Politics
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The CAP or common agricultural policy is determined on the level of the European Commission. The European Commission and the European Parliament represent the supranational part (that is an organization or authority which involves more than one country). The national ministries of agriculture act as an intergovernmental system of the Council of Ministers. However, there are multiple ways of national interest groups and lobbyists to exert influence on the EC system and law-making process is illustrated in the scheme below[56].
What you see in the scheme is called a multilevel system which can also be described as authority fusion. On one hand, different governments are acting on their own when it comes to law-making processes but also share or ‘fusion‘ their responsibilities at a higher, collective level. Hence, this multilevel system creates more opportunities for interest groups to access the system.
These access routes can be described in terms of three major direct-/indirect routes and three cross-over varieties of those. According to research, these routes are more accessible and therefore more often used by interest groups.
The following describes them on the basis of the scheme above:
1. The direct national strategy: Here the European system (intergovernmental) can be accessed through the own national government.
2. The indirect supranational strategy: Indirect access to the European system through a European peak organization that has direct access to European organizations (supranational).
3. The direct supranational strategy: Influencing supranational European institutions directly.
These three ways to access the European system can be used at the same time to exert influence, depending on the lobbyists' resources and possibilities.
4. The national cross-over strategy: A lobbyist of one nation targets the government of another nation
5. The functional cross-over strategy: A lobbyist accesses the European system through a European peak organization of another nation. (Cross-over variety of 2.)
6. The cross-level strategy: A lobbyist targets a European peak association of their nation or another nation to influence the government of another nation[56].
Lobbyism for biodiversity and environmental protection
Lobbyism is an important approach to avow for environmental- and biodiversity protection in the EU. Especially when a new reform of the common agricultural policy is being made like in the upcoming year 2020. Hence, Lobbying is the chance to influence the reform in benefit for biodiversity friendly measures. However, the strength of lobbyists influence depends on their budget and the size of their institution. It is therefore not surprising that the lobby for environmental protection is not as powerful as the lobby representing farmers. Farmers investing much in political lobbying are a main reason why environmental friendly meassures could not be properly established in previous reforms[12].
“Last CAP reform also started ambitiously but in the end not much changed with
respect to environmental issues, that’s why I am a bit cynical about the new CAP”
- Dr Jerry van Dijk, assistant professor of restoration ecology and biodiversity
conservation at Utrecht University
​What did we learn? Conclusions:
Exchange of: control of policy decision with public support and expert knowledge (Governmental actors are supposed to demand public support and expert knowledge; in return, they offer control of policy decisions and the overview of information.)
Interest groups (national level): National farmer associations, peak organizations of agricultural cooperatives, agricultural trade and food industry associations and unions and consumer associations
Interest groups (European level): Each of these national organizations form their own peak association (COPA-COGECA is the union of the two big agricultural umbrella organisations COPA and COGECA and the strongest interest group for European farmers. Founded in 1962 and headquartered in Brussels, its activity focus is on the Common Agricultural Policy.)