ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the activity of framing legitimises certain interests and actors in European Union's (EU's) political process, but also how frames are important in constructing a European actorness and identity. It argues that the perception of the need for strengthening Europe's economic and technological competitiveness towards the US is a regular feature in EU politics. Three waves of technology-gap threats can be identified. The first occurred in the mid-1960s, the second in the early 1980s and the third during the 1990s. The chapter analyses how defence equipment has been part of the technology-gap threat in the 1990s, and how a market frame on the issue of defence equipment has enhanced a sense of a European actorness and identity. It also argues that both the power and the identity dimensions are important in frame analysis. The chapter also discusses the industrial and the political idea of creating a European aerospace company—EADC—the European Aerospace and Defence Company.
