Convincing Political Stakeholders : Successful Lobbying Through Process Competence in the Complex Decision-making System of the European Union

With the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, the EU de facto became a state territory stretching from Portugal to Finland and from Ireland to Cyprus. The previous co-decision procedure was elevated to become the standard procedure ("ordinary legislative procedure"). For the players on the "European Union stage" - the EU member states, EU regions, companies, associations and organisations - this leads to the problem that the outcome of decision-making processes has become largely incalculable. The author, Klemens Joos, points out that, at the latest since the Treaty of Lisbon, successful lobbying in the complex decision-making system of the EU is much more the result of the intermesh of content competence (the four "classic instruments" of lobbying: corporate representative of-fices, associations, public affairs agencies, law firms) with process structure competence (i.e. the EU-wide maintenance of the required spatial, personnel and organisational capacities as well as strong networks across institutions, political groups and member states) on the part of an independent intermediary. One's own concerns are only likely to be successful if the in-terests of politicians and the general public are taken into consideration (change in perspec-tive to the common interest perspective). If this perspective change is successful, process support competence is crucial to achieving the objective.