On the basis of a comparative quantitative content analysis, this article deals with the main modalities of appropriation and with the dominant actors of the political debates on Europe within national newspapers in France, in Great- Britain, in Ireland and in Spain between 2005 and 2006. It is focused on the paradoxes of party communication, developing the hypothesis of the absorption of European issues within established cleavages through the nationalization and the presidentialisation of political debates. Those debates on the EU as transcribed by national presses, foster domestic frames and the low visibility of the European level, while reinforcing the asymmetries of power between distinct actors, in their capability to assure a representation and a visibility to their frames, which thus forges exchanges which are mainly structured through an uncontentious modality.
