In this chapter, I explore how institutionalization has taken place through mobilization in the area of environmental protection. In particular, I examine how litigation and legislative action functioned as political opportunity structures for transnational environmental organizations. Similar to Chapter 5, we might expect as these European Union (EU) level opportunities increase in formality and magnitude a shift in transnational activism from individual to more collective mobilization. Although this general pattern may hold across policy domains, we might expect the strategies and tactics of these groups to vary. As we have seen, women's organizations had relative ease at utilizing litigation strategies but were less successful at forming a single lobbying organization, an outcome that is consistent with the patterns of women's mobilizing more generally.

Here, I explore the relative success of different strategies the environmental movement utilizes to shape EU rules and procedures. It is through this action that we might expect to find institutionalization taking place. Further, as these rules and procedures provide new opportunities for action and greater inclusion, we might expect that over time this public interest will increasingly become more permanent actors in EU politics. As the civil society gains greater direct access to EU politics we might expect a shift away from intergovernmental politics. As earlier discussed, this analysis will provide comparisons with Chapter 5, in order to highlight the variation and similarities we might expect to find across public interest sectors.