Lobbying via Consultation — Territorial and Functional Interests in the Commission’s Consultation Regime

Abstract

Starting off with a short introduction to the current Commission’s consultation regime the paper analyses participation of various actors in different consultation instruments of Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and Directorate General Health and Consumers based on quantitative data. Analyzing participation patterns of different groups of actors, we explain differences in participation patterns recurring to actor’s resources and the properties of the instrument as a means to effectively advocate positions. In particular, we test whether the new consultation instruments, designed to counter-balance the dominance of specific groups and professional lobbyists, meet their intended purpose in that they effectively reach out and include new, additional sets of actors. Our results indicate a spill-over between consultation and lobbying and underline the different roles attributed to different actors such as functional and territorial interest representatives in the Commission’s consultation regime.

Key Words:

• European Union
• Commission
• lobbying
• consultations

Notes

1. For an overview on the EU lobbying research see for example Beyers, Eising, and Maloney (2008), Coen (2007), Coen and Richardson (2009) Eising (2008).

2. However, we want to underline that access is not to be equated with higher influence. On the question of power and influence of interest groups in the EU see Dür (2008).

3. Out of the 16 conference speakers who did not participate in any other consultation instrument on the same issue half came from research institutes and none represented a company, the remainder being evenly split among the other actor groups.