PLASTICS AND LOBBYIN G - lobby group success in the decision making phase of a policy

Abstract: In June 2019 a new legislation was in place targeting plastic pollution in the EU, banning the 10 most found single use plastic products ( SUP: s ) found in the marine environment. This was an important legislation where the EU lobby groups , mainly the environmental and the industry groups were lobbying the decision makers . T his thesis tries to analyse the lobbying process taking place during the decision making period of t his EU policy , the directive (EU) 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment ( i.e., the SUP directive). The thesis has three research questions that it tries to answer: which of the lobby grou p type, environmental or industry, has been most successful in the decision making phase of the directive, which aspects of the policy did the respective interest groups try to be successful on , and which aspects of the policy did the respective groups hav e success on . Drawing inspiration from previous research on lobbying success and lobbying influence, I have developed an analytical tool to find the different lobby groups’ ideal points in legislation. This is made to analyse the groups success on the i ssues of this policy. The findings show that although the environmental group wanted a stronger legislation, that group was more successful in its lobbying on this SUP directive. The group’s ideal points were most like the pr oposed legislation from the Commission and in the final directive. The industry was successful in some respects in its lobbying, although not to the same amount as the environmental group.