Lobbying and government relations have become a permanent and integral element of the European legislative and executive practices. However, these relations remain highly controversial, and in general lobbying is still regarded as a ‘grey area' in the European law. The paper examines the most important theoretical approaches to lobbying and the evolution of the Russian and foreign literature on the subject. The author analyses the history of lobbying regulation in the European Union from the very first projects up to the present day and compares European Parliament's and European Commission's approaches to interest groups' participation in the decision-making process. The author emphasizes that the Lisbon Treaty represented a new milestone in the evolution of the European lobbyism and paved the way for a growing influence of the European Parliament and the reform of the European Commission comitology system. Since then lobbying regulation has been aimed primarily at the improvement of effectiveness and transparency of lobbying activities. In this context the paper examines the effectiveness of representation of the Russian corporate interests in the EU institutions. The author comes to the conclusion that characteristic features of the European interest intermediation stem from the peculiarities of the EU political system, its supranational and multi-level nature. The author emphasizes that current lobbying regulations are insufficient and do not guarantee transparency of the EU decision-making processes. In conclusion, the paper outlines possible scenarios for development of lobbying regulation at the EU level.