To study the impact of European policies on domestic administrative systems one could think of many theoretical starting points, including not only research on European integration, but also on comparative public administration and policy implementation. I argue, however, that the research questions dominant in these fields differ from the focus taken by this study; and thus only provide limited analytical insights for our context. More promising starting points are offered by new institutionalist approaches. Since they reflect a broad variety of different theoretical conceptions, I shall develop and specify a more integrated perspective in the light of the underlying research question.