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Public Affairs Community of Europe (PACE) has been established on the 7th of May in Rome as a common platform of all national organizations of European public affairs professionals and lobbyists. The 27 member states and the European public affairs industry were represented by national organizations and professionals as well as the industry organizations from Brussels.

The consensus for the establishment of PACE was taken after two intense days of discussions and exchange of information generated and moderated by the Italian Il Chiostro and Spanish APRI. The newly formed PACE will provide support, networking and intelligence to EU & country-based public affairs professionals and will set up the grounds for a European identity for public affairs professionals.

The meeting highlighted the challenges and various perceptions of this professional activity in the member states varying from general acceptance to a variety of shades of grey. The founders of PACE committed to bring a solid contribution to a more transparent process of adopting public policies across Europe within frameworks which will consolidate the participative democracy within the member states.

Public Affairs Community of Europe is a European association which aims to gather national

associations of public affairs and lobbyists across entire Europe, based on three pillars:

Established in 2018 in Brussels, Belgium, as an international non-profit organisation (AISBL – Association international sans but lucratif), PACE history has started in May 2011, when the Italian association Il Chiostro and the Spanish association APRI launched an unprecedented and historic initiative in Europe bringing together the representatives of all public affairs associations, which represent professional lobbyists in each one of the EU countries. During the first conference in May, the representatives of the public affairs associations/ companies of 27 EU countries shared their experiences and discussed the most important issues of their professional activity.