AFEP supports French companies that are fully committed to European integration, in order to respond to the growing importance of European legislation on their activities.
Through a permanent dialogue with the European institutions, the Afep office in Brussels has been promoting the competitiveness of French companies since 1987 and is actively involved in the drafting of cross-sectoral texts.
The following themes are at the heart of Afep’s European actions:
• Single Market • Environment, energy, climate • Taxation • Access to finance • Corporate Social Responsibility • Trade and Investment • Social • Company law and Corporate Governance
In addition, the Brussels office coordinates the network of member companies in Brussels and organizes meetings and exchanges with European stakeholders. Our team works in close collaboration with our experts based in Paris and liaises directly with the member companies.
In this context, AFEP carries out the following activities:
• monitoring and analysis of legislative projects, throughout their development,
• promotion to the European institutions of positions developed in consultation with companies,
• participation in the works of EuropeanIssuers, the European association of listed companies, of which Afep is a founding member (the association mainly deals with financial market regulation, company law, corporate governance and CSR).
Marc Poulain has been Director of International Trade Negotiations at AFEP since 1 September 2017. He monitors the main developments in European Union business policy and the Brexit process, representing AFEP’s positions in this area with the European and French public authorities.
A graduate of IEP Paris and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, he began his career as a judge in the Paris administrative court, then as Deputy to the Chief of Staff for public procurement legislation at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. As a national expert seconded to the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission between 2009 and 2016, he negotiated the “public procurement” chapters of the free trade agreements between the EU and Japan, Mercosur and the countries of the ASEAN, and took part in the WTO negotiations in Geneva.
Justine joined AFEP in 2008 and is now European Affairs Director & Head of the Brussels office. She is responsible for managing AFEP’s strategic relations with the European Union. In cooperation with the Paris team, she manages AFEP’s European lobbying actions in all areas covered by the Association and contributes to the preparation of European positions. She previously worked at the EU affairs permanent delegation of Rhodia (now Solvay – chemical industry) in Brussels (2007-2008) and at the European legal office of the French Ministry of Defense in Paris (2006). She is a double graduate from the Sorbone in Paris (Master in Business Administration from the IAE and a Masters’s degree in European Law). She speaks French, English and Italian.