Czech parliamentary diplomacy in the context of the European Parliament

States are considered as traditional actors of the foreign policy of states, although growing interdependence between states leads to promotion of new ways of policy making of the states. It is parliamentary diplomacy which can also be considered as a new type of policy making. Parliamentary diplomacy has its roots in the 50s of the 20th century. This kind of diplomacy focuses on roles of parliaments and their interactions to achieve more effective cooperation between states and achieving foreign policy goals. Agenda setting and strengthening of relations can be achieved through parliamentary diplomacy, which might lead to implementation of own foreign policy.This paper is focused on position of parliament and parliamentary diplomacy between traditional actors of the foreign policy and on the impact of parliament on the foreign policy itself. This is studied on the example of the Czech Republic and the European Parliament, because due to the European Union (hereinafter EU) membership the Czech Republic can influence the direction of the EU and as well as of the Czech Republic. This paper is focused on practice of parliamentary diplomacy based on data analysis and interviews which lead to evaluation of efficiency of using parliamentary diplomacy to achieve foreign policy goals.