Presence of organizations called interest groups in the European Economic Community was becoming more and more pronounced along with progress in integration processes. The author's attention is focussed on one of categories of groups and namely on interest groups of socio-economic character set lip to pursue interests of economic subjects associated in organizational structures (e. g. agricultural producers, industrial producers, hired labour). Even a superficial analysis of the phenomenon confirms great potential importance of these groups for the integration process. Creation of the EEC and transfer of competences in the field of economic policy in favour of different institutions of the Common Market led to gigantic growth of interest revealed by national economic interests groups wishing now to transfer their operations to the level of the EEC. This interest and a need for co-ordinatioh of activities of national groups paved the way for rapid creation of the groups at the EEC level. Analysis of genesis and process of creation of international economic interest groups points at strong relationship between the integration process and creation of international structures replacing earlier national economic interest groups. Stucture and internal organization of groups at the Common Market level is a function of tasks which are to be performed by these organisms on behalf of subjects grouped within them in relation to institutional superstructure of the European Economic Community.
Observation of the process of formation and consolidation of international economic groups of interests within th e EEC points at a relationship between this process and progress in the West European integration. An attempt could be made to explain the nature of this relationship by putting and answering the following questions: — what are the prerequisites of the interest displayed by international economic groups of interests in their participation in the decision-making process at the level of the institutions of European Community? — what is the access of these groups to the decision-making pirocess in the EEC? The answer to these questions is a task of the present article. It is also a starting point for explanation of the crucial issue concerning the analyzed problem,and namely — whether and to what extent activities of the groups of interests determine the contents and direction of integration processes within the EEC. The author analyzes two categories of prerequisites behind participation of international economic groups of interests in the decisionmaking process at th e EEC level, i.e. transfer of goals and competences of the economic policy into the supranational level, and desire of economic units associated in groups of interests to optimize external conditions of their functioning through ex tramarket activities.
After more than five years, over the course of which the EU agenda was primarily determined by the economic crisis (with financial markets calming down but political and economic challenges yet to be resolved), popular support for the EU project tends to be in decline. A growing number of polls suggest that we are likely to observe a surge of protest votes and voting absenteeism, both of which represent big challenges for the European Union. As a consequence, in this clear democratic paradox, an institution constantly increasing its powers and influencing the lives of EU citizens to an ever greater extent, needs to find a way to communicate to them its prominence, and persuade them to take part in the election.
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