Acknowledgements

This dissertation would not have been possible were it not for the moral and financial support of my parents. After having obtained my law degree, they gave me the chance to fulfil my dream of becoming acquainted with the field of European Union studies. My girlfriend’s love and support and my uncle’s unequivocal interest in and support for my academic undertakings made the picture complete. With their help I can now say farewell to the academic world. It has been an enjoyable ride.

A special word of gratitude goes out to my promoter Prof. Dr. F. Govaerts who has shown me the meaning of a balanced and reciprocal relationship between a professor and a student. His advice has been of great importance to me in making the academic step from law oriented theses to political sciences oriented dissertations. A step that wasn’t easy to make in my case.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the personnel of the Infodoc Point at the European Parliament in Brussels and of the Archives services at the European Parliament in Luxemburg. Although they were short of staff (because of the holiday period) and although some of the documents were abroad for scanning and had to be returned, they succeeded in getting most of the documents to me (just) in time.