A large number of Dutch policy areas is governed by institutionalized European policy networks and European laws and rules. Various forms of multi-level governance have emerged that were seemingly unforeseen at the time when the field of European integration studies was preoccupied by the fierce debates between intergouvernmentalists and supernationalists. Nevertheless, the field has hitherto given little attention to how europeanisation has affected national civil service systems. This article kicks off this special issue with an overview of the recent literature on the effects of Europeanisation on national civil service systems.

The EU is one example of how national states try to manage transnational problems. Countless national civil servants meet in EU working groups and committees with representatives of (non-governmental) organisations to exchange information, harmonise policies and regulations, and decide on implementation. To what extent and in which way do Dutch civil servants participate in these networks? How are their activities steered by politicians? One of the main conclusions of this study is that public policymaking within highly Europeanised departments is highly embedded within these transnational government networks, whereas policymaking within weakly Europeanised departments is to a substantial degree shielded from these government networks for reasons of, among others, the protection of national sovereignty of the Member State in their field.

In this article the question of bureaucratic autonomy of Europeanised civil servants is addressed. As a test bed we examine the political and administrative steering and control of Dutch national civil servants who are seconded to the European Commission (SNEs). The empirical analysis benefits from survey data (N = 90) and interview data (N = 28), acquired from both present and former Dutch SNEs. Based on this material we argue that despite the formal impossibility of steering and control from the member state, in practice SNEs do fulfill a bridging function between the two levels of governance. This may happen by means of frontloading (either consciously, after instructions from the national administration; or unconsciously, as a result of their national-cultural perspective) and signaling (transmitting strategic information and positions from one level of governance to the other). Although the SNEs' contacts within the Commission are generally preserved after the expiration of the secondment, the intensity of the contacts with other types of actors within the policy network mostly decrease rapidly.

Over the past years the European Commission has undergone it most significant changes since its inception. Internal reforms and a long series of treaty revisions have transformed the relationship of commissioners and that of their top officials. This paper describes how the emergence of new rules and recruiting patterns and a change in role interpretations have contributed to a growing demarcation between the political and administrative spheres in the European Commission.