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.

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.

At a time when Europe and business stand at crossroads, this study provides a perspective into how business representation in the EU has evolved and valuable insights into how to organize lobbying strategies and influence policy-making. Uniquely, the authors analyze business lobbying in Brussels by drawing on insights from political science, public management, and business studies. At the macro level, we explore over 30 years of increasing business lobbying and explore the emergence of a distinct European business-government relations style. At the meso level, we assess how the role of EU institution, policy types, and the policy cycle shape the density and diversity of business lobbying activity. Finally, at the micro level we seek to explore how firms organize their political affairs functions and mobilized strategic political responses. The study uses a variety of methods to analysis the business government relations drawing on unique business and policy-maker surveys; in-depth case studies and elite interviews; large statistical analysis of lobbying registers to assess density and diversity across policy areas and EU institutions; and managerial career path and organizational analysis to assess corporate political capabilities. In contributing to discussions on corporate political strategy and interest groups activity, this monograph should be of interest to public policy scholars, policy-makers, and businesses managers seeking to understand EU government affair and political representation.

Thousands of lobbyists lobby decision-makers in Brussels every day, but little is known about their impact on policy. Lobbying in the European Union addresses this research gap and analyzes the conditions under which interest groups can successfully lobby the European institutions.

This book explains when and how interest groups are influential in the European Parliament, which has become one of the most important lobbying venues in the EU. Yet we know little about the many ways in which interest groups and lobbyists influence parliamentary politics. The author offers insights on four key cases of lobbying, based on the analysis of EU documents, lobbying letters, and 150 interviews. She argues that lobbying success depends on a number of factors, most notably the degree of counter-lobbying, issue salience, and committee receptiveness. These factors are brought together in the framework of “Triple-I” - interests, issues, and institutions – to determine the success or failure of lobbying. This book will be of use to students and scholars interested in EU politics and governance, EU decision-making, and interest group politics, along with policy-makers and practitioners.

Countless interest groups representing governments and civil societies try to lobby the European Union effectively in pursuit of the desired legislation, subsidies and more. This book describes the everyday practice of lobbying in Brussels, drawing on extensive research and the author's personal experience. The objective of these interest groups is to influence the EU decision-making, of which they see themselves as a stakeholder. To the existing representative bodies such as the Parliament and the Council, they add their practice of lobbying for a desired outcome by making their interests present or represented at the EU level. In a roundabout way, they contribute to the EU integration and also to its democracy, so long as the following conditions are fulfilled.

The lack of previous research into political interest groups and taking into account policy-specific and institutional context characteristics is largely due to research designs that have been primarily focused on a small number of policy debates, with the result that contextual characteristics were largely held constant. This book brings together articles from different modules that are part of a larger European Collaborative Research Project, INTEREURO, carried out by research teams in nine different countries under the auspices of the European Science Foundation. The main goal of the book is to analyse strategies, framing and influence processes for a set of 125 legislative proposals submitted by the European Commission, in an effort to better understand the involvement of interest organizations in the decision-making process of the EU. Contributors draw on sophisticated and innovative policy-driven samples of interest group mobilization, allowing them to account systematically for how policy-specific and institutional context factors shape mobilization, lobbying strategies and influence of interest groups on public policy debates in the EU. In this way, the book makes an important contribution to the study of interest groups in the EU and represents the breadth of positions taken in the current literature. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, University of Malta (Institute of European Studies), course: M.A. European Politics, Economics and Law, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the best media strategy for a Maltese union in order to stop an governmental policy not in their favour. It is here requested to find a way to convince the union not to use the social media strategy; the assumption is that it would not be cost effective. In the first part the paper highlights some basic background information about what outside lobby is and then it goes more into detail, and analyses the different media strategies the union could use and which steps exactly are requested. In the second part, the goal is to bring out arguments against the use of social media, for this purpose second literature will be used. This paper will also consider some alternative strategies before getting to the conclusion.

Governments worldwide are developing sunshine policies that increase transparency in politics, where a key initiative is regulating lobbyists. Building on the pioneering first edition, this book updates its examination of all jurisdictions with regulations, from the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Unlike any book, it offers unique insights into how the regulations compare and contrast against each other, offering a revamped theoretical classification of different regulatory environments and situating each political system therein. This edition innovatively considers different measurements to capture the robustness of lobbying laws in terms of promoting transparency and accountability. And, based on the authors’ experience of advising governments globally, it closes with a no-nonsense guide on how to make a lobbying law. This is of value to policymakers seeking to introduce or amend regulations, and lobbyists seeking to influence this process.

EU Lobbying: Empirical and Theoretical studies offers an analysis of large empirical studies of interest group politics and Lobbying in Europe. Recognising the continued European economic integration, globalisation and the changing role of the state, it observs significant adaptations in interest mobilisation and strategic behavour. This book assesses the logic of collective and direct action, the logic of access and influence, the logic of venue-shopping and alliance building. It addresses specific issues such as: the emergence of elite pluralism in EU institutions, the pump priming of political action by EU institutions, and the growing political sophistication of private and public interests in Brussels. Through these issues the book explores how interest groups lobby different European institutions along the policy process and how the nature of policy dictates the style and level of lobbying. This book was previously published as a special issue of Jounal of European Public Policy