This article analyses the visibility of EU citizens in the European public sphere during the 2009 European Parliament election. It is argued that the presence of EU citizens in the European public sphere is vital since it guarantees that EU officials can hear the voice of the European people so that public opinion can be included in the decision making process. This study first of all considers the theoretical notion of the EU citizen. In a next step, a new way of defining EU citizens in the European public sphere is proposed. More specifically, EU citizens are divided into European and national EU citizens. The paper raises the question whether EU citizens are visible in the European public sphere and looks at various forms in which EU citizens can appear. In a next step, the presence of EU citizens across the national European public spheres of the EU member states is analysed. The aim is to explain cross-country differences in the degree of visibility of EU citizens.
The study is based on an analysis of secondary data of a large scale content analysis of TV and newspaper articles of all 27 EU member states gathered during the 2009 European Parliament election campaign. To explain different levels of visibility, a multi-level analysis is carried out. The results suggest that EU citizens are visible actors in the European public sphere. Yet, their presence strongly varies across the member states. The findings indicate that explanations for different levels of visibility of EU citizens can be found at both the media and country level.
