DOMESTICATION OF GERMANY’S EUROPEAN POLICY AND GERMAN LEADERSHIP IN THE EU: THE CASES OF EUROZONE CRISIS AND REFUGEE CRISIS

Abstract

Germany?s European policy and German influence in the EU have been subject to hot discussions in academic and political circles. The German influence in the EU took a new turn in recent years with federal government?s readiness to enhance its leadership status in the EU and to undertake unilateral actions, when the EU has entered an era of multiple crises in view of severe challenges including the Eurozone crisis and the more recent refugee crisis. This paper discusses Germany?s actorness in regards to the management of the Eurozone crisis and refugee crisis on the basis of the gradually increasing ?domestication? of its European policy. It reveals that Germany?s European policy throughout the two most prominent crises the EU has been lately challenged with, namely the Eurozone crisis and refugee crisis, has been largely shaped by the preferences of the influential domestic actors, who took into account the negative externalities that were likely to arise from the introduction of policies that would impose significant costs on them. Germany?s unilateral actions and leadership role in the management of these two crises (including the making of the EU-Turkey deal on the management of the refugee crisis) should be evaluated in light of the constraints imposed by domestic constituencies.