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Press release

HEUSSEN opens office in Brussels

On 13 November 2008 HEUSSEN Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH opened its first office in Brussels. The new office constitutes the fifth business location besides Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

The Brussels office is run by Reinhold Kopp, specialist solicitor for labor law, who is also active in our Berlin office. Reinhold Kopp is former minister of economic affairs, European Commissioner of the Saarland and chief representative of the Volkswagen AG as well as founding member and assistant director of the institute for European media law. Mr. Kopp has many years of experience in dealing with regulatory issues on a European level, especially with Corporate Governance Codex and Corporate Social Responsibility.

HEUSSEN is establishing a new practice group for Public Affairs and Regulations in Belgium’s capital.

Business manager Dr. Christof Schmidt regards the opening of the new office in Brussels as necessary and consequent step of the firm. The high importance of the European Community Law for the national application of the law, particularly in the field of anti-trust, competition, media law and the law of the single market was the basis for the decision since these fields are well-staffed at HEUSSEN.

Alongside Mr. Reinhold Kopp, lawyers Dr. Karsten Kühne (Finance) and Eva Amelie Klostermann from the Berlin office as well as Dr. Markus Junker (IT and media law) and Dr. Gerhard Pischel (anti-trust law) from the Munich office will assist our clients.

The opening of the Brussels office was accompanied by a speech of Fritz Raff, chairman of the ARD and director of the broadcasting corporation of Saarland about “the value of public broadcasting in the digital age”.

Mr. Raff talked about the area of conflict between the European right to regulate broadcasting as economic service and the right to regulate broadcasting as culture and information medium in order to secure diversity of opinion, reserved for the national states. He supported the position of Viviane Reding, commissioner for information society and media, regarding the mission of broad casting and the “Public Value Test” for new online offers. Mr. Raff’s speech was followed by a lively discussion among the numerous representatives of telecommunication providers, the private sector, and of the local authorities.

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