Negotiation process in politics
among different interest groups
11.04.2014 , Riga
Agnes Kasper
LECTURE OUTLINE
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INTRODUCTION
INSTITUTIONS AND ACTORS
LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
LOBBYING
EXAMPLES
REGULATION OF LOBBY
Policy process
What is policy?
Public policy process in brief
Problem identification
Policy
evaluation
Policy
implementation
Policy
formulation
Policy adoption
Actors in the policy process
• Main categories of actors in the policy
process.
– Official actors – statutory or constitutional
responsibilities.
• Legislative, executive, and judiciary.
– Unofficial actors – participation with no explicit
legal authority.
• Interest groups, media, political parties, voters.
Official actors – branches of
government
• Legislature
• Executive
• Judiciary
Legislature
Functions  Law-making, control of executive,
control of finances, etc
Goal  Getting reelected, pleasing the voters
Nature  Decentralized – works in committees,
issue networks, party leaderships
Executive
Functions  execute, enforce and administers
laws, agenda setting
Goals  effective accomplishment of different
agendas, provide public goods
Nature  hierarchical, appointed executives and
permanent bureaucracy, fixed and official
jurisdictional areas
Judiciary
Functions  interpret legislation
Goals  administration of justice
Nature  reactive to public policy
EU Institutions
Unique institutional setup
• European Council – broad agenda-setting, leaders of
EU
• European Parliament – directly elected MEPs,
represent citizens
• European Commission – represents the interests of the
EU as a whole, members appointed by member states’
governments
• Council of the European Union – defend national
interests of member states
• European Court of Justice – interprets EU law
Decision making process in the EU
3 main institutions are involved:
– Commission
– Council
– EP
In principle, the Commission proposes new laws, and the
Parliament and Council adopt them. The Commission
and the member countries then implement them, and
the Commission ensures that the laws are properly
applied and implemented.
Ordinary legislative procedure (Art. 294 TFEU) is used for
policiest that apply all over the EU.
Unofficial actors in the policy process
Interests groups
Media
Individuals
Political parties
Think tanks and research institutions
Interest groups activities – common
advocacy
Common advocay methods are often used to
enforce changes by making demands. Most of the
time these methods are primarily used to send
out to mobilise people typically in order to
weaken the position of a particular decisionmaker.
– Campaign contributions
– Media content
– Mass mobilization, protest, and litigation
– Riots and protest marches
Lobby
What is lobby?
Do you know any lobbies?
Lobbying
Lobbying is interest intermediation, interest
groups activity connecting public
institutions/agencies to citizens.
Lobbyist is defined as organization or individual
that seeks to influence policy , but does not
seek to be reelected. (Richardson, 2002)
“Janus-faced” creatures for looking towards
both state and society, sometimes regarded as
“factions” for undermining general interest.
Rationale of Lobby
Indispensable for serving as a channel for the
voice of citizens, act as “schools for
democracy” – socializing citizens as political
beings. (Eising, 2007)
Important supply of information and potential
source of legitimacy for policy-makers. (Coen,
2007)
Nature of lobbying
Lobbying is a specialized form of advocacy. It is a
strategic, palnned and informal way of
influencing decision-makers. It is typically twoway, open communication by linking the
interests of different stakeholders, creating
win-win situations and investing in long-term
relationships with decision-makers.
Common advocacy vs Lobbying
Some facts
In the European public policy process some 15,000
Commission and European Parliamentary
officials face some 20,000 lobbyists on a daily
basis . (Coen, 2007)
Estimated, 1450 formal interest groups operating
at the European level, 350 firms with European
affairs offices and 267 law and public affairs
firms active in EU public policy.(Coen, 2007)
In 2013 the total number of entities engaged in
lobby is over 5000.
Lobby groups exert influence along the whole European
policy process
-initiation and ratification of policy at the Council of
Ministers,
- agenda setting and formulation at European Commission
led forums,
- reformulation of policy at the European Parliament
committees,
- to the final interpretation, harmonisation and
implementation of regulation in the nation state.
