New Players, Same Europe? Looking at the EU through the Eyes of Brussels-Based Journalists from New Member States

The European Union is going through a profound legitimacy crisis. Recent developments have shown considerable limits of the European project as a democratic system. This might clash with the expectations of some newer Member States that joined the EU in the last decade. Indeed, the latest waves of enlargement were marked by a rhetoric of “return to Europe”. The EU was often portrayed as a democratic role model. Media are an important arena for debate on EU matters. Brussels features one of the biggest international press corps in the world. The paper answers the following question : How is the European Union seen and discursively constructed by the correspondents from New Member States? Rather than analyzing media content, which might be subject to editorial and deontological pressures, we concentrate on in-depth interviews with the journalists. Day by day, Brussels-based foreign correspondents experience the most concrete aspects of European integration. To inform about it, they need to understand the European political system and interpret its actions. This sense-making is necessary in order to make the EU news intelligible for the publics. Ten years after the “big-bang” enlargement, we might expect a certain phasing-down of the „return-to-Europe“ narrative. Two contrasting hypotheses can be formulated. The first one stipulates a continuity of pre-enlargement narrative and reinforcement of positive framing of the EU project, while the second one expects a disenchantment experienced by those who are looking at the EU from within - from Brussels. The paper is analyzed using interpretive content analysis.