Lobbying and Expertise in the European Policy Process

Full course description

Nowadays, lobbying pervades virtually all aspects of EU policy-making. The size of the Brussels interest group population is deemed comparable only to that of Washington D.C., the so-called “lobbying capital of the world” (Dinan & Wesselius 2010). Various watchdog groups and media outlets, as well as the general public have all demonstrated increasing interest in and wariness toward the EU lobby. Against this background, a number of questions arise: who are, in fact, the EU lobbyists? What type of interests are represented in Brussels and under which conditions do national groups decide to have a presence in the EU capital? What is lobbying, after all? How do we decide which activities deserve this label, and which do not? What explains lobbyists’ access to EU institutions and political decision-makers? Furthermore, who wins lobby battles and why? What mechanisms do the EU intuitions have in place to rationalize and streamline contact with lobbyists (or interest representatives, as they are referred to in EU jargon)? How well do these mechanisms perform? What standards do we use to judge the democratic legitimacy of lobbying? All these questions and more will be explored at length in the framework of this course.

Parallel to the lectures and tutorials a workshop is offered in which the students will do empirical research on the role of interest groups and expertise in EU policy-making and –implementation, to combine, finally, their empirical findings with theoretical insights gained during the lectures and tutorials and the research techniques taught in the methods courses.