This presentation explores the characteristics of the envisioned networks of a Brussels-based NGO involved in shaping European education policy, and it contributes to the literature on interest groups active at the European level.
Interest groups contribute to public policy shaping and decision-making within and across political domains at national and European levels (Bevir & Phillips, 2019). Hence, “the organisation, aggregation, articulation, and intermediation of societal interests that seek to shape public policies” (Beyers, Eising & Maloney, 2008, p. 1103) has received increased attention in European studies.
Depending on normative frameworks and scholarly interests, different terms depict interest groups, especially non-state actors, across studies (Schoenefels, 2021). Interest groups interacting with EU institutions are “generally considered legitimate elements of EU governance” (Schoenefels, 2021, p. 586) and shall be listed in a Transparency Register. These encompass all organisational structures that mediate between public authorities and citizens through a democratic process to serve a general interest, like NGOs. NGOs specialise in a narrow policy domain or issue around which they can network and gather information (Costa & Müller, 2019), act as intermediary organisations (Ainsworth & Sened, 1993), and are perceived as independent “defenders of public interests” (Grant, 2001, p. 338, cited in Beyers et al., 2008).
Since the start of the European integration process (1950s-1960s), interest groups have grown exponentially in Brussels, with a growing number of NGOs (Eising & Kohler-Koch, 2005). Expanding EU governance into new policy areas has stimulated the mobilisation of a more diverse set of interests. Accordingly, the potential for NGOs to influence decision-makers and policy outcomes in the EU has increased since the 2010s and with the establishment of the European Semester (Costa & Müller, 2019).
Compared to other interest groups (e.g. business), NGOs may have more difficulties in mobilising and gaining access to EU policymaking (Dür & Matteo, 2016). However, they are well-represented in closed-access procedures involving the establishment of bodies within EU institutions and agencies gathering a limited number of stakeholders over a relatively long period – like European Commission expert groups and advisory committees (Arras & Beyers, 2020). Particularly, NGOs based in Brussels that are European or international in scope have privileged access to permanent European Commission expert groups (Rasmussen & Gross, 2015).
According to the EU Transparency Register, in April 2023, there were 4,439 registered NGOs, networks and similar entities, of which 1,453 represented interests in education to some extent, and 393 had their headquarters in Belgium – typically in Brussels. Some of these NGOs surfaced in our previous analyses of European education network governance (Milana, Klatt, & Tronca, 2020) and on political mobilisation and agenda-setting in European adult learning (Milana, Mikeluc, 2023). Yet, dedicated attention to NGOs contributing to policy-shaping in European education is still spare.
This study focuses on NGO1, a unique Brussels-based organisation representing a broad interest in education. Established upon the initiative of a few European networks and Brussels-based NGOs, in 2023 it comprised over 40 associate members, not-for-profit legal entities that are either European networks or federations of organisations from more than one country, half of whom have headquarters in Brussels.
We adopted a structural interactionist approach (Tronca & Forsé, 2022) to understand how the actors involved in NGO1’s networks interacted, determining its network governance (Jones, Hesterly & Borgatti 1997).