Determining a European policy in a multi-level setting: the case of specialized co-ordination in Belgium

The EU membership of federal states poses particular problems in terms of the internal determination of the positions that the member states concerned will defend in the EU. This is particularly the case for Belgium where on many issues a consensus among the federal government and its subnational counterparts is required before Belgium can take a position in the EU Council. As a consequence, Belgium needed to create coordination systems that parallel the different layers of the Council decision-making in the EU (Council, Coreper, working groups). This article focuses on the level of the working groups, i.e. the specialized coordination systems and tries to find the factors that explain the creation of these systems and their nature.