This book looks at how agricultural, environmental and anti-poverty organisations engage with EU affairs; the ways they conceive of interest representation and the strategies they choose to represent their constituencies across the regional, national and European levels of governance; and how being engaged with the EU affects them. Taking a subjective approach in which the perceptions of civil society actors are centre-stage, it breaks new ground in covering the different levels of governance and combining representation theory with EU studies. Kröger finds that these groups for the most part are quite ‘Europeanised', and as such can work against the institutional deficit of the EU. However, they do not defend a European interest, as opposed to regional, national or sectoral interests, are therefore not ‘European' and can do little against the social deficit of the EU. This is particularly true for the redistributive policy fields of agricultural and social policy, where actors often mention the lowest common denominator policies of the EU and, as a result, often engage in bilateral interest representation strategies.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations viii
Introduction 1
Chapter One – The Contribution of CSOs to Legitimate
Representation in the EU 7
Chapter Two – Research Design 37
Chapter Three – Representation by Agricultural CSOs 59
Chapter Four – Representation by Environmental CSOs 89
Chapter Five – Representation by Anti-Poverty CSOs 129
Chapter Six – What we can learn about Representation by CSOs in
EU Policy Making 175
Appendix 195
References 209
Index 225
Sandra Kröger is a senior lecturer in the politics department at the University of Exeter. Before joining Exeter, she was a lecturer at Bremen University, a Marie Curie fellow in Exeter and a fellow at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst. Her research focuses on different forms of political representation in the European Union, particularly by national parliaments and by civil society organisations. She has published widely on the topic and also is the convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Representation.