Parties Acting Strategically: National Parliaments’ Role in Holding the EU Accountable

Abstract The existing assessments of EU politicization have predominantly focused on the media and in actors that are reported arena. This chapter offers a novel approach to study by focusing, instead, institutional arena six countries. Using MAPLE dataset parliamentary debates, with total 724,963 speeches covering period 20 years, this comparative longitudinal analysis at level, assessing impact Eurozone crisis had debates EU. Automated manual content methods used answer three main questions: Has been politicized level? Did affect parliaments? What characteristics political parties determined salience contestation topic? Our results suggest has not been, past very salient nor contested topic level. However, we find parties’ contribution democratic legitimacy European integration varies significantly, position being strongest determinant politicization.