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Author: Wendy Zecic

Intergovernmentalism and Europeanisation in the EU Integration Process

2010

Diplomatic and political communication between the European member-states in order to carry forward the process of European integration (in which development of EU institutions is still of crucial importance) is becoming an increasingly demanding task.
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Continuous enlargement, a large number of European policy initiatives as well as engagement of the public in policy building and ongoing debates are burdening the process. This challenges the national governments and creates pressures to communicate the concept of Europe in a slightly different manner in each particular layer of social and political life. Administrative and political tensions therefore are the main characteristics of the dominant European profile: Intergovernmentalism. This paper aims to look closely into the theoretical, organisational and institutional developments of two EU intergovernmental policies, External Affairs and Immigration, in order to emphasise the great difficulty and many obstacles that officials and diplomats are facing in reaching a unison voice of the EU today or in practising their daily agendas. Since diplomats have been and still remain at the core of a creation of any public diplomacy, it is also logical to pay attention to the worldwide diffusion of the Internet, Web and associated information and communication technologies that call for structural and technological adaptations by national political actors (foreign services and relevant media agencies). These agencies have traditionally been responsible for political communication. Consequently, the management of outgoing political news will also be taken into account in this paper. New forms of looking for optimum political decisions are being invented. While thinking about how to more efficiently relate with the European concept of intergovernmentalism, one should look into what the ongoing political communication looks like versus the present EU institutional structures and expected diplomatic practices.

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