Interest Representation in Europe – earlier Yearbook articles now available online

02/09/2025 by Bernd Leave a comment

If you want to dive deep into the yearly state of European integration, there is no better source than the Jahrbuch der Europäischen Integration (Yearbook of European Integration) published by the Institut für Europäische Politik e.V.

In the upcoming 2024/25 edition (to be released this autumn), my new chapter will focus on EU interest representation. I cover developments from June 2024 to June 2025: the ongoing controversies around the Transparency Register, the rising relevance of strategic corruption, the reconfiguration of lobbying after the 2024 European elections, and looming cuts to EU funding for non-state organisations. My conclusion looks ahead to 2025/26 – from omnibus packages on cutting red tape to the “Readiness 2030” defence programme and the next Multiannual Financial Framework. A key question will remain how EU institutions can safeguard integrity and transparency under the pressure of geopolitical influence.

Good news: my earlier yearbook contributions are now freely accessible in the online archive of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP). Anyone interested in tracing the evolution of #LobbyEU since 2012 can find them here:

👉 Jahrbuch-Archiv – Institut für Europäische Politik

Unfortunately, the most recent editions are still missing – publishers remain reluctant to embrace open-source publishing, even when it comes to tax-funded projects largely carried by volunteers. Still, the archive already offers a valuable opportunity to follow continuity and change in EU lobbying over more than a decade.

Autumn in the European Lobby

06/10/2024 by Bernd Leave a comment

The Qatar Gate scandal now seems distant, and it is increasingly unlikely that Eva Kaili will face trial in Belgium for her alleged involvement in the corruption case. However, the integrity system within European lawmaking has developed. Although not far enough for many, it is moving in the right direction. In two handbook chapters on Lobbying in the European Union and in my recent yearbook article Interest Representation in the EU, I provided some overviews of the EU’s integrity framework.

Networked Democratic Diplomacy A democratic Europe needs a new kind of public diplomacy.

21/06/2022 by Bernd Leave a comment

For several years, media outlets and independent democratic organizations have come under systematic pressure in many European countries. Minority rights are under attack. Even the independence of the judiciary is now open to question. The belief in self-correction in democratic societies continues to wane. The troublesome situation in Hungary and Poland is not just a national matter of European Union law being misapplied in specific member states. Various regulations and sanctions do offer some hope in the situation, including Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) with the EU framework for strengthening the rule of law as well as the rule of law mechanism. But will stricter monitoring and more consistent enforcement be enough? Perhaps what is missing is a consistent commitment to democratic checks and balances? In this context, Germany’s foreign and European policies need to do more to support cross-border democracy. My article in Internationale Politik Quarterly.

Framing the midfield between citizens and EU policy actors.

17/02/2020 by Bernd Leave a comment

Together with Elena Sandmann I recently evaluated the midfield between citizens and political stakeholder. The article sheds light on the relation between political influence of interest groups in the EU legislative process and pluralist democracy in the European system of multi-level governance. In this context, the article critically examines whether the representation of societal interests can be analytically distinguished from (corporate and private) lobbyism. It is the article’s main thesis that interest representation can only contribute to more democracy and legitimacy in the EU system of multi-level governance if all corporate, governmental, and legislative actors involved in the decision-making process commit themselves to greater transparency. Read more