Lobbying i EU: frågan om socker och dess reglering: En analys av hur de stora livsmedelsföretagen influerar beslutsfattandet och förhindrar reglering av socker genom lobbyverksamhet i EU

Abstract

This is a Bachelor thesis on the subject of the food industry’s influence over the EU institutions. The purpose of the thesis is to find out how the great food companies affect the EU legislation on sugar regulation through lobbying. The thesis describes how the EU food- and health policies are shaped and how the lobbying works. The methodology used for the thesis is a qualitative content analysis and the theory is lobbyism. The aim of the analysis is to find words, expressions and utterances that indicate the food industry’s conflict of interests. The documents treated in the thesis are the EUs ”Roadmap for Action on Food Product Improvement”, ”Annex II: Added sugars” and the two final documents are protocols from two meetings held with the EU platform for action on diet, physical activity and health in 2016. The policies shaped within the EU are influenced by different interests. The presence of the food industry when issues are discussed and decisions are made affects the legislation. The legislation will have an actual effect on people´s lives. Consequently there is an ethical dimension to the fact that legislation concerning health is influenced by business interests. Is it ethically defensible for the food industry to fight legislation that could improve people´s health and well-being? It is interesting to investigate how the interest groups influence the policy makers in order to obtain legislation that does not conflict with business interests. Within this context it is of great importance and relevance to study the effects of lobbyism on the decision-making in the EU, because this will have an effect on the people in the union