NATIONAL GOVERNANCE AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION - INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS IN GERMANY

The impact of European integration on the governance of EU Member States has received growing attention in recent years. In analysing the Europeanization of national political systems, intergovernmental relations are of special significance, particularly in strongly decentralized or federalized polities. Focusing on Germany, it can be shown that European integration has had a major impact on Federal-Lander and inter-Lander relations. However, rather than challenge established features of the intergovernmental system, European integration has tended to affirm, if not reinforce, key structural principles of German federalism. Europeanization is not, therefore, necessarily equivalent to the transformation of national systems of governance.