ABSTRACT
One of the basic functions of the EU is to “provide rules and mechanisms to regulate the behavior of public and private actors across integrated policy areas.”1 In this context, Europeanization can be understood as an internal impact of European governance in the EU member states in which member states are both contributors to and products of EU integration.2 Alternatively, a more encompassing definition of Europeanization is offered by Radaelli who claims that this process consists of
(a) construction (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalization of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, “ways of doing things” and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the EU policy process and then incorporated in the logic of domestic (national and subnational) discourse, identities, political structures and public policies.3
