Lobbying and Legitimacy in the European Union

The authors explore the monograph of a young scholar Daria Moiseeva (Rudenkova), holding that her research is topical for the development of political science and European studies in Russia. The book deals in detail with the lobbying practices in the EU political system. Analyzing the problem of democratic legitimacy in the EU, Moiseeva uses the concept of throughput legitimacy, which is not well known for Russian researchers. The monograph shows that the strengthening of the political component in the process of European integration generates a request for democratization of the EU political system. In order to resolve these problems, it is necessary to improve the level of transparency of the decision-making process and introduce lobbying regulation. Daria Moiseeva analyzes the practice in the post-Lisbon period of interaction between EU institutions and different interest groups/lobbyists, i.e. lobbying in the system of comitology. The Moiseeva's monograph is highly important as Russian companies working in the EU Single market need to defend under sanctions regime their interests in the EU structures.