Playing with the Grown-Ups: Regional Influence in Brussels

Much is known about regional activity in the EU from the determinants of regional mobilisation itself to lobbying interaction styles within the EU. There is much less research, however, on the effect of such mobilisation in terms of influence over outcomes. Seeking to go beyond case study analyses, this paper uses original data from a phone survey of senior regional civil servants in 60 regions and 5 European countries to shed some light on the determinants of self-assessed influence in Brussels. While the aggregate level of such influence remains surprisingly – maybe honestly – low, a region’s size as well as its supranational embeddedness contribute to greater influence over outcomes. Meanwhile decentralisation levels only seem to play an indirect role, hence contradicting mainstream expectations. These findings debunk a number of myths about the Commission’s impartiality towards regional actors and the latter’s success in influencing decisions directly at the supranational level.