ABSTRACT
Researchers have put forward seemingly contradictory hypotheses on how European integration might impact on national interest intermediation. This study proposes to include the meso-level in the analysis-in other words, to look systematically at policy-and sector-specific characteristics in European governance. From such a perspective, it seems the impact of EU- level politics could be much more diverse (in the sense of being differentiated between policy areas) than hitherto expected. In addition, attention needs to be paid to the existence, and limits, of different types of impact potentials of Euro-level patterns on the national systems. Although no uniform systems of interest politics can be expected, even in the longer run, persisting or even growing intra-system diversity of public-private interaction might increasingly be accompanied by a trend towards inter-system convergence of policy-specific networks due to the process of European integration.
