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This chapter examines recurrent themes in the experiences of the countries discussed earlier in terms of European Union membership. It first considers the contribution of Europeanization as an analytical tool for understanding EU member state relations on a country-by-country basis before discussing emergent themes and issues. In particular, it assesses the significance of timing of accession for the member states’ Europeanization experience, showing how timing has often interacted with a geographical focus to each enlargement wave. It also asks whether the Europeanization experience is different for large states rather than small states, or whether the embeddedness of member states’ political systems plays a role. The chapter concludes by identifying different impacts of Europeanization along the dimensions of politics, polity, and policy, including the politicization of the 2010s.

This chapter examines the impact of Europeanization upon the sub-national authorities (SNAs) of European Union member states. The Europeanization of SNAs can be broken down to the effect of EU membership on the policies, politics, and polity of SNAs. With respect to policies, the scarce literature available suggests that SNAs implement EU legislation in diverse ways according to the varying national contexts. The politics dimension discusses the impact on EU policy coordination mechanisms, domestic horizontal and vertical relations, and actors’ preferences and strategies. The chapter first provides a background on SNAs in the EU before discussing the Europeanization of SNA policies, politics, and polities. It also considers the Europeanization of Central and Eastern European Countries and concludes with some remarks regarding the analytical approaches and the variables used in the research on the Europeanization of SNAs.

This chapter explores a number of fundamental issues that arise when studying Europeanization. It first explains what Europeanization is and what it is not, why some parts of political life seem more affected by the process of European integration than others, and how to interpret variation between member states of the European Union. It then considers the theoretical debates about the relevance of Europeanization, focusing on new institutionalism, goodness of fit, mediating factors, and domestic compliance. It also provides examples of Europeanization studies. It reviews main trends in Europeanization research on policy domains, politics, and polity. Finally, the chapter considers research design issues in Europeanization studies.