This article analyses how differences in domestic institutional constellations shape the representational roles of member state officials when attending the EU Council of Ministers. The conceptual framework used draws on theories of political representation, institutional theories and the Europeanisation literature. Our primary argument is that role perceptions are considerably conditioned by actors' domestic institutional embeddedness. Comparing Belgian and Swedish officials attending working groups within the Council of Ministers substantiates this argument. Belgian officials are more supranationally oriented than their Swedish counterparts. This difference is related to varying levels of vertical and horizontal specialisation, federalism, competition among veto-players, the role of the Foreign Ministry, and the level of trust in domestic government compared to the level of trust in the EU.Contemporary studies under the heading of 'Europeanisation' are concerned with how EU institutions and politics affect member states' institutions and policies. These studies take domestic adaptation -in the form of institutional, procedural or policy change -as the dependent variable and use European pressure as an independent variable. The main question is 'how Europe hits home' or the transformation of 'the domestic institutions of the Member . This literature concludes that we are not witnessing a fundamental change in the member states' administrative structures and styles, legal rules, cultures and collective identities. Most studies suggest that the 'effects' of the EU are considerably mediated through, and conditioned by, existing domestic institutions, policies, cultures and identities.This 'top-down' approach has generated quite robust knowledge about the persistence of domestic institutions. However, this approach to Europeanisation has its limits, as it does not adequately explain why member states and their representatives behave differently at the European level.