Burning the midnight oil

Suzy Sumner heads the North-West of England’s Brussels office.

She is representative of an ever-growing band of regional offices with a presence in Brussels. They have their eyes not just on the European Commission’s directorate-general for regional policy, headed by Danuta Hübner, the commissioner for regional policy, but also on other Commission departments that might be a source of funding and know-how.

"When I got this job two years ago I rang Danuta Hübner and the door was open," says Sumner. "That’s the way European policy is going - the role of the ­regions is strengthening."

England’s North-West has been one of the great ­beneficiaries of the EU’s love-affair with the regions, as anyone taxiing into Liverpool from John Lennon Airport cannot help noticing.

Sumner’s two-woman office is part of a warren of representations from northern England in a solid 19th century villa in Rue du Marteau, a backstreet ten minutes’ walk from the Commission. "We all help each other - everyone has a particular expertise," she says.

Sumner studied German and philosophy, spent a year in Dresden, got an MA in human rights after first doing a six-month stage with the Socialists in the European Parliament, then an MBA during the years she worked with Solidar, a federation of non-­governmental organisations (NGOs). She also speaks French and Dutch.

There are flocks of applicants for all the NGO and representation jobs in Brussels - around 50, Sumner guesses, for her own job. The UK regions have a rigorous, equal opportunity approach. But many employers - there are more than 250 regional offices, with staffs ranging from one to 40 - do not bother to advertise at all, on the ­assumption that anyone who is not part of the ­network probably does not have what it takes. Which is: a good degree, thorough knowledge of how the EU works, plus experience, at least as a stagiaire, and usually several languages.

How much clout the ­regional office carries - and how interesting the work - depends on the political constellation back home. If you don’t have a Land or a département, a regional assembly is a good second-best. England’s North-West missed a trick by turning down the chance of its own directly elected assembly.

All the same, the region led the UK with €2.38 billion secured in structural funds in 2000-06. But that source is drying up.

Sumner’s sights are now set on what is known to the cognoscenti as "the smart money", the largely untapped €50bn earmarked for research and innovation. This kind of project will often involve teaming up with other regions. For this, the much-maligned Committee of the Regions (COR) is proving an ideal market-place. Sumner said the CoR’s open days - the last was on 12 October - were "getting better and better" as a forum of exchanging best practice and attracting grants and investment.

• How to make it in an NGO/regional representation: get a good degree and do not see that as the end of your studies; get a stage, ideally in the European Parliament or the Commission; network. Expect to earn - from one of the more decent organisations - around €20,000 gross and double that over time.

Suzy Sumner heads the North-West of England’s Brussels office.