This paper examines the Europeanisation of the national public spheres in nine European countries during the period 2005-2014. Using political claims analysis, we inquire whether the impact of the current economic crisis and the carrying out of austerity policies—determined at the supranational level, and implemented by each member state—has advanced, or not, the Europeanisation of the national public spheres, which still remain the prevalent domain of public debates and collective identity. We use the Livewhat project’s claims data retrieved from the main newspapers of France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to map the trends of Europeanisation of collective responses that are visible in the national media, assessing their position towards the EU. First, we analyse the prominence of European actors, addressees, and issues in relation to their national, subnational and transnational counterparts. Second, we examine all claims that relate specifically to the European Union, differentiating them from the broader European scope of claims. The sample we use presents a range of countries that allows for comparisons among a variety of situations regarding Europe and the European Union, accounting for differences in the socioeconomic effects of the crisis and the austerity policies.
