Structure, Capacity or Power? Explaining Salience in EU Decision‐Making

Salience as the intensity of interest is a key explanatory factor of E uropean U nion decision‐making. In this article, the ability of three explanatory models to explain the realized values of M ember S tates’ salience is hypothesized and tested. On the basis of the DEU II data, the analysis shows that a mixture of national interest group heterogeneity and membership length has the highest predictive power. The results support the liberal intergovernmentalist claim that domestic interests determine E uropean decision‐making.