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This contribution assesses the explanatory power of European integration theory for the politicisation of specific European Union (EU) issues in mass media and national parliaments. By comparing debates on the EU budget in the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland, on three different budget negotiations, in newspapers and in plenary parliamentary sessions, a rich picture is presented of how visible the EU is, who communicates and how sense is made of EU issues. The comparative framework allows for the isolation of the effects of different national interests, increasing authority of the EU and institutional operating logics. The findings are that authority best explains the visibility of EU issues as the quantity of communication rises in correspondence with the increased powers of the EU. Institutional operating logics explain best which actors dominate the debates and how sense is made of EU issues. The importance of operating logics in explaining communication patterns draws attention to both parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms and media logics of news value criteria. Yet, national interests, authority and operating logics combined provide the best explanation. Theoretically, it is thus demonstrated that different European integration theories can be combined fruitfully to increase our understanding of how EU issues are politicised.
