This book explores the debate and politicisation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations in the Spanish, French and British public spheres. It addresses the questions of how and to what extent national media discourses about the TTIP were Europeanised, and how this type of Europeanisation of public spheres contributes to the democratic legitimacy of the EU. The author argues that the EU’s democratic deficit is based not only on the lack of Europeanisation of public spheres, but also on the lack of (agonistic) conflict. Instead of ‘constraining’ European integration by the absence of consensus, dissensus can enlarge the political arena beyond the national public spheres by embedding European issues into national political debates. The agonistic politicisation of the TTIP in the European public spheres should be seen as a symptom of the ‘normal’ politics of a democratic polity. In this vein, demands for a different EU or the claim that ‘Another Europe is Possible’ reinforce rather than hinder the European integration process.weiterlesen