“…She reminded Sarkozy, and hence all other EU governments, that the use of EU funding for the pursuit of exclusively national interests could not be justified (Schmid, 2008). Fully aware that these arguments would raise concern among the governments of other EU member states, she hardly missed an occasion to make her message heard, with the aim of bringing potentially diverse perceptions in line with one another and thereby signalling to other potential veto-players that Germany was determined to oppose any proposal based on exclusion of some EU member states.…”