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The project
Next to their regular reporting, agencies’ correspondents will jointly produce news digests twice a week, feeding one another’s news wires and dissemination channels, and therefore offering a pan-European perspective on EU affairs to audiences across the continent.
They will set up a physical news production hub in Brussels from which they will also provide training to participating agencies (on cybersecurity, fact-checking and multimedia), as well as additional side services (agenda of events, common space for joint interviews, accreditation service, etc.).
Ultimately, the project has the potential to improve collaborations and journalistic standards in Europe.
The consortium
The European Newsroom of news agencies in Brussels is a project run by a consortium of 16 news agencies coordinated by the German Press Agency (dpa), covering 11 EU Member States as well as four candidate or potential candidate countries. The partners are: dpa (Germany), AFP (France), Agerpres (Romania), ANSA (Italy), APA (Austria), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), Europapress and EFE (Spain), HINA (Croatia), STA (Slovenia), TASR (Slovakia), ATA (Albania), FENA (Bosnia-Herzegovina), MIA (Republic of North Macedonia), Tanjug (Serbia).
Roll-out of the initiative
The project will launch on January 2022. The consortium will start recruiting the central editorial team, developing the relevant IT coordination tools and signing usage contracts between agencies, while exploring options for the physical set up of the project. The European Newsroom would open and publish its first items during summer 2022. The European Commission’s funding will cover its operating until end of 2023 (24 months in total).
Background
The European newsroom project was selected following an open call for proposals, as part of the multimedia actions of the European Commission. It was awarded a €1.76 million grant. The chief objective of the call, launched in June 2021, is to increase the production, curation and circulation of professional and multilingual news media content covering EU affairs.
Related content
Call for proposals | 14 June 2021
The Commission is launching a 1,76 M € call for proposals to increase the production, curation and circulation of professional and multilingual news media content (in any format), as well as non-fictional programming, through European open and digital delivery systems. The call will require close cooperation of several media actors agreeing to share content amongst themselves. This content should cover EU affairs and should be consistently reachable across as many Union countries as possible in at least 5 Union languages.