Following the Money: Exploring Business Financial Contributions to the European Union's Political Parties*

Alexander Katsaitis

doi:10.1111/jcms.13032

Abstract

AbstractDo business groups donate to the European Union's (EU) political parties? Does the party's ideology influence the donations it receives? Since 2008, the EU's political parties can receive financial contributions from private actors. This paper systematically maps and analyses the entire population of donations given to EU political parties from 2008 to 2015. The results show that business interests follow a selective strategy targeting with their donations right‐wing parties; with Eurosceptic parties performing better than pro‐integration parties. Conceptually, this study provides a hard resource for conceptualizing EU lobbying beyond information‐access models, and potentially opens a path for comparatives with the US literature. Furthermore, it reveals that some parties have moved away from the public utility paradigm, raising question over donations impact on EU politics and policy‐making. Empirically, it provides a unique image of interest group donations to EU parties over time.

Highlights

A substantive body of work aims to disentangle the complex relationship between the political party and business interests, including why they are formed, how they are expressed, and which factors define them
This paper provides an initial exploratory assessment of business donations made to European Union (EU) level political parties and their associated foundations, and aims to open a research dialogue in an understudied area of party–business relations
This paper focuses on EU-level parties and their associated foundation recognized by the Authority for European political parties and European political foundations (AEPPEPF)

Summary

Introduction

A substantive body of work aims to disentangle the complex relationship between the political party and business interests, including why they are formed, how they are expressed, and which factors define them. In the European Union (EU), despite significant work on political parties (for example, Hix et al, 2007; Lindberg et al, 2008; Roa Bastos, 2012) and business interests (Richardson, 2002; Broscheid and Coen, 2003; Bernhagen and Mitchell, 2009), financial contributions have evaded the research focus This downplays a vocal number of concerns regarding business donations’ impact on the EU’s political parties and its policy-making integrity (TI, 2017). 2004/2003 allows the European Union’s political parties and their associated foundations to receive financial donations This leads to two interconnected questions: Do business groups donate to the EU’s political parties? This potentially opens a path for comparative research with the US literature

Business and Political Parties in the EU

Research Design

Analysis

Findings

Conclusions