Abstract This article explores the EU's ability to frame the public debates about its external policies. The article begins by broadening the current discussions about the three aspects of actorness – legitimacy, attractiveness and recognition – by introducing the EU's framing power as a fourth aspect of actorness. Then it proceeds to an empirical analysis of framing, which is based on a discourse analysis of the news coverage of Ukraine (2002–07) in print media in the three biggest EU Member States (United Kingdom, Germany and France).