Unrivalled expertise in navigating the ever-shifting landscape of public affairs and strategic communications.

The Shearwater team has exceptional insight into the unpredictability of global politics and how to craft winning communications strategies that help our clients achieve their objectives.

In Brussels and London, we are intermediaries between businesses wishing to grow and policymakers pursuing the public good.

Work With Us

How
We
Work

Disciplines

  • Providing Strategic Counsel
  • Regulatory Affairs
  • Government Relations
  • Issues Campaigning
  • Litigation Support
  • Crisis Communication

Team

  • Brussels & London Insiders
  • A senior team that does the work

Understanding

We pride ourselves on getting to the bottom of your issue, allowing us to understand how it fits into the political agenda

Analysis

We are a great sounding board, allowing you to test how your specific business concerns are thought of in the political or regulatory environment

Solutions

We come up with tailored and workable solutions to help you achieve your business or communications objectives

Insights

“Whether Marine Le Pen gets elected also depends on the Germans”

In an interview with DIE ZEIT, Shearwater Senior Adviser Sylvie Goulard warns that unilateral approaches to rearmament risk driving a wedge between Paris and Berlin, unless they bind themselves to a shared European approach to sovereignty.

27 July 2026
Sylvie Goulard

Quo vadis EU-UK relations? 

With Burnham now installed in Number 10, the question is back on the table: what’s next? Quo vadis EU-UK relations?

23 July 2026
Jonas Meuleman

Reframing the UK–EU Relationship: Four Strategic Scenarios and Labour’s Brewing European Argument

A decade after the Brexit referendum, the UK’s relationship with the European Union has exploded into life thanks to the anticipated Labour leadership contest. There is now a widespread view that while the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) provides a minimal framework, it does not address the deeper economic and geopolitical pressures reshaping Europe or the challenges facing the U.K. Recent tensions inside Labour — sharpened by Wes Streeting’s explicit pro-Rejoin stance and Andy Burnham’s constituency-driven caution — have reopened a debate the leadership hoped to defer

19 May 2026

How European leaders must stop the drift

Europe is drifting. The single market remains unfinished, euro governance is incomplete, and its foreign and security policy is a mirage. Now it seems EU leaders are finally seeking to implement the recommendations of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta. Better late than never, but these reports are not miracle cures. Today’s Summit in Eastern Belgium gives EU leaders a chance to show that they finally mean business when it comes to stopping the drift and rebooting the economy.

12 February 2026
Sylvie Goulard

The illusion of influence: Starmer’s visit to Beijing

Keir Starmer’s arrival in Beijing marks the first visit by a British leader since Theresa May in 2018. In the intervening years, the UK has cycled through seven foreign secretaries and five prime ministers – a revolving door of leadership that has left British policy toward China fractured and inconsistent.

27 January 2026
Connor Horsfall

The Customs Union – A Halfway House That Solves Nothing for the UK

Pressure is growing in the UK to soften Brexit through a Customs Union with the EU. But a Customs Union is not a stable destination. It delivers none of the political gains promised by Brexit and only a fraction of the economic benefits of EU membership. It is a holding pattern, not a strategy.

23 January 2026
David Martin

Shearwater’s 2025 Charity Partners

We decided to focus our charitable giving in 2025 on two areas where we feel we can make a tangible difference: homelessness and pediatric health. This means continuing our work with three organisations that our team in the UK and Belgium feel strongly about.

16 January 2026

The Pharma Pricing Standoff: Why Europe Needs a Smarter Conversation

Trump wants Americans to pay less for medicines. The recent UK deal aside, Europe doesn’t want to pay more. Both positions make sense. Americans have long paid drug prices 2.5 times higher than those in France or Germany. European governments are fighting ballooning deficits. The pharmaceutical industry meanwhile points to the €2.45 ($2.83) billion average cost of bringing a single new medicine to market.

9 December 2025
Andy Hayley

Our Expertise

Regulatory Affairs

Making sure big regulators like the EU are up to speed with your business, keeping you ahead of the regulatory curve.

Strategic Counsel

Political, regulatory, negotiating & communications expertise to advise on the here and now, and the future.

Government Relations

Devising policy ideas and crafting policy proposals that policymakers can apply to complex issues.

Issues Campaigning

We design and deliver communications campaigns, operating globally, regionally and nationally.

Litigation Support

Advising clients involved in complex litigation taking place in jurisdictions across the world.

Crisis Communication

As journalists, elected representatives, government communicators & more – we know how to build, manage & defend reputations.

Who We
Are

We bring together people with different experiences, perspectives and personalities, harnessing this to allow us to generate high quality advice.

Meet The Team
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