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Conclusion This thesis has re-validated Multi-Level Games Theory (MLGT) by applying it to the decision making processes of the European Union (EU) with a focus on the processes that have shaped one of the Union’s most controversial policies—European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). MLGT’s intellectual attraction comes from the fact that it allows researchers to overcome the level of analysis problem. That is, to overcome the problem of parallel conceptualization and systematization of international-, domestic and individual actors’ behaviour. Based on MLGT, it was theorized that politics behind the CAP reform (or lack of them) takes place at three different levels. Firstly, at the international level where the EU negotiates trade and other agreements with partners such as the US. Secondly, at the community level where the governments of the EU member states negotiate between themselves (and with the Commission which serves as their chief negotiator at the international level) in order to decide how the CAP should be governed. Finally, there are always on-going negotiations within each member state in regards to what position the government should take at the community level. All three levels are always interconnected and all actors are present in all game boards. This means that events in one game can destabilize the status quo in another. Analysis of the CAP reform called Mid-Term Review (MTR) with MLGT revealed how various issues such as the Iraq War, extension of direct payments to the New Member States, the EU’s future budget and de-coupling of support measures were used by various political actors, such as national chief executives and the community level chief executive Commissioner Fischler, to advance their agenda. The task of the MLGT ultimately was to explain policy persistence in face of mounting criticism and it can be argued that MLGT still 69