From Europeanisation to EU-ization: The Media Case

It is widely argued that the success of the European Union has delivered more than half a century of peace, stability, and prosperity in Europe, and that this is the outcome of the Europeanization process. In this paper we support the idea that although Europeanization is a fashionable concept, it is also a contested one. We consider, among others, that the main achievement of the European Union as harmonization of the regulatory frameworks among its 27 member states, is the outcome of an EU-ization process that has gradually developed in the 30 years at least. We use the case of media regulation initiated by the European Union to show that the case of EU-ization, at least in the communications landscape, seems to be the driver of the incremental engagement of the EU in the sector.