Description
In the European Commission, attention is the scarcest resource. A Director-General or Commissioner will rarely read a 50-page report, but they will act on a perfectly distilled one-page summary. This guide provides the tactical methodology to bridge the gap between exhaustive analytical work and institutional action, ensuring your output moves the needle at the highest levels of the hierarchy.
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Executive Summary vs. Decision Note: Mastering the critical functional difference—summaries inform (what the document says), while decision notes drive action (what the reader should do).
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The Inverted Pyramid Structure: Learning to lead with the conclusion. Discover how to arrange information so the recommendation is visible within 30 seconds, followed by justification, then context, and finally detail.
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The 5-Step Compression Method: A systematic workflow to extract a document’s skeleton, draft at 150% of target length, and then ruthlessly prioritize concepts to hit the non-negotiable one-page limit.
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The Opening-Sentence Test: Techniques for writing a “summary of the summary”—a single 25-40 word sentence that captures the finding, the trade-off, and the recommendation.
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Audience Calibration: How to adjust your register for different levels: providing the “political message” for Cabinets, the “strategic picture” for Directors, and “operational detail” for Heads of Unit.
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The Recommendation Box: Guidance on crafting unambiguous, actionable proposals that enable a senior official to simply check “Approved” or “Reject.“
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High-Stakes Formats: Expert breakdowns of specialized EU documents, including the College Fiche (1 page for 27 Commissioners) and ISC Cover Notes.
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Technical Summarization: Strategies for turning technical data into “stories” (trends and implications) and complex legal analysis into “verdicts” (legal basis and risk flags).