Transnational Policy-Making, Issue Salience, and the Development of Privacy Regulation in the European Union

How do business interests shape European Union politics? Mainstream theories

stress the role of exit threats in allowing business to get its way, or, alternatively,

focus on instrumental factors like expertise and money in causing pro-business

legislation. We borrow from, and expand on, the growing research in comparative

politics on the importance of issue salience in curbing business power. We argue that

as EU issues move from low to high salience, European leaders strive to protect their

legitimacy, creating the space for transnational civil society groups to gain a greater

voice in the policy process. Furthermore, we argue that such legitimacy concerns

turn the same factors that we associate with the power of American MNCs,

(expertise, money, political connections) into liabilities. This political liability of

foreignness results in American firms having the least influence on high salience

policy. We examine this in the context of the EU's recent revamp of data privacy and

security regulation - the General Data Protection Regulation - that moved from low

to high salience following Edward Snowden's whistle blowing. Taking advantage of a

set of leaked business group position papers, analysis of five key components of the

legislation strongly supports our hypotheses. Increased issue salience, and the EU’s

legitimacy concerns, set the stage for transnational civil society to trump business

groups and assert the public interest.