Pour analyser le rôle joué par la Commission dans les politiques étrangères européennes, nous montrons comment la Commission peut élargir ses compétences en utilisant ses droits en tant que gardienne des traités. L’étude de cas de la politique européenne en matière d’aviation...

This article argues that the role the Commission plays in European foreign policies goes beyond the execution of the competences delegated by the member states. The Commission is not just the external negotiator of the EU, it can also use its powers as the guardian of the Treaties to expand its...

Studies of lobbying try to determine the influence and power of non-governmental actors on public policy. Although influence is very difficult to measure empirically, many continue to push for better research design to solve the problem. Through case studies of business-government relations in...

Almost all observers agree: diplomatic relations between the United States, France and Germany are in crisis. Awkward political maneuvering and faux pas on both sides have aggravated what has now clearly a fundamental rift. While the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung maintains a dossier on “the...

This article reviews the literature on lobbying in the European Union. After initial surveys of the landscape of non-governmental actor participation, theoretical investigations have focused on the modes of network governance and later on the phenomenon of Europeanization. Yet studies have...

The effect of European integration on its member states constitutes the new research agenda within the study of European integration. Marked by the “the institutionalist turn” of Anglo-Saxon political sciences, the most dominant theories on europeanisation focus on structural arrangements....

Since its reform in 1998, the national association of French employers and industry, MEDEF, appears to be an example of strong interest organisation. Unlike trade unions, the peak business organisation has been stable and unified, especially in terms of membership density. Through a study of the...

Lobbying by economic actors constitutes a central element of a large part of the literature on trade policy-making. However, it is mainly considered as “input” into the political system, which then aggregates the demand of different societal interests. As such inputs, the preferences of...

What role do firms play in the making of EU trade policy? This article surveys the policy domain and lays out the instruments firms can employ to influence decisions on trade. It underlines that European trade policy is characterized by a high degree of institutional complexity, which firms have...

Business-government relations on trade issues are generally characterized as protectionist lobbying or – less often – lobbying for the liberalization of markets. However, with the evolution of the trading system, negotiations today concern not just market opening, but also the regulatory...