ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that liberal intergovernmentalist explanations of international bargaining are convincing. It focuses on the example of the negotiation of the ESDP at the Nice IGC and particularly the role of officials and politicians. The chapter reviews that negotiations on issues that can be construed as forming part of a Europeanization agenda are a process of 'successive limited comparisons' between negotiators who were trying to secure a position that met with all their respective lowest common denominator aspirations. It also argues that negotiators retain a 'gatekeeper' role between domestic public and political audiences and other member government negotiators and, furthermore, that the EU's primary function is to serve as a co-ordinating forum for national policies. It highlights the dynamics within 'formal Europeanization' and the processes at work behind the preparation for intergovernmental negotiations, processes that are unique to the formal Europeanization of defence, but not necessarily to other Europeanization processes.
