National European Discourses as means of constructing European Identity? : a comparative study of press discourses on the ratification of the EU Constitutional treaty 2005 in Germany and France

This article undertakes a Franco-German comparison of the function national European Discourses can take on in the construction of European identity. After a presentation of the state of the art of research in the field and the research design, results of a comparative discourse-analytical study on the press discourses related to the ratification of the EU Constitutional treaty in Germany and France in 2005 are presented. The leading research questions are: to what extent do national European Discourses serve as means of constructing European Identity and at democratising the EU? How do national European discourses of national elites in the quality press construct Europe and the EU? And how are these national European discourses influenced by specific national contexts and factors