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The EU’s mysterious missing lobbyists: why haven’t firms been more active arguing against protectionism?

Posted on 21 April 2021

Dr Jappe Eckhardt's opinion piece in The Conversation

European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Dimitrisvetsikas1969/Pixabay, CC BY

Dr Jappe Eckhardt's opinion piece "The EU’s mysterious missing lobbyists: why haven’t firms been more active arguing against protectionism?" is in The Conversation this week.

Jappe and co-author Louise Curran say "It is generally accepted that big business has a significant influence on EU and member state decision-making processes. This is perhaps unsurprising, knowing that there are more than 30,000 corporate lobbyists working in Brussels alone, whose main goal is to influence policies in their favor, with many more in the national capitals. A March 10 article in Politico asserted, “Not even a pandemic can keep Brussels lobbyists down for long.”