Abstract
This study seeks to make a contribution to a limited research on the systemic level of of the national coordination of European affairs, which involves both domestic institutions and a permanent representation at the EU and national embassies in the EU member states and other countries. We explore the issue trough a case study, which concentrates on 1) several middle-sized EU member states and 2) coordination in the field of foreign and security policy.
The study argues that coordination at the systemic level has a rather a centralized character. The elements of decentralization, which can be also identified at the systemic level, are primarily related to information-gathering, as well as representation at negotiations.
Permanent representations are considerably more involved in coordination than national embassies.