The implementation of EU Directives is but one example of the broader phenomenon of ‘Europeanisation’. This term has become a catchword in recent political science literature, referring to a number of slightly different phenomena that are located on at least four different levels. First, the term is a times used to refer to the EU-level development of policies and/or policy networks (e.g. Risse et al. 2001). Second, it can mean the reactions in domestic systems to top-down influences from the EU level, be they directly induced by EU law or indirectly by European policies such as the Maastricht convergence criteria (e.g. Ladrech 1994; see also Radaelli 2000). Third, Europeanisation is used to point out changes at the national level induced by transnational influences (Kohler-Koch 2000a). Finally, some authors take a very broad view and include the sum of all of these notions/levels in their understanding of Europeanisation (e.g. Borzel 1999; Falkner 2000b). For the purpose of this book, we shall adopt the top-down perspective as referred to by Robert Ladrech, andwe will try to isolate, as far as possible, the effects stemming from EU politics and (social) policy from other aspects included in some of the concepts mentioned above.

Research on Europeanisation – even if understood in this comparatively more narrow sense – targets a broad and complex phenomenon since all parts of the domestic political system may be affected (i.e. policies, politics, and polities).