ABSTRACT
All twenty-five national governments take part in the shaping of EU policy, most notably in the legislative Council-phase, where they possess formal veto powers in decision-making. No member state dominates the policy process: all ‘win some and lose some’ – large member states just as often as small ones. But to what extent ‘does size matter’ for national shaping capacity? The literature review in the previous chapters has showed that we lack academic descriptions, other than anecdotal, of this and related dimensions and variables relevant for the shaping process. To explain this academic neglect, it is tempting to point at the sheer complexity and particularities of the EU policy process, which indeed considerably complicate attempts for analysis. But this is no excuse not to gather structured insights into the ways in which national governments shape EU policies, in order to account for their prominent – but debated – position in the discourse on EU policy-making.
