This article examines modalities of rule adoption from the EU's acquis communautaire under conditions of membership uncertainty Drawing upon the case of Turkey we probe into the viability of a policy-type approach (drawing upon Theodor Lowi). Our main contention is that the substantive design of policies (distributive or redistributive qualities) has consequential implications for the form (conflict-free vs. veto player constellations) and outcome (transposition likelihood) of the subsequent political process. The proposed policy-type approach internalist in its outlook is thus readily compatible with available Europeanization models which are externalist insofar as being premised on the study of domestic politics. In terms of policymaking the EU needs to make more frequent use of policy-based intermediate rewards to encourage rule adoption where membership prospects are uncertain.