Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors, and Issues

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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: David. Coen and Jeremy Richardson: Learning to Lobby the EU: 20 Years of Change. Instititutional Demands 2: Peter Bouwen: The European Commission: 3: Wilhelm Lehmann: The European Parliament: 4: Fiona Hayes-Renshaw: Least accessible but not inaccessible: Lobbying the Council & the European Council 5: Margaret McCown: Interest Groups and the European Court of Justice 6: Sabine Saurugger: COREPER and National governments 7: Martin Westlake: The European Economic and Social Committee Actor Supply 8: David Coen: Business Lobbying in the European Union 9: Tony Long and Larissa Lorinczi: NGOs as Gatekeepers Sectoral Studies 10: Scott Greer: Changing World of European Health Lobbies 11: Sandra Boessen and Hans Maarse: Role of Interest Groups in Policy-making on the European Ban on Tobacco Advertising: An institutional Analysis. 12: Wyn Grant Tim Stocker: Politics of Food: Agro-industry Lobbying in Brussels 13: Oliver Treib and Gerda Falkner: Bargaining and Lobbying in the EU Social Policy. 14: Cornelia Woll: Trade Policy Lobbying in the EU: Who Captured Whom? 15: Daniela Obradovic: Regulating Lobbying in the European Union. Conclusion 16: Jeremy Richardson and David Coen: Institutionalizing and managing intermediation in the EU.

About the Author :
David Coen is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Policy at University College London (UCL). Prior to joining UCL he held appointments at the London Business School and Max Planck Institute in Cologne and was awarded a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. In recent years he has been a Fulbright distinguished scholar at the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, and visiting fellow at Boston University, Nuffield College Oxford University, and Max Planck Institute, Bonn. He is the Chair of the International Political Studies Association (IPSA) Research Committee on Business and Government, a board member of the European Centre for Public Affairs, and a member of the editorial board of Business Strategy Review. He has held grants from the British Academy, European Union, Fulbright Foundation, London University and Anglo-German Foundation. His research is firmly embedded in the development of models and processes of EU public policy and regulatory reform. Jeremy Richardson has held chairs of Political Science at the Universities of Strathclyde, Warwick, Essex, and Oxford. He is a recognised authority in the fields of comparative public policy and the EU policy process and has published widely over a period of more than forty years. He founded The Journal of European Public Policy in 1992 and continues to edit the Journal, based at the National Centre for Research on Europe, at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He also remains an Emeritus Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He was co-editor, with Sonia Mazey, of the very successful 1993 volume on Lobbying in the EC, of which this new volume is the successor.

Review :
a comprehensive update of Mazey and Richardson's edited Lobbying in the European Community Given the attention lavished on EU interest group politics, our sum of knowledge regarding their impact on EU policy can seem meagre, or at the very least, difficult to piece together. Those looking to navigate this jungle would be wise to pick up David Coen and Jeremy Richardson's edited volume, Lobbying the European Union... What Lobbying the European Union does best is bring the policy process back in...the contributor remind us that the forces at work in policy-making are something that scholars around the world can recognize, analyse and compare with those of other systems. This is where the book makes a significant contribution, making it an excellent read for the broader audience interested in waht we can learn from how the EU system has matured as well as committed lobbying geeks.