In the multilevel polity of the EU, the opacity of policy-making processes and the lack of public discourse and communication have been defined as core problems of democratic legitimacy. Yet much of the literature on national parliaments focuses on parliamentary scrutiny in EU affairs, while the importance of the parliamentary communication function tends to be overlooked. The paper therefore analyses if and to what extent national parliaments communicate EU affairs to their citizens. Assuming that citizens experience politics mainly through the media, the project investigates both: the communication efforts of national parliaments in EU politics and their coverage in the national media. On the basis oaf quantitative data on parliamentary communication and media coverage in seven member states, the paper discusses first findings regarding the question whether national parliaments play their part in legitimising EU politics or whether this deficit is not at least partly ‘homemade’.
