SMEs in the European Policy-Process Interest representation and influence

Abstract: The European Commission stresses the importance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) for the European economy. SMEs are held to be the "backbone" of the European industry and their prosperity will enable the EU to reach the Lisbon strategy's goals about growth and competitiveness. Yet large enterprises are normally seen as the influential business interests in European policymaking. The purpose with this thesis is therefore to analyse the possibility for SME interests to influence the EU policy-process. Swedish SME interest associations, and European SME federations, constitute the units of analysis. Theories on business associations and policy-making in the EU, together with reports on SME organisations access and representation in the multilevel EU system's institutions, form the outset. Interviews were conducted with representatives for SME organisations and officials working with SME questions in Sweden and in Brussels. This in order to reveal representation patterns, SME importance, and institutional accessibility. The analysis shows that SME interests can frame the EU economic objectives, but that institutional arrangements and barriers make it difficult for SME interests to be influential within the entire EU policymaking system. In addition, SME interest representation is mostly horizontal, with a cross-constituency, and EU policymaking is often conducted in sectoral settings. This produce less widespread SME interests representation in the EU policy-process.