Abstract
In political science, Europeanisation is a field concerned with the empirical effects of European integration on domestic political structures and public policy, and their normative appraisal (see Jensen and Kristensen, 2012). Research projects on Europeanisation have looked at effects on new and old member-states, countries that are approaching membership or, more generally, political systems that are influenced by the political decisions (e.g. foreign policy) and public policy of the EU. This dimension of external projection of the EU institutions and policies ties in with the literature on diffusion (Börzel and Risse, 2012). It has led researchers to consider issues such as why and how the institutional template of the European Court of Justice has been imitated in other areas of the globe (Alter, 2012). However, the majority of studies revolve around the effects on the member-states, sometimes including also the regional and local dimensions (Dossi, 2012; Pasquier, 2005).