The Commission as responsive agenda-setter? How MEPs can shape the EU’s agenda through parliamentary questions

As the European Parliament is the only directly elected institution, providing it with the right of legislative initiative would alleviate the European Union’s often-proclaimed democratic deficit. However, so far, the Commission is the exclusive formal agenda-setter. This poses the question of whether and how the European Parliament can informally influence the agenda. Parliamentary questions are a frequently used instrument to inform the Commission or signal electoral salience of an issue. Thus, the proposed article investigates if members of the European Parliament can use parliamentary questions to shape or even set the European Union’s agenda. Therefore, I analyse if and under which conditions the Commission acts as a responsive agenda-setter by addressing issues raised through parliamentary questions when formally setting the European Union’s agenda. For the first time, the proposed article studies the answers to written parliamentary questions in a systematic fashion. The analysis will rely on a mixed-methods approach utilising both qualitative expert interviews with European Union officials as well as quantitative text and regression analysis.