This seminar will present research on MEPs' agenda-responsiveness, analysing written parliamentary questions, a key instrument of individual political signalling, over the period 2004–2024. In this seminar, focusing on economic and migration issues, we will compare responsiveness across two main dimensions.

First, we will examine the sources of political signals, assessing whether MEPs adjust their attention to national-level issue salience, as measured by Eurobarometer data, or to EU-wide trends. Second, we will explore institutional incentives, considering how different electoral systems, candidate-centred versus party-centred, shape patterns of representation.

Drawing on a longitudinal dataset, we will analyse whether the EU’s representative chain is fragmented by national parochialism or harmonised by a shared European agenda. The seminar will also reflect on how these findings contribute to the "democratic deficit" debate by revealing the conditions under which MEPs function as national versus supranational representatives.

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