Involvement of Asian Actors in the European Commission’s Online Consultations in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

In order to examine the involvement of Asian interests in European Union politics, we develop a preliminary framework for studying the involvement of external interests in EU policy -making. Using data on the online consultations of the European Commission from 2001 till 2010, we aim at explaining both the level of engagement, the types of active actors and policy areas of involvement of different regions. We find that that external representation is partly but not fully accounted for by economic ties and possession of resources. Moreover, we find variation in which areas and by which actors different regions are represented suggesting that variation in national-sectoral structures between them affects differences in the character of representation between them.