Measuring interest group influence is one of the major challenges in political science literature. One of the problems is that influence may happen during more stages of government activity than researchers typically look at. When researching influence on regulatory rules, many focus on public consultations. However, researchers have emphasized that a lot of influence happens before this stage. Influence in public consultations might just be the tip of the iceberg, with influence during early rule development stages looming beneath the surface. This paper looks into the issue of interest group influence for the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in their regulatory rulemaking capacity. I combine datasets on interest group influence in consultations and (importantly) interest group participation in rule development workshops. This approach allows for assessing the role of those involved in preparing the regulatory rule before it is publicly shared during a consultation. In doing so, I add to EU regulatory governance literature and interest group literature in general.
