ABSTRACT
Most scholarly attention to European integration has been focused on the degree to which member-states’ preferences can be translated in EU decision-making. Some looked at the role of the member-states in treaty revisions, others concentrated upon the degree of member-state influence in the EU Council and the relations between this institution and the Commission and European Parliament. Putnam has been one of the first to refer to the complex interactions between EU and national decision-making (Putnam, 1988). His ‘two-level game’ only referred, however, to the double role played by national representatives in the Council, the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) and the numerous working groups. The influence of the process of European integration for the member-states goes deeper, however. It is not only reflected in the double role of national decision-makers but also in the structural changes on the national level that have been entailed by European integration. Even here, the influence cannot but be underestimated. Structural changes that at first sight seem to be the result of national processes have been influenced by the ‘European embeddedness’ of the EU member-states.
