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Intergovernmental method

Co-operation between governments on the basis of maintaining state sovereignty. This is in contrast to supra-national integration, where governmental functions and powers (competences) are shifted from the national to the EU level. 
 
The EU can be reduced to a 'pillar' structure. The EU is supra-national in the first pillar where EU law trumps national law in any case of conflict. It is intergovernmental in the second pillar of Foreign and Security Policy and the third pillar of Justice and Home Affairs. In the latter two pillars, Member States retain their traditional national sovereignty. The EU Constitution removes the intergovernmental pillars.

Notes

Intergovernmental theories of European integration regard the relations between governments at the supra-national as well as the international level, as the most important reason for EU integration.