Europeanisation of interest intermediation in the Central and Eastern European member states: contours of a mixed model

East European Politics. 2017. Vol. 33. No. 2. P. 233–252.

Demidov A.

The article analyses the effects of the EU on practices of interest intermediation in four Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states. It zooms in on the practical implementation of the EU partnership principle for the European Structural and Investment Funds as a requirement that prescribes a certain mode of interest intermediation. The article captures the state and evolution of practices of partnership and argues that a specific variety of partnership between the state and societal actors has emerged in the countries under scrutiny. Actors on the ground have actively engaged with the EU model of partnership, reinterpreted and adjusted it to the local conditions, thus producing a mixed model. The model is characterised by less institutionalised and formalised interactions between state and societal actors and actors’ normative orientation to transparency as the main benefit and purpose of partnership.

Keywords: EU, interest groups, Europeanisation, government and civil society collaboration