Europeanisation as a Discourse: Domestic Policy Legitimisation through the Articulation of a ‘Need for Adaptation’

This article explores how and why domestic policies and political systems of European nation-states are being changed due to the articulation of a ‘need’ for adaptation to the policies of the European Union (EU). Domestic policy changes are legitimised with reference to the conception of the inevitability of European integration. Under certain circumstances Europeanisation processes occur even in areas where we find neither ‘de jure’ nor ‘de facto’ needs for harmonisation with EC/EU policy. Non-EU-induced ‘adaptation to the EU’ is thus claimed to be an underestimated dynamic of Europeanisation. The article analyses processes of construction and communication of policy change proposals leading to Europeanisation and domestic institutional change. It presents a case study analysis of the processes leading to the 1993 tax reform in Denmark, as well as the processes leading to the 1997 reform of Danish competition legislation. In both cases major changes to policies and institutions were initiated and to a large extent legitimised with reference to a ‘need’ for adaptation to the Internal Market. The necessity for actual harmonisation was and is still questionable.