Corporate Sponsoring of the Council Presidency: A Research Agenda

Abstract Member states holding the Council Presidency routinely seek corporate sponsors. Typically, these sponsors offer free or discounted goods and services, such as food, beverages, cell phones, software or a car fleet in exchange for being labelled an official partner or sponsor of the Presidency. The practice is deeply ingrained in the Council's working methods, but the degree to which member states choose to associate themselves with corporate sponsors varies. Yet, despite the theoretical and ethical questions that this practice raises, no academic research has investigated the practice thus far. This paper maps the Council Presidency's corporate sponsors from 1999 to the present day and presents a research agenda on the benefits of sponsoring for companies and Presidencies and on the implications of sponsoring for decision‐making and legitimacy.