In terms of challenges and obstacles, EU regulations remain difficult to monitor; they do not go as far as some individual EU member states' own regulations; some newer member states need time to bring their welfare - and their culture - up to the levels demanded by DG SANCO. Many of the issues which concern DG SANCO are hugely emotive and can provoke a variety of impassioned responses from the public and the media.

Explaining this convincingly and simply to the media will require first class media training. We find that many delegates from international organisations, having encountered the media on straightforward issues, believe their experiences and understanding make them well versed in the media. We have all watched television interviews and thought how easy it looks, but, as with many things, complacency and a lack of understanding of the tricks of the media trade create traps that delegates are often all to ready to walk into.

JTA has high level contacts in the media who it can talk to informally about the issues affecting all areas of the EU without divulging any client sensitivities. This means we can ensure that we can be as up-to-date as possible, tapping into the contemporaneous media agenda. We will use this to create real-life scenarios which will provide excellent training for the delegates and provide superb experience for media interview situations. By using hugely experienced journalists, JTA will explain to delegates all tricks employed by the media and how to avoid, deflect and control media interviews in a variety of situations. We will also use working television cameramen who will employ all the techniques that they utilise in the field to ensure that we get 'real' situations which challenge the delegates and take them out of their comfort zones.

The DG SANCO personnel requiring our training are of differing levels of subject expertise. That is why we have in our team one trainer with proven in-depth expertise and experience of health and consumer matters, plus a full understanding of the role of the European Commission. We also have trainers who are fluent in French to ensure sessions will be conducted as professionally in French as they are in English. Our other trainers are highly experienced journalists in local and regional media as well as at national and international level. This way, we can guarantee to cover all bases required of Commission staff working in a highly international environment, but with equal responsibilities at every level of media.

The media training for DG SANCO would be run by David Eades, currently the anchor news presenter for BBC World TV (CET - Lunchtime). David Eades was the BBC correspondent for Brussels and the EU for 4 years. David worked on major health initiatives within the EU and knows this space well. David has a double first class honours in French and is bi-lingual in written and spoken French.

JTA takes staff performance very seriously and undertakes regular internal assessments after each project or contract. With two trainers in each session, we will have the opportunity to mark ourselves for our work as well as distributing to the delegates questionnaires for assessing our skills and the value of the training. These questionnaires will be broken down into specific sections and used to assess our team and provide the necessary analysis to address any issues that arise. However, on the basis of our experience, we are confident that we will receive excellent feedback from the delegates following our training. The recording of delegate interviews will also allow JTA to assess the style of questioning and analyse how the delegates respond and develop as the course progresses.