Europeanising devolution: Wales and the European Union

British Politics 6(3) pp 379-396

On the basis of extensive new empirical evidence, this article offers an assessment of how post-devolution Wales has determined the strategies employed in attempts to engage with, and influence, EU policy-making processes. The primary focus of the article is on domestic political capacity construction, rather than specifically about the impact of European integration on devolved politics (although the two are closely intertwined). What does the involvement of Wales in the European Union tell us about the nature of devolved government in Wales, and, more broadly, the management of the United Kingdom’s European policy post-devolution? Addressing broader concerns with multi-level governance, the article proposes a framework based on political capacity building as a novel way for capturing how regional authorities seek to negotiate a position for themselves between the competing pressures of centralisation and decentralisation.