In following and accessing all points of the policy process, EU
interest groups are important supply of information on
the development and delivery of EU public policy and a
potential source of legitimacy to policy-makers. (Coen,
2007)
EU influence on interest groups
Four characteristics of the EU influence the
formation, the role and fuctions of interest
groups.
- highly dynamic system
- complex system
- multi-level system
- privileges consensus building (Eising, 2007)
EU influence on interest groups
- EU is a highly dynamic system  deepening
integration and expansion of EU
competences result in:
- Growing number of groups;
- Diversity in group profiles;
- Difficulty to forecast political developments
(devotion of resources to monitoring)
EU influence on interest groups
- EU is a highly complex system  importance of
interest groups vary substantially accross policy
areas, which result in:
- In areas where the EU has exclusive
competence, such as CAP, Common Commercial
Policy, etc, interest groups have good access to
institutions.
- In areas that has been second and third pillar in
the old system, such as foreign policy, refugee
and asylum policy, the access is more restricted.
EU influence on interest groups
- EU is a multi-level system  member states
also have important say in the EU Policy
making, therefore
- they offer different access point to interest
organizations
- Transposition of measures into national law
and implementation at the national level
- Co-ordinated action at all levels
EU influence on interest groups
- EU is a system that privileges consensual
decision-making the historical preference
of consensus was replaced by reliance on
qualified majority for practical reasons,
- however this legacy implied that opinions of
interest groups were taken into account and
were regarded as increasing the legitimacy of
EU policy – still holds
Differences in lobby organizations
• National lobby  emphasize national character of
interests, direct membership, besides interest
representation perform services for their members
(advice, training, partner match-making, etc)
• Euro-groups  typically (approx. 2/3) federal structure
– associations of associations, some has direct
membership, high degree of specialization, low level
of resourcing and autonomy - focus on representation
of interest, difficulty of internal agreements due to
multi-national make-up of membership,
Overcrowding??
EU institutions have difficulty in managing and
regulating the expanding numbers of interests.
It is also a challenge how interests groups can
continue to influence and contribute to the EU
public policy process in a positive and
constructive form.
Few would question the importance of interest
groups to facilitate policy, advocate positions,
provide expertise and at times scrutinise
authority.
Regulation of EU lobby
• Code of conduct and
• Transparency register:
http://europa.eu/transparencyregister/index_en.htm
Types of associations
• Business interests
– Cross-sectoral
– Sector associations and firms
• Professional interests
- peak associations
- sectoral interests
BUSINESSEUROPE (ex UNICE)
Cross-sectoral
Union of Industrial and Employer’s Confederation of Europe changed
name in 2007.
- Federation of confederations, claims to represent 41 members in 35
countries, covering 20 million companies.
- Mission: “ to ensure that companies' interests are represented and
defended vis-à-vis the European institutions with the principal aim
of preserving and strengthening corporate competitiveness.
BUSINESSEUROPE is active in the European social dialogue to
promote the smooth functioning of labour markets.”
(www.businesseurope.eu)
- Heavy bureaucracy, difficulties of reaching common position, lowest
common denominator  broad interest of the entire European
business accross the board
AMCHAM-EU or EU Committee
Cross-sectoral
• Defines itself as the “voice of American business in Europe”,
represent large US investments in the EU
• The organization historically helped socialize American
member companies in the Brussels public affairs
• It provides a forum for business leaders at the highest level
to engage EU polititians at the highest level
• Members include top Fortune 100
• Coca-Cola, IBM, AT&T, General Motors, Exxon Mobil, Intel,
Nike, McDonald’s, Microsoft, etc.
• High fees, exclusive club
ERT
Cross-sectoral
• The European Round Table of Industrialists
• ERT is a forum bringing together around 50 Chief Executives and
Chairmen of major multinational companies of European parentage
covering a wide range of industrial and technological
sectors. Companies of ERT Members are widely situated across
Europe, with a combined turnover exceeding € 1,300 billion,
sustaining around 6.8 million jobs in the region. They invest more
than €51 billion annually in R&D, largely in Europe; which is
equivalent to 18% of total EU R&D expenditure. (www.ert.eu.)
