The influence of Lobbying on EU Democracy

The present article deals with the issue of lobbying in the European Union and how this activity affects EU democracy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate/show that European lobby has a positive impact on European Union democracy, purpose that will be achieved through making a lobby overview which will include it's main characteristics and features. This paper also aims to define the notion of democracy specific to European Union, trying next to link this two concepts, democracy and lobby, in order to highlight three aspects: the role that lobbying plays, the link created between lobby and democracy and the positive impact of lobby on EU decision-making process and on EU democracy as such. The interest in considering and analyzing this subject derives from both timeliness and from the fact that is a very controversial topic. Regarding the first issue, the EU growing competences and the EU structure as a multilevel governance has prompted a growing interest from lobbyists to European arena, which has also led to increased research regarding this issue. Lobbying is at the same time a controversial topic to the extend that there is still a debate about the role it plays but also about it's impact on EU democracy. Given these facts, this paper seeks to explain and clarify them, emphasizing the positive impact of lobbying on EU democracy.