The multilevel governance literature devotes much attention to supranational governing arrangements and shows that private interests increasingly bypass national levels and become active at the European level (the ‘Brussels’ route). In contrast, this contribution analyses the use of contacts with domestic actors and the national media (‘national’ route) in the EU’s multilevel polity. Building on previous studies, the interactions of interest groups with national governments, parliaments and media are explained in terms of access-seeking by interest groups. The empirical analysis builds on data obtained through interviews, media study and web mining in: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The data map the lobbying strategies of national interest organizations on 20 European directive proposals. The findings of the empirical analysis point to the importance of policy contexts and the salience of issues to policy-makers rather than institutional contexts as factors explaining access patterns.
