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Debateu Jean Monnet Paper No 2019/01 1 Damjan Lajh DebatEU Jean Monnet paper No 2019/01 Damjan Lajh Europeanization of Interest Groups: Comparing the case of Slovenia with Lithuania and Belgium DebatEU Jean Monnet Paper No 2019/01 June 2019 URL: jmce-ljubljana.eu To cite this article: Lajh, D. (2019). Europeanization of Interest Groups: Comparing the case of Slovenia with Lithuania and Belgium. DebatEU Jean Monnet Paper, 2019/01. JEAN MONNET PAPERS publishes pre-print manuscript on the policymaking process and policy studies in Europe. The series is interdisciplinary in character and accept papers in the field of political science, international relations, European studies, sociology, law and similar. It publishes work of theoretical, conceptual as well as of empirical character and it also encourages submissions of policy- relevant analyses, including specific policy recommendations. Papers are available in electronic format only and can be downloaded in pdf-format at jmce- ljubljana.eu. Issued by University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences Kardeljeva ploščad 5 1000 Ljubljana Email: [email protected] Tel: +386 1 5805 227 Fax: +386 1 5805 103 www.fdv.uni-lj.si This publication has been co-funded with support from Erusmus+ Programme of the European Union. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 1 DebatEU Jean Monnet paper No 2019/01 Europeanization of Interest Groups: Comparing the case of Slovenia with Lithuania and Belgium Damjan Lajh Abstract: Slovenian accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004 was marked with simultaneously high support from politics and citizens. As a state with corporatist tradition, a special role in EU decision-making processes should have had also Slovenian interest groups. Indeed, Slovenian interest groups set up connections with alike organizations from EU Member States as well as EU-level organizations already before the full membership. At the same time, with the start of negotiation process interest groups had become included in the adoption of the acquis. Since many interest groups operated on voluntary basis with no staff or small number of staff, organizations from EU Member States as well as from the EU-level, provided national organizations with important information, expert knowledge, and know-how on EU policymaking. In this paper we analyse the process of Europeanization of Slovenian interest groups since the beginning of accession process to the EU. Our main research question is: “How the Europeanisation process influenced the interest groups in Slovenia?” To answer our research question we will build on the typology of Europeanization of interest groups theoretically developed by Johansson and Jacobsson (2016) and focus on the following six explaining factors of the Europeanization of interest groups: (1) contacts with EU policymakers and institutions; (2) interest in EU policymaking; (3) funding by EU projects and programmes; (4) networking with EU umbrella organizations; (5) participation in open consultations; (6) relationship with members. We will analyse correlations between the various types of Europeanization. To study the effects of Europeanization process we will apply the Web survey data gathered in frame of Comparative Interest Group Survey project among the population of national interest groups in Slovenia (N=439) and compare results with case of Lithuania as the most similar case: newer EU member state, post-socialist state and newer democracy and Belgium as most different case: EU founding state, and established democracy from Western Europe. Key words: Europeanisation, Slovenia, interest groups, comparative analysis Damjan Lajh is associate professor at Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ljubljana, Jean Monnet professor, Head of Centre for political science research, recipient of Altiero Spinelli prize for outreach 2018 and coordinator of University of Ljubljana Jean Monnet centre of excellence. 2 DebatEU Jean Monnet paper No 2019/01 Introduction The process of Europeanization had an important effect on the politics, institutions, administration, political culture and actors in Member States. This effect has been gradually increasing with the European Union (EU) having more competences and influence on diverse policy areas as well as with enlargement process. For the newer Member States that have approached EU since 2004 the effect of Europeanization was more intense since in rather short period of time they had to adapt to the membership as well as adopt the acquis. From the start of the negotiations process and until the full membership, the Member States already had to adapt their policymaking processes and administration. This means also the establishment of coordination of EU affairs that dealt with EU matters. What is an additional characteristic of Europeanization of newer Member States is that most of them represent new democracies with socialist past that needed to adapt also to democratic way of policymaking. In this article, we will concentrate on the case of Slovenia, which had to establish itself as an independent state by founding also new political institutions and enlarging the administration. This process took place simultaneously with processes of Europeanization and with opening the boarders and establishing market economy. The individual effect of Europeanization is thus taking into account also the effects of internationalisation, globalisation and processes of democratisation, unknown and hard to measure. We will compare the research results with the case of Lithuania that went through a similar path as Slovenia. Lithuania also joined the EU in 2004, while it gained its independence in 1990 from Soviet Union. The research results will be compared also to the case of Belgium as most different country, which is an established democracy and EU founding state. What is also characteristic of new Member States from Central and Eastern Europe that have been joining the EU since 2000s is the establishment and fast development of interest groups systems in the 1990s that played key role also during the transition. The interest groups system in Slovenia started to develop with March revolution in the 19th century. It has reached the level of Western European countries before the World War II (Kolarič, Črnak-Meglič, & Vojnovič, 2002). However, with the change of political system and the introduction of the socialist system during the Yugoslavia the further development of interest groups has been for some decades frozen. Gradual changes in the Constitution during the Yugoslavia slowly allowed more independence for interest groups and less state control over organisations that were allowed and organised by the state. With the 1980s the new social movements developed, such as peace movement, feminist, anti-psychiatric, concerning LGBT rights and environment that placed 3 DebatEU Jean Monnet paper No 2019/01 new issues on the political agenda and put pressure on the government in a direction of democratisation (Novak & Fink-Hafner, 2018; Fink-Hafner, 1992). During the transition period and after the independence the number of interest groups escalated. Citizens started to organise themselves in variety of societies and associations which resulted in almost doubled interest groups population size (Fink-Hafner, 1998, Črnak-Meglič & Rakar, 2009). Organisations that were based on almost voluntary bases started to network and cooperate with similar and umbrella organisations from Europe and elsewhere with the aim of getting important information and skills (Fink-Hafner, 2007). In this paper we will concentrate on the influence of Europeanization effects on interest groups since the accession processes of Slovenia until today. Our main research question is: “How the Europeanization processes effect the interest groups in Slovenia?” To answer our research question we will build on the typology of Europeanization of interest groups theoretically developed by Johansson and Jacobsson (2016) and focus on the following six explaining factors of the Europeanization of interest groups: (1) contacts with EU policymakers and institutions; (2) interest in EU policymaking, (3) funding by EU projects and programmes; (4) networking with EU umbrella organizations; (5) participation in open consultations; (6) relationship with members. We will analyse each Europeanization type separately and look into the correlation between different types of interest groups. In order to be able to estimate the level of each Europeanization type we will compare research results with the most similar case, Lithuania and the most different case, Belgium. This will help us also estimate weather research results can be representative also for other EU member states. We will continue the article by defining the Europeanization process in relationship to interest groups. In the next section we will explain the role of Slovenian interest groups in EU policymaking during the accession stage and today, when Slovenia is a full member. After the description of methodology and data follows the empirical analysis and main conclusions of the article. Europeanization of interest groups The overview of literature does not offer us one single, unified definition of the process of Europeanization. In most political science literature, Europeanization process is seen as complex and multidimensional process connected to innovation, modernisation, changes or adaptation (Lajh & Novak, 2015).
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