• Flexible structure, allows selection of issues, personal membership
on invitation only.
Some more
Cross-sectoral
• EUROCHAMBRES
• UEAPME – European Association of Craft,
Small and Medium-Sized Enterpries
Sectoral associations and firms
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EUROFER – Steel industry association
CEMBUREAU – Cement Industry Association
Etc.
Second most important route for EU interests representation, after
contact with national decision-makers, is through EU associations
• Direct membership – different stenghts
• Associations have special competencies iin representing collective,
EU-wide interests and offer genuine collective opinion.
• Individual companies may be solo actors but this is far smaller
segment than interest associations.
Professional interests
These usually include fully qualified doctors, lawyers, architects, vets,
dentists, engineers, teachers, nurses, writers, artists, managers, etc.
Examples:
CEPLIS – European Council of the Liberal Professions
EUROCADRES – Council of European Professional and Managerial Staff
AEMH – European Association of Senior Hospital Physicians
CCBE – Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union
Etc.
Professions sometimes had been slow to recognize the benefits of the
single market freedoms, its opportunities and acted in a hostile and
defensive manner for protectionist reasons
Key civil society organizations/NGOs
European Consumers Organization (BEUC)
European Women’s Lobby (EWL)
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
Greenpeace
Oxfam
Friend of the Earth
Etc.
Lobbying targets
Lobbying targets
• Direct: targets are the actual decision-makers
• Intermediate: targets “transmit the message”
• Indirect: targets are individuals and
organisations that can influence direct
targets
Methods – determined by available
political space and access
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Policy brief
Personal letters
Personal meetings, exchanges
Participation in consultation (experts)
Strategic litigation
Informal contacts
Working visits with decision-makers
Participation in public hearings
Drafting joint strategies
Etc.
Guidelines on lobbying by ICCO
Step 1 – Clarify the objectives of your organization  mission
and objectives
Step 2 – Define you consituency  For whom are you doing
this? Define interests and perceptions of beneficiaries.
Step 3 – Choose your goal and set objectives  set realistic
goals and objectives, differentiate between scope of
concern and scope of interest.
Step 4 – Define the decision-makers  who do you aim to
influence? What are the procedures? Who are the decisionmakers?
Step 5 – Prepare your organization for lobby  what are your
organization’s capabilities? What are internal procedures?
Guidelines on lobbying by ICCO
Step 6 – Identify the stakeholders  what are the
opportunities and threats in the outside world? Can
some other group undermine your efforts? With whom
you might collaborate?
Step 7 – Check whether lobby is possible  Is lobby
effective to influence this policy?
Step 8 – Develop action plan  define methods you
intend to use and resources you have at your disposal
Step 9 – Implement action plan  carry our the plan
Step 10 – Ensure monitoring and follow-up  keep track
of results
Policy scans
Policy scans
ICCO proposes the following logic:
• Describe the context and the problem you aim to address
• Describe who you aim to support
• Verify whether this connects with the mission and objectives the
network or programme coalition you are connected with
• Verify whether there is a role for a decision-maker (if there is no
such role, then lobby and advocacy is not the right tool.)
• Describe what the role of the public sector should be
• Describe what you want the public sector to do: what should be
changed?
• Describe who in the public sector is responsible for bringing
about the necessary changes
• Describe what you want from this person and when
• Elaborate your objectives as smartly as possible
Workshop challenges
The Commission is now preparing an initiative on Einvoicing in the field of public procurement. Start
developing a strategy for the following lobbies:
1. Friend of the trees NGO
2. United Printer Manufacturers
3. Council of Kind Accountants in the EU
4. Business Applications Software Developers’ Chamber
5. Association of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises in
the EU
6. Total Paper Round Table – Paper producer firms CEO’s
club
Challenge 2
Your organization has managed to make an
appointment with one important decisionmaker.
Prepare a policy brief that you can give to the
Commissioner on the meeting.
Challenge 2 - note
A good lobbist/mediator
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Motivation
General knowledge
Specifoc local knowledge
Skills
Empathy
Non-violence
Creativity
Compassion
Persistence
Process
The end
Thank you for your attention!
Any questions???