This chapter compares UK adaptation with that of other EU member states. By comparing the experiences of other member states, it seeks to give a clearer profile of the distinctive features of adjustment in UK central government. Second, it aims to build on the framework and explanatory model to offer a comparative approach to exploring the Europeanisation of member state institutions. The first section locates the UK response to Europeanisation in a comparative perspective using France and Germany as comparisons. The second section summarises the EU's impact on the working lives of civil servants and ministers across the EU. The third section seeks to identify analytical patterns of adaptation in central governments and government institutions more widely.

This chapter takes stock of the Europeanisation process across the board by evaluating the degree and extent of change that has taken place in Whitehall in the light of our institutionalist approach. It advances a model of Europeanisation to explain the character of adjustment that has come about. First, the chapter uses historical institutionalism as a way of taking stock of developments. Then, it moves on to explain why these changes have taken place, before returning to the model of Europeanisation and adapting and refining it in the light of the findings.

This chapter deals with the EU's impact upon, and the European policy-making patterns of, the outer core of central government. It considers two departments which have been affected by the EU relatively recently—the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence (MoD)—alongside other departments where the impact has been of longer standing but of a lesser order of magnitude. The Home Office and the MoD are the new institutions of European policy-making in Whitehall. The chapter also considers the role of the territorial/devolved authorities, namely the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices prior to devolution and their successor authorities from 1999.

In order to understand the notion of adapting to European integration both within government and in the wider political system, this chapter develops a conceptual framework through reference to ‘Europeanisation’ and institutionalism. Europeanisation dissects the phenomenon of adapting to integration. The discussion augments Europeanisation by using historical institutionalism to explore, over time, the adjustments of UK central government to the EU.

In sketching out the contemporary features of Whitehall's way of organising for Europe, this chapter concentrates on the three key organisations and the actors connected to them that are responsible for coordinating the handling of EU business above and across departments. These form the hub of the EU policy-making system. Initially, the chapter presents an outline of the contemporary structure and operation of this hub. The second half of the chapter considers the main structural and operational changes to it that have taken place since accession in 1973. The EU policy-making network can be defined in a general sense according to its membership but at any particular time according to the business being handled.

This chapter commences the study of adjustment within UK central government. It examines the process of coming to grips with integration: from the early 1960s, when the Macmillan government applied for membership to the EEC, up to accession. In examining the adaptation of the UK central government, the discussion argues that Whitehall's adaptation to Europe began well before UK accession.

This chapter explores the way in which the EU has impinged upon the inner core of departments most engaged in EU policy-making in UK central government. It prioritises certain parts of the Whitehall European policy-making network. These categories are: an inner core of ministries with extensive involvement in the EU: DEFRA, the Treasury and the DTI; other London-based ministries, which have varying degrees of involvement in EU business; and the ‘territorial’ ministries prior to devolution and subsequent arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland thereafter.

The United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union (EU) has been complex and troublesome. The relationship itself is multifaceted: open to historical, political, economic and legal analysis. This chapter sets the scene for the study. It reviews the key events in Britain's relationship with European integration. It highlights the controversies in Britain's relations with the EU and how they bear upon the central focus of the book, namely adaptation in central government. The chapter then examines the different component parts of the relationship by looking at aspects of the reception of European integration in the British polity, and the very different task of projecting British politics into the European arena.