Table of Contents - 6 Acknowledgements - 8 Figures and tables - 10 Chapter 1. Opening the black box - 12 1. Introduction - 12 2. Why study governments in the EU? - 13 3. About definitions and scope - 18 4. Organisation of the book - 25 Chapter 2. Governments in European integration theory - 28 1. A tale of two why-questions - 28 2. Neofunctionalism - 29 3. Intergovernmentalism - 36 4. Discussion - 41 Chapter 3. Governments in the theoretical new Europe - 44 1. Introduction - 44 2. Integration theory on the move from ‘why’ to ‘how’ - 44 3. Multi-level governance: the messy state - 46 4. How Europe hits home: studies of Europeanisation - 50 5. A new ‘opportunity-structure’ for national governments - 57 6. Discussion - 69 Chapter 4. Designing a framework for analysis - 72 1. Introduction - 72 2. Relevant variables: a literature review - 73 3. Fitting variables into a framework - 78 4. Discussion - 97 Chapter 5. How the Netherlands shapes EU-policy - 106 1. Introduction - 106 2. Stable core values in the Netherlands’ EU policy - 107 3. The growing doubts of a founding father - 111 4. The shaping potential of the Dutch government - 114 5. Relevant developments in the 1990s - 118 6. Discussion - 121 Chapter 6. Research design for the case-studies - 126 1. Introduction - 126 2. In search of a research method - 126 3. Intensive process tracing and analysis - 130 4. Sources and methods of data collection - 138 Chapter 7. Shaping the Gas Directive - 142 1. Introduction - 142 2. The decision context: backgrounds - 143 3. Identifying key actors - 145 4. A bird’s eye view on the decision-making process - 152 5. Reconstructing negotiations around key issues - 157 6. A reconstruction of Dutch shaping attempts - 164 7. Discussion - 170 Chapter 8. Shaping the Biopatent Directive - 176 1. Introduction - 176 2. The decision context: backgrounds - 177 3. Identifying key actors - 179 4. A bird’s eye view on the shaping process - 183 5. Reconstructing negotiations around key issues - 189 6. A reconstruction of Dutch shaping attempts - 194 7. Discussion - 200 Chapter 9. Discussion and Conclusions - 206 1. Introduction - 206 2. Discussing the Dutch government’s shaping capacity - 206 3. Confronting results with theory - 215 4. Avenues for further research - 222 5. To conclude - 229 References - 232 Appendix: The EU Policy Process in Brussels and The Hague - 248 Nederlandse samenvatting - 256 About the author - 264