Table Of ContentLobbyists and Bureaucrats in
Brussels
With over 30,000 lobbyists in town, Brussels is often called the European capital
of lobbying. Despite this, little is known about how this political system works
in practice.
This book offers an unprecedented window into the everyday relationships
between bureaucrats and interest representatives. Where the media only show
lobbyists as they meet MEPs and submit amendments, Sylvain Laurens argues
that the bulk of their work is done in close contact with EU bureaucrats – a form
of “quiet politics” developed by the business community, targeting officials with
little public exposure. Drawing on official archives, he begins with a description
of the historical emergence of a new layer of bureaucracy which, with impetus
from European and transatlantic capitalism, proceeded to alter the political
organisation of the business community to fulfil its own need for legitimacy. The
discussion then turns to the contemporary situation, using observations of
internal meetings of the main lobby groups operating in Brussels and interviews
with lobbyists and Commission officials to explore the work of the lobbyists.
This book will be of particular interest to scholars, students and professionals
of the European Union, interest groups, and more broadly to those with an
interest in political science and sociology.
Sylvain Laurens is a Maître de Conférences (senior lecturer) at the École des
Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, where he hosts a seminar
series on the “Sociology of Elites”.
Critical European Studies
Edited by Yannis A. Stivachtis
Virginia Tech, USA
1 Mapping European Empire
Tabulae Imperii Europaei
Russell Foster
2 Revisiting the European Union as an Empire
Edited by Hartmut Behr and Ioannis A. Stivachtis
3 Unleashing Social Justice through EU Public Procurement
Antoinette Calleja
4 European Identity Revisited
New approaches and recent empirical evidence
Edited by Viktoria Kaina, Ireneusz P. Karolewski and Sebastian Kuhn
5 Discourses and Counter- discourses on Europe
From the Enlightenment to the EU
Edited by Manuela Ceretta and Barbara Curli
6 The Democratic Quality of European Security and Defence Policy
Between Practices of Governance and Practices of Freedom
Evangelos Fanoulis
7 Lobbyists and Bureaucrats in Brussels
Capitalism’s Brokers
Sylvain Laurens
Lobbyists and Bureaucrats in
Brussels
Capitalism’s Brokers
Sylvain Laurens
Translated by Trista Selous
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Sylvain Laurens
The right of Sylvain Laurens to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-28927-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-26725-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements x
Prologue xi
Introduction 1
Beyond media portrayals of lobbying 2
Revisiting the relations between capitalism, bourgeoisie and
bureaucracy at the European level 6
Exploring what the power of an administration does to the market
and to business representatives 7
A socio- history of the “discreet” relations between EU officials
and the staff of business associations that become
“European” 9
An enquiry into everyday relations between bureaucrats and
representatives of interests 11
1 Entanglement: a new administration in search of economic
interlocutors (1958–1980) 14
The primitive accumulation of bureaucratic capital 15
The CAP and the obligatory grouping of the food industry 23
An administrative world looking to business 27
2 1970–2010: how Brussels became crucial to the private
sector 35
Business representation mirroring EEC institutions 36
The explosion of lobbying with the Single European Act:
companies gain direct access to the Commission 44
vi Contents
Selling access to a closed administrative world: the emergence of a
market in the representation of business interests 52
3 Lobbying: harnessing bureaucratic resources as a weapon
for business 62
Different levels of company investment in lobbying: different
degrees of dependency on Commission resources 63
Investing in Brussels to influence market standardisation 73
4 Routine lobbying: the personal appropriation of
administrative knowledge 84
Lobbyists: an intellectual, intermediary element of the business
bourgeoisie 86
Arranging tours and drafting position papers: lobbying on behalf
of a business association 97
Lobbying dependent on administrative timeframes 117
5 Containing the political and depoliticisation: behind the
closed doors of the administration 126
“Hello again”: regular returns to the Commission 127
The parliament as a snapshot of power relations for Commission
officials 137
Back inside the closed doors of the bureaucracy after the
parliamentary interlude 148
6 Serving the scientific standardisation of markets: the
technical extension of commercial wars 156
Business association staff and standards 157
Partial repoliticisation … but initiated by the business
community 168
Not “lobbies” but “institutes”: business associations transformed
into forums for standardisation conducted by experts 175
From enlisting science to guiding the science 179
7 Expertise in the service of business: lobbying and the
European Chemicals Agency 188
“Of Mice and Men”: toxicological language in support of business
coalitions 189
The reception of “scientific” arguments by officials who are
“technical specialists” 198
Contents vii
Conclusion 207
What is produced by the critical mass of a bureaucracy? 207
Lobbying as a race to manipulate bureaucratic capital 208
The emergence of a new disenfranchisement 209
Democratic deficits and repercussions for national politics 210
Bibliography 213
Index 221
Figures
I.1 Simplified diagram of the decision-m aking cycle in the EU 5
1.1 Internal structure of the European Commission (simplified) 15
2.1 Typical organisation of a European business association in the
1970s 37
2.2 IMA Europe: one letterbox, eleven federations 40
2.3 Typical organisation of a European business association and its
hierarchical symmetry with the Commission 41
2.4 Countries of origin of top 100 firms in the world (1912–2002) 44
2.5 M&A targeting EU firms 45
2.6 Typical structure of a business association in the 2000s 47
3.1 Economic field and mobilisation of firms in Brussels 79
3.2 Mobilisation of firms in Brussels 80
5.1 An open parliament: MEPs’ letterboxes are accessible to all 140
5.2 Publicity material for a breakfast campaign in the corridors of
the European parliament 140
5.3 The passage of a draft directive through the European
parliament 141
7.1 The ECHA stakeholder group members by origin, as shown on
the ECHA website 203
Tables
3.1 The 754 largest global companies and their representation in
Washington, Brussels, Davos and China (by geographical
origin) 64
3.2 Official expenditure on lobbying for 2013 declared on the EU
register 66
3.3 Official expenditure on lobbying for 2013 declared on the
Senate Office public records in Washington 66
3.4 The fifty global groups spending the most on lobbying in
Brussels in 2013 68
3.5 The twenty-fi ve multinational companies receiving the greatest
amounts in EU subsidies and grants through EU contracts 71
3.6 Differences in lobbying by sector (Washington, Brussels,
China and Davos) 74
3.7 The top fifteen contributory modalities on axis 1 78
3.8 The top fifteen contributory modalities on axis 2 78
4.1 Salaries in business associations, consultancies, the
Commission and large companies (2013–2014) 95
