Lobbying In Europe After Maastricht

Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: Over the past 20 years, the number of lobbyists in Brussels increased rapidly. The Lisbon treaty of 2009 reinforced this effect drastically as EU institutions became more powerful. Consequently, there was a shift in the lobbying strategy of many interest groups increasingly focusing on EU decision makers instead of state governments. In 2017, approximately 15,000 lobbyists were positioned in Brussels. The rising trend of lobbying in the EU has several effects on policy and decision making of EU institutions. The European Union finds itself in a challenging position due to the rise of eurosceptic parties, problems with European integration, the economic crisis, and the overall concern about the democratic legitimacy of the EU. Legitimacy as a concept describes the rightfulness of a government in terms of either doing the right thing in the right way with the right people or in terms of political sciences as the overall belief of society in the rightness of the system. The legitimacy of the EU is debatable, and lobbying is on a rising trend. Therefore, this paper addresses the following research question: Does lobbying facilitates or impedes EU’s legitimacy? Firstly, the paper focuses on the definitions of the key concepts and links them to the EU. Secondly, responsible lobbying will be discussed. Additionally, the paper will investigate the relationship between lobbying in the EU and legitimacy more in depth, by using the author's own framework, while considering several dimensions and scales of lobbying and by citing multiple examples. Lastly, a conclusion will be given.

Now in it fifth printing in three years and fully revised, Machiavelli in Brussels is filled with new facts and figures, real-life lobbying cases, and a detailed look at the European Union's newest member countries. Recalling the work of Niccolò Machiavelli, leading researcher Rinus van Schendelen distills the practices of successful lobbyists down to three basic principles: ambition, study, and prudence. Paying close attention to the special issues implicit in EU lobbying, Machiavelli in Brussels illuminates the practice, its opportunities and pitfalls, and even its contributions to democracy.

It is universally accepted that there has been a huge growth in EU lobbying over the past few decades. There is now a dense EU interest group system. This entirely new volume, inspired by Mazey & Richardson's 1993 book Lobbying in the European Community, seeks to understand the role of interest groups in the policy process from agenda-setting to implementation. Specifically, the book is interested in observing how interest groups organise to influence the EU institutions and how they select different coalitions along the policy process and in different policy domains. In looking at 20 years of change, the book captures processes of institutional and actor learning, professionalisation of lobbying, and the possible emergence of a distinct EU public policy style. More specifically, from the actors' perspective, the editors are interested in assessing how the rise of direct lobbying and the emergence of fluid issue-based coalitions has changed the logic of collective action, and what is the potential impact of 'venue-shopping' on reputation and influence. From an institutional perspective, the contributors explore resource and legitimacy demands, and the practical impact of consultation processes on the emergence of a distinct EU lobbying relationship. It will be essential reading for academics and practitioners alike.

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 7,5 , Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: Since its inception the European Union (later referred to as: the EU) has expanded to 27 Member States comprising more than 490 million citizens. The most important institutions are the European Commission (later refereed to as: the Commission) consisting of national ministers and the European Council (later referred to as: the Council), which is made up of the heads of the Member States. Furthermore, the European Parliament (later referred to as: the Parliament), consisting of 754 Members of Parliament (later referred to as: MEP) is the only directly democratic institution within the EU. In such a complex environment it becomes hard to make decisions that satisfy everybody’s needs. Therefore this paper tries to answer the question on how policy formulation and decision making processes within the EU function, thereby focusing on the governance mechanism of the EU and its Member States, taking into consideration the influence of stakeholders and the process of lobbying. Finally, the analyzed prevailing governance system is assessed in light of the Euro crisis. The paper is structured around two main issues, namely European governance and lobbying. Before these issues are discussed a brief introduction regarding the ordinary legislative procedure is given. Afterwards, the concept of governance, which is merged into European governance, is considered. Thereby the focus is put on legitimacy, in particular on democratic legitimacy. Since the EU’s governance system is partly dependent on its Member States systems, it is classified and compared to those. Following this, lobbying and the interest articulation of other stakeholders are discussed. By that means it is studied if some type of “elite pluralism” exists within the EU. Finally, there is a discussion about the shortcomings of European governance, with special regard to the current Euro crisis and an outlook on possible advancement of the EU is given, based on the line of argumentation put forward by The Economist.

In the past, the literature on EU-lobbying has mostly focused on the activities of interest associations. In contrast, this book presents a systematic analysis of factors that influence the individual lobbying decisions of Multinational Companies and their use of certain routes of access to EU institutions. In the first part, it addresses the seemingly trivial question of why business has to focus even more intensively on its lobbying activities in the policy-making processes of the European Union than on its lobbying efforts in national processes. The second part then demonstrates theoretically that certain institutional and sectoral characteristics provide a good explanatory framework for the decisions of Multinational Companies concerning the most promising lobbying strategy. In emergency situations, the lobbying activities of large companies will be retransferred from the supranational to the national level. Eventually, all alternative hypotheses that are presented throughout the book are tested empirically by a thorough examination of the case of the Directive on end-of-life vehicles. Contents: State Regulation and Corporate Interests - Interest Representation at the European level - The EU as a Multi-Level Governance System - European Public Policy-Making - Business Interest Associations - Corporate Lobbying - Directive on End-of-life vehicles.

EU Lobbying: Empirical and Theoretical Studies offers an analysis of large empirical studies of interest group politics and Lobbying in Europe. It assesses the logic of collective and direct action, the logic of access and influence, the logic of venue-shopping and alliance building.