Business Lobby in the EU

Business lobbying is an ever present reality in European Union (EU) politics. With their significant economic and informational resources, business interests are able to exert influence along the European policy process from initiation and ratification of policy at the Council of Ministers, agenda setting and formulation at European Commission forums, reformulation of policy at the European Parliament committees, to the final interpretation, harmonisation and implementation of regulation in the nation state. In being one of the few actors to follow all points of the policy process, business interests are an important supply of information for the development and delivery of EU public policy, and a potential source of legitimacy to policy-makers