Do the socio-demographic characteristics of lobbyists affect their access to Members of the European Parliament? Drawing on new research, Iskander de Bruycker, Sandra Martinez-Böhme and Susanna Eiselt find that lobbying teams with a balanced gender composition are more likely to secure access to MEPs, and that similarities in gender and national origin facilitate interactions between MEPs and lobbying teams.
The mention of EU lobbying often conjures up the stereotypical notion of an “old boys’ club”. A quick Google search for caricatures of lobbyists typically reveals a familiar scene: middle-aged white men in suits, representing big businesses and engaged in clandestine meetings.
While this perception may be somewhat exaggerated, it is not entirely unfounded. In a compelling TED talk, Marta Żołądź underscores the persistent underrepresentation of women in EU lobbying, noting that many conferences in Brussels are overwhelmingly male – even when discussing policies that primarily affect women. Academic research similarly indicates that the lobbying landscape is dominated by men, particularly well-educated, non-migrant men from elite backgrounds.
Despite these observations, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the socio-demographic characteristics of lobbyists – such as gender, age, nationality, education and ethnic background – and how these traits influence their access to policymaking institutions. The ACCESS4ALL project seeks to address these gaps by investigating how these characteristics affect lobbyists’ ability to engage with key EU institutions.
While considerable research has explored which interest groups successfully access policymakers – typically resourceful interests – there is a scarcity of studies examining how the personal attributes of individual lobbyists impact this access. Public discourse often portrays lobbyists as faceless agents of corporate interests rather than as individuals with unique identities and perspectives.
Our project aims to shift this narrative by focusing on the human side of public affairs and emphasising how individual characteristics of lobbyists and policymakers influence policy access. Hence, we aim to uncover biases that characterise the daily interactions between lobbyists and policymakers and offer solutions on how to overcome them.
The role of gender and nationality in access
An initial study by project leader Iskander de Bruycker examines how the gender and national origin of lobbying teams affect their access to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Drawing on research into descriptive representation and political stereotypes, the study hypothesises that lobbying teams with members from disadvantaged backgrounds – such as women, nationals of new member states and people with a non-EU migratory background – have a lower chance of securing access to MEPs.
What distinguishes this study is its application of similarity attraction theory, a framework widely employed in the social sciences but introduced here for the first time in the context of interest group lobbying. The theory posits that individuals gravitate toward those who share similar traits. This reduces cognitive dissonance and emotional discomfort, which makes individuals believe that interacting with those like them is more efficient and predictable. For example, female MEPs may be more inclined to meet with female-led lobbying teams, and MEPs may favour lobbyists who share their national background.
To test these hypotheses, the study analyses data from the European Parliament’s door pass register and reported meetings with MEPs using name analysis and desk research to assess the socio-demographic characteristics of lobbying teams regarding gender and nationality. The statistical analysis includes registered meetings from 2019 to 2023, involving a total of 335 MEPs and 329 lobbying teams, with 1,252 individual lobbyists accredited to the European Parliament.
Figure 1: Overview of aggregate patterns in the European population and composition of lobbying teams gaining access to MEPs
Note: For more information, see the accompanying paper in the Journal of European Public Policy
Descriptive results in Figure 1 highlight significant disparities in access for lobbyists from new member states, particularly those in Central and Eastern Europe. Despite these countries representing 23% of the EU population, lobbyists from these states make up only 8% of those who have secured access to at least one MEP.
In contrast, gender representation among lobbying teams appears more balanced. The proportion of women in the general EU population closely aligns with the average number of women in lobbying teams that gain access to the European Parliament. To further investigate these patterns and explore the validity of the similarity attraction mechanism, the study also conducted regression analyses.
The results of these analyses show that lobbying teams with a higher proportion of women are more likely to gain access to MEPs. However, this relationship is non-linear. As shown in Figure 2, access improves as the percentage of women in lobbying teams increases, up to a composition of around 60%. Beyond this point, higher percentages of women are associated with a decrease in access. This outcome is unexpected as prior research on political inequality and gender stereotypes highlights the challenges women face in politics. Nonetheless, these findings underscore the importance of gender diversity in lobbying efforts.
Figure 2: Predicted probabilities of percentage female lobbyists on access (quadratic effect)
Note: For more information, see the accompanying paper in the Journal of European Public Policy
The findings on national origin are less encouraging. While initial analyses do not show significant biases against teams with more lobbyists from new member states, these teams face reduced access when dealing with rapporteurs. The bias in interactions with rapporteurs is particularly concerning as they take a leading role in shaping EU policies within parliamentary committees.
One could partly explain this bias by the fact that teams with more lobbyists from new member states face cultural, language and economic barriers and weaker integration into lobbying networks. Additionally, lobbying teams with members with non-EU backgrounds are less likely to gain access, possibly due to representing organisations outside the EU with limited EU engagement or due to prejudice.
Interestingly, the analyses support similarity attraction: MEPs are more likely to grant access to organisations with lobbyists of the same gender or from the same old or new member state background. However, the advantage diminishes as more lobbyists share the MEP’s background, as one similar lobbyist is typically sufficient for pairing them with policymakers based on similarity in backgrounds.
Why diversity is an asset for lobbying teams
These findings convey a clear message to interest groups: recruiting lobbyists with diverse socio-demographic backgrounds can enhance access and effectiveness in lobbying efforts. Moreover, cultivating diverse teams is not only an ethical imperative but also essential for achieving political effectiveness.
While gender diversity clearly improves access prospects, the findings are unfortunately less optimistic regarding diversity in national backgrounds. More academic research and engagement with public affairs practitioners are necessary to understand the sources of these biases and develop strategies to overcome them.
While this work offers valuable insights, several questions remain. Future research should examine whether different organisations hire distinct types of lobbyists and whether access is influenced more by the characteristics of lobbyists or the characteristics of their employers. The question also remains whether strong representation of women among lobbyists to the European Parliament is generalisable to other institutions.
Further investigation is needed to understand the interactions between lobbyists and legislators, including the causes behind similarity attraction. More precise measures of socio-demographics, including gender, nationality and ethnicity, along with experimental and longitudinal data, could enhance our understanding of potential biases in lobbying access. Thus, many intriguing questions remain for the ACCESS4ALL team and other scholars to explore.
For more information, see the accompanying paper in the Journal of European Public Policy
Note: This article gives the views of the author, not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy or the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: Maria Alam Sraboni / Shutterstock.com
