ABSTRACT
This book, with its three companion volumes, has examined the extent to which developments at the EU level have constrained or enhanced the autonomy of the member states. It has investigated how these developments have affected the substance of national policy, national policy processes and national actors. Claims that power has migrated from national capitals to Brussels cannot be properly assessed without careful examination of this dimension of the relationship. If we are to understand European integration fully, we need to examine not just institutional action and policy development in Brussels, but also what Moravcsik has called, ‘substantive domestic policy adaptation’ (Moravcsik 1993:473). In the first section of this concluding chapter, the extent to which the European Union has affected the autonomy of the member states in the specific area of social policy will be examined, while in the second section we shall compare the findings of this volume with the conclusions reached in the companion volumes dealing with other sectors.
