The aim of the call is to increase the variety of news, informative content (and, potentially, programming) with a pan-European perspective available to citizens. The content should have a general interest approach, i.e. covering current affairs and topics relevant to the daily lives of European citizens. Applicants are encouraged to develop news hubs under sound editorial standards and oversights over the production and curation of content.
Applicants will need to show how their proposal will contribute to strengthening the European information space (beyond purely national markets) and to ensuring that citizens receive pluralistic quality information from multicultural and multilingual sources. Proposals should be accompanied by an outreach plan. The plan should identify the target audiences and relevant multipliers for the final product.
This content should be appealing and innovative. Applicants will be jointly responsible for the content produced under the scheme through their joint-editorial systems. They are expected to build on existing distribution mechanisms of news, informative content and/or factual programming, and enrich them with new content, and/or consider new platform(s) if deemed necessary.
The European Commission expects applicants to gather different news media organisations from at least five EU Member states.
To be eligible, applicants must be active in the news media industry. The final grant agreement will include a charter of independence to make sure that applicants can operate without any political interference
The maximum co-financing rate of is 80% of the total eligible costs.
The call for proposals, application forms and all relevant documents and available here below.
Expected results
Increased availability, coverage and consumption of news around Union affairs in at least five Union languages. Production, curation and circulation of news content produced by professional news media companies in the Union, through common hubs and delivery systems. In the long-term this could lead to larger engagement from citizens in European news and affairs and help increase the levels of trust for quality news content online.
The territorial focus of this action is: EU Member states, candidate and potential candidate countries[1].
The expected duration of projects is 24 months, starting in January 2022.
Questions for this call should be sent to cnect-multimedia-actions@ec.europa.eu at the latest on 8 September. All questions and answers will be published, anonymously, on this page.
More information
This activity is carried out within the Multimedia Actions framework, which is aimed at funding general information, news and programmes, to citizens on operations concerning the Union, for the purpose of increasing the visibility of the work of the Union institutions, the decisions taken and the stages in the building of Europe, so as to allow citizens to make full use of their right to be informed about and involved in European policies and contributing to a better European public sphere. Apart from news reports about the activities of the main EU institutions, the Union affairs may include:
- Economic, political and cultural affairs of all Member States, compared and contrasted in the way in which they deal with the same issues;
- Decisions taken at national and regional level which have the potential to shape views on the Union or affect the daily lives of significant numbers of Union citizens in other Member States;
iii. Economic, political and cultural affairs of one Union Member State, illustrating to citizens of other Union countries how issues of common concern are addressed.
The latest Financing decision (2021) on Multimedia Actions is available at:
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/2021-financing-decision-multimedia-actions
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/countries/check-current-status_en