Decision-making Process and Lobbying in the EU

obligatory courses

Students have the knowledge on theory of international organization, on international realtions and on administration and political systems.

The course will cover two components: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part will analyse the UE institutions and their prerogatives as well as decision making processes in all the EU. The main part of the course will concentrate on the role of lobbing in the EU decision-making process. The practical part will focus on inviting guests - experts, officials, lobbyists - directly involved in the decision-making process of the EU, who will present the practical dimension of the functioning of the EU.

The aim of the lecture is to provide the participants with knowledge on. Decision-making processes and the functioning of the institutional system of the European Union. Part of the course will be devoted to explaining the phenomenon of lobbying in the EU and mechanisms of influence of pressure groups on individual institutions and the decision-making process of the EU.

I. Introduction

1. Compromise as the primary decision-making mechanism in the EU

2. Role of the Member States and EU institutions in the development of individual policies

II. EU Institutions in the decision-making process:

1. The European Council as an institution of the most important strategic and decision-making

The nature, composition and place in the EU institutional system

2. The Council (Council of the European Union)

The nature, character, composition, powers

The methods of decision-making in the Council

3. The European Commission

The nature, character, composition, powers

Decision-making process and working methods KE

4. The European Parliament

The nature, character, composition, powers

Working methods and decision-making process inside the EP

5. The subsidiary bodies of the European Union:

a) The Committee of the Regions

The nature, character, composition, powers, decision-making process

Lobbying regions in the EU decision-making

b) The Economic and Social

The nature, character, composition, powers, decision-making process

III. Lobbying - theoretical and practical approach in the EU

1. Definitions of lobbying

2. Types of pressure groups

- The economic groups of interest

COPA - COGECA (Committee of Agricutural Organisations in the EU)

ERT (The European Round Table of Industrialists)

UNICE / BusinessEurope - (The Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederation of Europe)

ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation)

Eurochambers (Association of Professional Chambers of Industry and Commerce)

- National organizations lobbying

eg. the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI);

AMACHAM – EU (EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce) Committee of American Chambers of Commerce to the EU

- Group of the public interest

BEUC (1962 - The European Office of Consumer Unions)

COFACE (1979 - The Confederation of Family Organisations)

- Associations and organizations representing the interests of regional/local communities

- Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises

IV. The most important decision-making processes in the institutional system

1. The ordinary legislative procedure: the course of the procedure and the scope of the

2. Special legislative procedures: the course of the procedures and the scope of

3. The budgetary procedure

4. The process of subtraction decision within the Foreign and Security Policy

5. Method committees - comitology

6. Open Method of Coordination

Student workload:

lecture - 30 h

preparation for the lecture - 45 h

preparation to pass a final exam - 45 h

total - 120 hours

A. Adamczyk, Mechanizmy współpracy w Unii Europejskiej, “Studia Europejskie” nr 3/2008

A.A. Ambroziak (red.), Proces decyzyjny w Unii Europejskiej. Przewodnik dla urzędnika administracji publicznej, MSZ, Warszawa 2010 r.

J. Barcz, Unia Europejska na rozstajach: Traktat z Lizbony: dynamika i główne kierunki reformy ustrojowej, EuroPrawo, 2010

C.F. Borgostroem, Comitology, Delegation of Powers in the European Union and the Committee System, Oxford 2005

S. Bieleń, Negocjacje w stosunkach międzynarodowych, Aspra – JR, Warszawa 2014

Bryła J., Negocjacje międzynarodowe, WSZiB, Poznań 1997.

Ciechański J., Otwarta metoda koordynacji w Unii Europejskiej, Warszawa 2003.

D. Cohen, J. J. Richardson, Lobbying the European Union: institutions, actors

and issues, Oxford University Press, 2009.

D. Cohen, EU lobbying: empirical and theoretical studies, Routledge, 2008.

J. Maliszewska-Nienartowicz, System instytucjonalny i prawny Unii Europejskiej, TNOiK, Toruń 2010

M. Karasińska-Fendler (red.), Komitety i komitologia, Łódź 2005

T. Łoś-Nowak, Grupy nacisku w stosunkach międzynarodowych, „Stosunki międzynarodowe” 2003, nr 1–2.

R. van Schendelen, Machiavelli in Brussels: The Art of Lobbying the EU, Amsterdam University Press, 2002

T. Takacs, Participation in EU Decision Making, T.M.C. Asser Press, 2009.

H. Wallace, M.A. Pollack & A.R. Young, (eds.), Policy-Making in the European Union (6th edition), New York, Oxford University Press, 2010

B. Woszczyk, Zjawisko lobbingu w Unii Europejskiej, Duet, 2004

Z. Czachór, Kryzys i zaburzona dynamika Unii Europejskiej, Warszawa 2013.

Z. Czachór, Zmiany i rozwój w systemie Unii Europejskiej po Traktacie z Maastricht, Wrocław 2004.

Z. Czachór i M.J. Tomaszyk (red.), Przewodnictwo państwa w Radzie Unii Europejskiej – doświadczenia partnerów, propozycje dla Polski, Poznań 2009.

Z. Czachór, T.Szymczyński (red.), Priorytety prezydencji Polski w Radzie Unii Europejskiej, red. z, Warszawa 2011.

After completing the course, student knows all the decision-making processes taking place in the European Union. He is able to define the individual elements and show all those involved in the process of preparing decisions. Student understands the rules of lobbying in the EU. Every student knows the most important interest groups and lobbying organizations influencing the decision-making process.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

Within the sphere of knowledge:

• have an in-depth understanding of the institutional structure of the EU

• know about the every decision making process and stages of these processes in EU institutions,

• know about the rules of lobbing in EU institutions,

Within the sphere of skills:

• explain the principles of decision making process in the European Union institutions,

• define the problem of competences of the EU institutions,

Within the sphere of social competence:

• formulate their own opinions on the activity of the EU institutions,

• criticize events relating to institutional problems of the EU,

• understand the need to update the knowledge of the European institutions

Writing exam