Escaping the Gilded Cage? Explaining Regional Influence in EU Policy-Making

To avoid the risk of becoming mere policy-takers without being policy-makers, sub-national authorities (SNAs) have developed various strategies to influence EU policy-making. While a vast literature on different aspects of regional lobbying has developed, this paper examines whether these activities also generate influence, in terms of bringing policy outcomes closer towards regional preferences. By applying the method of preference attainment to five policy processes where regional interests had a stake (agriculture, environment, cohesion, horizon and TEN-T), we aim to measure their lobbying success and explain why some are more successful than others. In addition to structural characteristics such as regional resources and autonomy, we test whether and to what extent regional lobbying activities have an effect on the preference attainment of SNAs. The data was collected during 39 face-to-face interviews with regional representations in Brussels. The findings aim to contribute to the literature’s burning question: ‘Does it matter what regions do in Brussels?’.