Networkers, fund hunters, intermediaries, or policy players? The activities of regions in Brussels

West European Politics (WEP) covers political and social issues in Western Europe. It has a substantial reviews section and coverage of all national elections in Western Europe.

Its comprehensive scope, embracing all the major political and social developments in all West European countries, including the European Union, makes it important reading for both political practitioners and academics.This article forms part of a special issue: Multilevel Interest Representation in the European Union: The Role of National Interest Organisations

Abstract:

Regions started opening offices in Brussels in the mid-1980s. Today, well over half of Europe’s regions are present there. What do they do once they are in Brussels?

Are they mainly networking, chasing funding, acting as intermediaries, monitoring legislation, or trying to influence the EU’s decision-making process? No study has analysed this question apart from the pioneering work by Marks et al. in 2002.

This article breaks new ground by analysing both group-level and contextual factors in a series of multilevel models. Based on a survey of regional offices in Brussels, results indicate that contextual factors, such as levels of self-government back home, matter. However, group-level characteristics, such as an office’s longevity in Brussels, seem to affect a wider range of activities.

Overall, older offices are more interested in the EU policy-making process and less interested in chasing funds or networking. Conversely, offices representing regions with weaker self-governing capacities rather conceive of their role as that of an intermediary, acting as an interface between the region and the EU institutions.