Lobbying on EU Policies by National-level Interest Groups

Despite the existence of a relatively large literature on interest groups in the European Union (EU), we know very little about how many and which interest groups are active on EU matters at the domestic level in the member states. Neither do we know a lot about which strategies these groups use to influence EU policies and which lobbying targets they concentrate upon. Research on these issues would allow for novel insights into how national interest groups adapt to pressures resulting from the process of Europeanization, and more generally into how interest groups at one level of governance try to influence decision-making at another level. In the present project, I propose to use a survey of interest groups in three EU member states to collect systematic empirical evidence that will shed some light on these issues. The empirical research is guided by a political- economy argument that allows for the derivation of hypotheses that link variables such as a group`s resources and strategies, and the degree of concentration of the benefits and costs from EU policies, to an association`s degree and type of involvement in the EU policy-making process. For the survey, I select three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, and Spain. The selection of these countries nicely complements a pilot study that I have carried out with the co-applicant in Ireland. The choice of the three (four, including the pilot) countries will allow me to control for the influence of factors such as the size of a country, the system of interest intermediation (corporatist versus pluralist), and the length of EU membership. In each country, I will establish a sample of 400 associations and 20 companies. While drawing up the sample will be a decisive step in the project, my experience with the Irish pilot study makes me confident that I will be able to manage any difficulties that I will encounter. The survey will be carried out online, using an open-source tool called LimeSurvey and a dedicated webpage. Initially, I will contact groups by e-mail; those that do not respond to the invitation and reminder e-mails will then be contacted by letter including a hardcopy of the survey. In our pilot, we have been able to achieve a response rate of 41 percent with this approach. While the empirical research will be labour-intensive, my previous experience in carrying out such a survey will facilitate this task. I will also complete a select number of interviews with officials from the Permanent Representations to the EU of the three countries to get decision-makers` perspective of the lobbying activity by societal interests. With respect to dissemination, I will use the data to write a series of articles for peer-reviewed journals and a book-length manuscript. The project has major normative and policy implications. On the one hand, by examining whose voices are being heard in the EU, my research project will contribute to a normative assessment of the EU`s political system. On the other hand, the project has the potential to contribute to policy debates about the need for an obligatory lobbying register in the EU and about the feasibility and desirability of enhancing participation in EU decision-making to boost the democratic legitimacy of that entity.