ABSTRACT
Interest groups such as firms, trade unions and pressure groups in areas such as the environment or gender equality have sought increased EC regulation. They have done so at the EC level, especially as the Brussels bureaucracy is remarkably permeable and open to lobbying (Mazey and Richardson 1993), and also at the national level. Frequently such activity has been linked to the growth of transnational trade, which has provided important incentives for EC integration (cf. Sandholtz and Stone Sweet 1998).
