Who pays the price? Framing of the EU coronabonds negotiations in Spanish and Dutch newspapers.

Abstract

In the spring of 2020, nine European Union member states, among which Italy and Spain, called for “coronabonds” to finance the economic losses caused by the coronavirus. The idea of these joint obligations sparked heated EU negotiations in March and April 2020. The current study presents a cross-national analysis of how these coronabonds negotiations were framed by Dutch and Spanish news media. By means of a discourse analysis approach, frames were uncovered and consequently put into context. All in all, this study sheds light on a new and barely researched political economic event. It provides valuable insights on how a variance in frames may arise between northern, economically stronger countries and debt facing southern countries within the EU.