Abstract

In close contact with the European institutions since their beginnings, interest groups are an essential part of decision-making processes of the European Union, and indeed characterize the latter as post-parliamentary governance based on the democracy of organizations. The Commission aggregates interests just as do the national-level parties, while the representatives of increasingly numerous interests (productive, social, non-economic, sub-national) thus have access to decision-making processes. The author examines various aspects of the functioning of lobbying activity, including the clientelistic relationship between the European bureaucracy and organized interests; the constant dialogue between the Commission and interest groups favoured by the fact that the Commission does not have the expertise necessary to devise increasingly complex policies; the structure of the Commission, its workings and those of the consultation committees; the interest groups and their influence on the European parliament.