administration. We supported the proposal on the level of the federal government, while in parallel gathering support at various political levels. Moving forward successfully, we managed to get our arguments through to stakeholders also in the European Union.

Results

On a first stage, Alber & Geiger supported a draft legislation which was in favor of our client’s expectations. On a second stage, our team also saw through the clearance of the German legislation from the EU Commission and inspire other Member States follow the German path. Finally, we locked the support from the German upper house and rapporteurs of the lower house, succeeding in the eventual speedy adoption of the legislation, which will be hopefully used as a blueprint solution in the EU.

Challenge

We were hired by the Council for a Democratic Iran (CDI) to raise political awareness and build support for the CDI before the EU. The hurdle here was to promote the very specific foreign policy position of the CDI, with the Member States governments, with conflicting positions on Iran. The subtle CDI policy locus fell in between confrontation and accommodation. This had to be done in a universal, politically neutral manner.

Strategy

The strategy relied on a data collection and dissemination process based on our distinct EU lobbying infrastructure. We gathered a detailed pool of information from a holistic range of institutional, local, NGO and inter-governmental sources.

Subsequently our team translated the data to be compatible with the policy structures of the EU institutions. We tailored the message to different audience catchments of Member States. Overall the strategy outlined an accurate overview of the scale of repression and human rights violations in Iran. Concurrently it promoted positive transnational tools to tangibly shape policy accordingly.

Results

CDI’s message was successfully transplanted into the divergent attitudes of the EU Member States and EU institutions. We helped CDI contribute to greater coherence in the perception of Iranian politics and policies. Ultimately we prevented the subtleties of diplomacy from concealing the human rights violations in Iran. This created a context for more constructive and bold communications from media outlets and government officials with respect to the repressive actions.

Challenge

Alber & Geiger was able to bring out the extraterritorial reach of EU human rights. This was against the backdrop of its clients having lost all available domestic remedies. The Former Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan and his brother were arrested on the eve of the Azerbaijani election. Initially accused of attempting a putsch, they were ultimately found liable for embezzlement. The European Court of Human Rights had held that the several of their rights had been infringed, especially the right to a fair trial. Nevertheless the Aliyevs remained imprisoned under their disproportionate and potentially wrongful sentences.

Strategy

Alber & Geiger’s strategy utilized the EU-Azerbaijan trade talks to leverage the EU institutional playmakers at opportune moments. Our litigious narrative extracted the EU’s human rights obligations underlying the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), and demonstrated the innocence of the Aliyev’s.

Simultaneously we drew on the Aliyev’s pro-western views, showing through adversarial fact finding that this underlay their imprisonment. Substantively, we put forward that it was incumbent on the Azerbaijani authorities under these circumstances to show their commitment to the rule of law. In order to benefit from the ENP they had to play by its rules.

Results

Ultimately we secured a complete pardon for both of the Aliyevs. However, the broader reach of this mandate was the raising of awareness regarding human rights issues in Azerbaijan. This put the EU-Azerbaijani relationship on a trajectory of greater trust. The sensitive political dynamics were tackled head on and resolved with expedience.