Table 5.

Towards a typology of international intermediaries.

	Supranational organisations	Transnational expert networks (epistemic communities)	International organisations	International nongovernmental organizations	Informal institutions for international policy coordination
Definition	core characteristics: “(1) exclusive competences, (2) internal independent organs, (3) capability to enact binding decisions, which become directly applicable to Member States and to the citizens, (4) the presence of mechanisms of constraint which compel the Member States to obey the decisions even if they have been adopted against the will of some of the Members” (Martin Martínez, 1996)	“a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy relevant knowledge in the issue-area” (Haas, 1992)	“organization established by a treaty or other instrument governed by international law and possessing its own international legal personality” (Bouwhuis 2012).	"internationally operating organization which is not established by inter-governmental agreement" (Ahmed and Potter, 2006)	“Created in 1975 after the demise of the Bretton Woods system, the Group of Seven (G7) of key industrialized economies is one of the most influential institutions for international policy coordination and global economic governance” (Fratzscher, 2010)
Example	European Union	International Resource Panel, European Resource Efficiency Platform	United Nations Environment Programme	Ellen McArthur Foundation	G7/8, G20
Roles in emergence of ideas, formation and alignment of CE meta-rules and their diffusion	aggregating lessons from MS, aligning meta-rules, legislative activities codifying CE rules, developing and diffusing standards and monitoring frameworks for CE, providing research and project funding, leadership and demonstration effects through providing training and developing best practice examples, interagency cooperation, and foreign diplomacy, free trade agreement negotiations	providing knowledge about cause-and-effect relationships of complex problems, framing issues for collective debate, proposing specific policies, identifying salient points for negotiation, shaping expectations, developing standards, facilitating learning, aggregating lesson from different countries	diffusing new policy ideas, sharing best practice, leadership and demonstration effects, shaping expectations, all of which can lead to learning as well as emulation in member countries and developing standards, but also (re-) negotiating (meta) rules	developing convincing narrative, bringing academic knowledge and business expertise together, pro-actively engaging with policy makers within the EU and internationally (IRP, UNEP), providing context regarding sufficiency of rules in addressing policy problems, contesting narratives and interpretations	Fora for sharing best practices, leadership and demonstration effects, shaping expectations, all of which can lead to learning as well as emulation