Lobbying on European Policymaking: The 'National' Route

The concept of Europeanization in the interest groups literature has provided interesting explanations as to why some interest groups take their activities to the EU level. However, almost every researcher operationalizes 'Europeanization' differently, which raises concerns about the congruence between theory and evidence in these studies. In this paper, the author argues that researchers should differentiate the Europeanization of interest groups from venue-shopping in the EU. Europeanization should be conceptualized as a phenomenon which goes beyond just taking lobbying activities to the EU-level. 'Shopping' at the EU-level can only be one indicator, among others, of Europeanization. Those studies which focus only on taking activities to the EU-level speak directly the venue-shopping literature which is not exclusive to the European Union. The author argues for bringing research on venue-shopping in the EU and elsewhere into sharper focus, while studying the Europeanization of interest groups from a broader and more conceptually sound perspective.