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Foreword

Ever since its early days, the process of European Integration has been accompanied by interest intermediation of societal actors. During the past decades, the scene of EU lobby organizations has been continuously growing. This development and the important role lobbyism plays in EU decision making processes have caused heavy interest among academic researchers. Today EU lobbyism can be seen as one of the most important research fields within EU Studies.

The study at hand is a valuable and innovative contribution to the scientific research in EU lobbyism for several reasons.

Its overall research perspective is to explore the EU’s efforts in making lobbyism more transparent. After years of discussions and contested negotiations, the EU established a voluntary Transparency Register in 2011.

This book is one of the first systematic comparisons of the voluntary Transparency Register of the European Union with the mandatory Transparency Register of the United States. An essential part of the study is shaped by the perceptions of personnel of European institutions, Brussels-based lobbyists, and lobby critics. These qualitative empirical findings, gained by semi-structured interviews, allow for deep insights into the practical working mechanisms of the EU’s Transparency Register, its applicability and efficiency, its problems and shortcomings.

Dealing with the topic of “democratic EU governance―transparency―EU lobbyism,” this book addresses a broad audience of politically interested readers.

Hans-Wolfgang Platzer

Fulda, June 2014