An ever closer inter-parliamentary network? National parliaments' priorities in inter-parliamentary cooperation in the EU

Introduction: In the EU democratic deficit debate inter-parliamentary cooperation has gained attention in its function to link the two levels of representation: the European Parliament and the national parliaments. Ideally we would witness the mutually supportive cooperation in an never closer "multi-level parliamentary field" (Crum and Fossum, 2013). The aim of this paper is to understand motivation for inter-parliamentary cooperation on EU issues in cross-country comparison. What factors explain how national parliaments set their priorities in the various formal and informal channels of inter-parliamentary cooperation