To what extent can the findings derived from the implementation of EU environmental policy in Germany and Britain be generalised with respect to other European policies? To assess the general validity of these findings, an analytical distinction between different mechanisms of Europeanisation is introduced, identifying three basic patterns of how European policies might impact upon domestic administrative styles and structures. European policies might be very demanding and prescribe a concrete institutional model for domestic compliance; they might be confined to changing domestic opportunity structures; or, in their ‘weakest’ form, have no institutional impact at all, while being primarily directed at changing domestic beliefs and expectations (Knill and Lehmkuhl 1999).

I argue that it is this specific Europeanisation mechanism rather than the nominal category of the policy area that is the most important factor to be considered when investigating the domestic impact of varying European policies. In this context, it must be emphasised that this distinction is analytical rather than empirical, as many European policies might be characterised by a mixture of different mechanisms of Europeanisation. The existence of such ‘Europeanisation hybrids’ does not call the general argument into question, but indicates the need for careful analysis of the underlying Europeanisation mechanism in order to understand the domestic impact of a certain policy.

As will be shown, the existence of distinctive mechanisms of Europeanisation underlying different policies does not call into question the general validity of the analytical framework.