Samenvatting

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.