Birds of a feather flock together: why EU party and interest group alignments reflect the left-right political cleavage

The role of lobbying in the EU legislative process has been the subject of numerous studies, but to what extent do party political lines affect the nature of the relationship between interest groups and parties in the European Parliament? As Jan Beyers, Iskander De Bruycker and Inger Baller write, there is generally an expectation that business groups are more likely to align with right-wing parties, whereas NGOs campaigning for broader societal goals will more frequently align with parties on the left of the political spectrum. By analysing the context of EU legislative lobbying in relation to 54 legislative acts they demonstrate that this expectation largely holds true, particularly for the most controversial pieces of legislation.