How to Advocate for “Another Europe” in Brussels?

This article focuses on the transnational ALTER-EU Collective’s campaign for the regulation of lobbying and, ultimately, for an overhaul of the EU’s decisionmaking process. It highlights the limits of the categories commonly used to define the different forms of opposition to Europe and proposes to qualify ALTEREU’s posture as “reformist”: at the same time as claiming its place among the supporters of “another Europe”, the Collective’s policy is to act within existing institutions, rather than calling for a “clean slate”. We can explain this posture both as a strategic choice and as the result of a necessary compromise: while some of its founders were more critical of the EU, a reformist posture has enabled ALTER-EU to make its voice heard in Brussels and to federate its members. That said, this case study also shows the constraints and the contradictions faced by social actors who try to oppose Europe within the European system, because the resources and strategies that have enabled ALTER-EU to act in Brussels have paradoxically contributed to limiting its ability to mobilize and therefore, perhaps, its capacity to transform Europe.