The Density of Networks in Different Policy Fields: National Parliaments and the EU Legislative Process

Scholars interested in the scrutiny exercised by national parliaments over the EU legislative process have pointed out that national parliaments are coordinating their activities with each other in order to increase the chances of reaching majorities for a yellow/orange card against a Commission proposal for EU legislation. However, there are not yet studies assessing empirically whether this increased coordination between national parliaments is visible in parliamentary debates at the domestic level and whether parliaments privilege certain policy fields to the detriment of others. This paper measures this visibility by counting the number of times MPs refer to other EU member states in plenary and committee debates on (proposed) EU legislation. We use social network analytical methods to construct a network of references to other EU member states by MPs in the Dutch Lower House when (a proposal for) EU legislation is discussed. This analysis is conducted to determine the density of this network through time (1995-2015) and between policy fields. We aim, thus to understand if certain policy fields are more important for national parliaments than others. A second aim of this paper is to identify whether there are differences between types of MPs (i.e. opposition/government, pro/anti-EU) in references to other EU member states when discussing (proposals for) EU legislation. Third, we aim to assess what the effect is on policy outcomes of the references by MPs to other EU member states when scrutinizing the EU legislative process.