[From the introduction]. This paper tries to understand whether the EU system of interest representation is indeed Americanizing. How important are sector-wide groups at the European and at the national level for the political activities of their members? Are comprehensive business groups side-lined on salient issues, because firms chose to lobby on their own? How do firms pursue their interests in a multi-level policy? To answer these questions, we have selected 14 recent EU policy issues that have been particularly salient to the firms in the sector to which the proposed legislation would apply. We have then studied the ten largest firms in each affected sector, their national business associations and the most relevant EU associations, a total of 136 firms and 115 associations, of which 80 are national and 35 are EU-groups. To gather information on the ways in which firms tried to represent their interests, we have conducted a newspaper search for each policy issue and surveyed all articles that associated the policy issue with the name of a firm or association to find information about lobbying activities. Such a newspaper survey certainly does not reveal all political activities of the firms in question, but it helps to distinguish when and how firms are becoming active on their own behalf and when they choose to remain less visible
