Slovenian accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004 was marked with simultaneously high support from politics and citizens. As a state with corporatist tradition, a special role in EU decision-making processes should have had also Slovenian civil society organizations (CSOs). Indeed, Slovenian CSOs set up connections with alike organizations from EU Member States as well as EU-level organizations already before the full membership. At the same time, with the start of negotiation process CSOs had become included in the adoption of the acquis. Since many CSOs operated on voluntary basis with no staff or small number of staff, organizations from EU Member States as well as from the EU-level, provided national organizations with important information, expert knowledge, and know-how on EU policymaking. In this paper, we are going to study the process of Europeanization of Slovenian CSOs since the beginning of accession process to the EU. We will focus to the following factors of the Europeanization of CSOs: (1) connections with EU-level organizations; (2) contacts with EU officials and institutions; (3) degree of involvement in EU policymaking process; (4) level of financing from EU budget. To study the effects of Europeanization process we will apply two sources. First, the survey conducted between most active interest groups from eleven policy fields in 1996 and 2012. Second, the Web survey data gathered among the population of national interest groups (N=439) as part of Comparative Interest Group Survey project. Our hypotheses are: (1) The Europeanization process had an effect on Slovenian CSOs during the accession process. (2) In the period of full membership in the EU, Slovenian CSOs focus more on national activities and as a rule influence EU-level policymaking through the membership in EU-level organizations. In this way, the understaffed organization redistribute its activities in public policymaking.
