There is an on-going debate in the literature as to whether national parliaments can and actually do play an active role in EU policy-making. The main reason for this persistent disagreement is based on the lack of comparative empirical data on parliamentary behaviour in EU affairs. The article aims to contribute to this debate by presenting the first comparative quantitative data on European affairs activities of national parliaments and by explaining the empirical variation. The development of a unique dataset including all 27 national parliaments allows us to test a series of explanatory variables for the level of parliamentary activity both at the committee and at the plenary level. Our analysis shows that institutional strength in EU affairs plays an important role. Overall, however, EU activities can be better explained with a mix of institutional capacities and motivational incentives. The specific combinations vary for different types of activities.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract