Integration policy in a Europeanized state: Germany and the intergovernmental conference

Two perspectives dominate in the debate on European integration policy in the unified Germany. The first focuses on domestic inter‐institutional tensions and ideological inhibitions that restrict German leadership in the European Union. By contrast, the second highlights the dominant position of the German economy and the weakening of external constraints in the wake of unification. Both perspectives point to important aspects of integration policy, but neither takes sufficient account of the Europeanization of the German state. Europeanization suggests that over the past decades Germany's key public institutions have become progressively programmed for integration. This has implications for analysing German policy in the run‐up to the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference. Specifically, Europeanization calls into question the distinction between mainstream domestic policy and integration policy; the idea of a national interest that exists prior to, and independently of, an interest in integration; and the notion of external constraints on leadership.