Lobbying Mechanism in European Union Legislative Procedure and Germany's powerful lobbies

The lobbying system in European Union is very complicated and dynamic. Other than Member States, there are non- state lobbyists in various forms such as unions, multinational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit organizations who try to influence the legislative procedure for their own interests. Applying the concept of Multi-Level Governance and Access Theory, the present study hypothesizes that since European Commission is responsible for drafting legislative proposals, it is the first addressee of the lobbyists. According to this research, lobbyists can influence the vote of MEPs (members of European Parliament) by providing them with information and interpreting drafts of legislations for them. Before the First Reading as well as during the legislative procedure, the representative of the three Institutions - i.e. European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union - meet behind closed doors in small groups to negotiate and compromise for legislative proposals. Even though the Commission drafts legislative proposals based on the information from powerful lobbyists, the Commission itself selects the lobbyists and their tools and controls them. Furthermore, investigating the role of Member States shows that Member States play a more important role in lobbying when they are chair of the Council of the European Union which is certainly a good opportunity for them and their national lobbyists. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine lobbying in European Union, and as such, to explain scientific methods of expanding and creating lobbying in European Union and Germany's powerful lobbies.