General Romanian Interest Representation in Brussels: an Initial Assessment of Romania s Lobbyng Potential in the View of Eu Membership (English Version)

The paradigm shifts induced by the consecutive enlargements on the Eu polity reshape the questions regarding the influence of various interestson the sophisticated patterns of EU governance. Strongly motivated by the new focus of interest group research, this study aims to provide a tentative assessment of the potential of a future member state, Romania, to influence the European policy process. Thus a theoretically-based overview of the EU lobbyng arena is firstly performed, in order to isolate the relevant criteria by which to assess the lobbyng efficiency of interest groups in such a competitive environment. After a brief excursus on the particular Central and Eastern European repertoires for interest reprezentation, the analysis further proceeds to discussing the aforementioned criteria on the core study case material represented by the Romanian organizations activating in Brussels. No.pg. 132