Defending Communicative Spaces

The role of the European Parliament in the formation of media and cultural policies is a largely underresearched area, despite the implications of the institution’s active involvement in supranational decision-making regimes for emancipatory politics in Europe. Through a historical overview, this article argues that the EP has successfully defended existing communicative spaces and promoted the creation of new ones. In its efforts to defend European communications and culture from processes of cultural domination, however, it has failed to acknowledge dominations within the EU. The article positions the institution within a supranational arrangement of economic and political power and identifies the structural constraints and resistance space for public interest centred politics.