Lobbying in the European Union

Lobbying in the European Union, also referred to officially as European interest representation, is the activity of representatives of diverse interest groups or lobbies who attempt to influence the executive and legislative authorities of the European Union through public relations or public affairs work. The Treaty of Lisbon introduced a new dimension of lobbying at the European level that is different from most national lobbying. At the national level, lobbying is more a matter of personal and informal relations between the officials of national authorities, but lobbying at the European Union level is increasingly a part of the political decision-making process and thus part of the legislative process. "European interest representation" is part of a new participatory democracy within the European Union.

The European Commission published an official definition of interest representation at European level in a communication from the Commission of 21 March 2007 (which was a follow-up to the green paper of 3 May 2006); the definition, taken from the green paper, defined lobbying as "all activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the European institutions".

Interest representation, or lobbying, is either a part of the work of institutions with a different main focus or it is the main focus of organisations whose "raison-d‘être" is lobbying itself. The main actors in European interest representation are national, European, and international associations from all sectors of economic and social life, private enterprise, law firms, public affairs consultants (political consultants) and non-governmental organisations and think tanks.

There are two types of European interest representation:

The decision-making and legislative processes of the European Union increasingly involve cooperation between the EU institutions and the informal work of interest representatives.

European interest representation differs in a number of ways from national interest representation:

When the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009, it provided a legal framework for interest representation in the form of Article 11 of the Treaty on European Union. This article regulates the details of participative democracy within the EU in the following sections: horizontal civil dialogue (Article 11(1) TEU), vertical civil dialogue (Article 11(2) TEU), the Commission's existing consultation practices (Article 11(3) TEU), and the new European Citizens‘ Initiative (Article 11(4) TEU).

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