Parliaments appear as the highest representative bodies of their polities. Yet, they still seem to be the most displaced bodies vis-à-vis the European Union integration process. Starting from this theoretical backdrop, the concrete functioning of the parliamentary arena “in times of crisis” would be observed. The crisis in fact has affected the way in which those assemblies tend to manage EU affairs and exercise their traditional functions. In particular, plenary debates on programmatic documents discussed within the framework of the so-called “European Semester” (2010/2013) would be analysed, as they seem to provide a good sample for the frequently assumed “salience” of the European issue – as well as for assessing the way parliamentarians actually confront and work out “Europe”.
The observation is focused on the Italian case, empirically gaining data from a computer-based coding of the mentioned plenary debates. Italy is here conceived as a “typical case-study” (Gerring 2004).
