Interest Representation in the European Union

What is so unique about the EU system of organized civil society? Why does the EU spend so much on citizen interest groups, providing some with up to 90 per cent of their funding? Why are EU interest groups so heavily institutionalized, and can they be independent under these circumstances? Does the EU's system of procedural democracy create a 'level playing-field' with business interests? To what extent, and how, should the participation of interest groups in the EU political system be regulated?

The fully revised second edition of this highly acclaimed book provides an authoritative and comprehensive assessment of the role of every segment of organized civil society in the everyday policy-making of the European Union and of the significance of interest representation for European integration and the democratic legitimacy of the EU.

About the Author:
Justin Greenwood is Professor of European Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe