Polity or Policies? The European Union in Parliamentary Debates and the Media

Abstract

It has been well established in the literature that “something like politicization” has occurred with regard to the European Union (EU). The phenomenon has been assessed and confirmed in different venues, including party manifestos, parliamentary debates and the media. However, studies tend to overlook the potential differences between distinct arenas of political discourse and to disregard the fact Europe is a multidimensional political issue. This chapter contributes to the debate on EU politicization by highlighting the differences between some of the arenas of political discourse, namely parliaments and media, and its potential consequences on how the EU is portrayed. Furthermore, the EU is also considered in its multidimensionality, allowing us to disentangle between polity and policy-related European issues. This chapter’s results show that policy-related issues are, in general, more addressed than polity-related ones; that economic- and financial-related matters still dominate the European debate; and that important differences emerge between parliaments and the media. The findings support both the need to consider the EU as a compound issue and how different arenas might picture the EU differently.