Lobbying in the EU Comitology System - Experiences of Actors in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Croatia

Ovaj rad nastoji analizirati proces lobiranja unutar sustava komitologije EU. Radi se o neistraženom sustavu odbora EU koji je do nedavno bio izvan radara akademske zajednice. Međutim, interes za proučavanje sustava komitologije se povećao te je i mene nagnao na istraživanje jednog aspekta tog dijela političkog sustava Europske unije, a to je fenomen lobiranja. Radi se o studiji slučaja kojom se pokušava izgraditi teorija koja bi bila primjenjiva na ostale slučajeve. Kao ogledni primjer odabrana je farmaceutska industrija zbog svoje snažne organizacije te jakog utjecaja. Podaci su prikupljeni putem polu-strukturiranih intervjua s akterima farmaceutske industrije u Hrvatskoj. Kroz analizu i sintezu njihovih iskustava, uz pomoć process-tracing metode, kreira se teorijski opis te hodogram procesa lobiranja unutar sustava komitologije EU, kao originalni doprinos ovog rada.This paper seeks to analyze the lobbying process within the EU comitology system.It is an unexplored system of EU committees that until recently was off the radar of academia. However, interes in studying EU comitology has increased, and has also pushed me to explore one aspect of this part of the European Union's political system, which is the phenomenon of lobbying. It is a case study attempting to construct a theory that would be applicable to other cases. The pharmaceutical industry was chosen as an example because of its strong organization and influence. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with pharmaceutical industry actors in Croatia. Through the analysis and synthesis of their experiences, with the help of the process-tracing method, a theoretical description and a flowchart of the lobbying process within the EU comitology system are created, as the original contribution of this paper