ABSTRACT
This chapter starts from the assumption that the European Union (EU) forms a multilevel polity in which the European Commission, the European parliament and the EU Council possess important legislative powers even though they must share this political authority with the EU member states’ governments and parliaments. Conceiving of the European polity as a multilevel governance system, the chapter investigates the strategies of national interest groups to impact on EU legislation. The following empirical analysis leaves out the activities of national governmental, parliamentary, and regulatory institutions as well the activities of the EU’s legislative institutions. The chapter focuses on civil society groups, trade unions, professional associations, business interest groups, firms, research institutes, institutions and local and regional authorities from the four countries and at EU level. Political participation on the incoming EU policies and their implementation tends to be far more inclusive in Sweden and the Netherlands than in the UK and Germany.
