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In July 2021, the Commission launched a Call for Proposals worth EUR 5,98 M, following the approval by the European Parliament of a Preparatory Action. Applicants were requested to expand the use of well-established online offers and enhance their news content and/or programming in multiple European languages.
Three projects have been selected and have started in April/May 2022, with a duration of 12-15 months. The projects follow the usual journalistic standards and retain full editorial independence, guaranteed by an editorial charter of independence in all grants.
Selected projects
A multilingual affairs offer for all Europeans.
As a project coordinator, the TV broadcaster ARTE will join forces with six media outlets from across Europe and several other broadcasters to develop a cooperative project on current affairs. The project will rely on the partners’ media platforms and social media channels to facilitate access to accurate and independent information and programming. It contains two content strands:
- A multilingual weekly European news show, implemented with European media outlets.
- ‘The European Collection’: a common video-on-demand offering of medium length, in-depth documentaries and investigative reports on current European issues, implemented by TV broadcasters.
Consortium formed by ARTE (FR-DE), El País (ES), Gazeta Wyborcza (PL), Internazionale (IT), Kathimerines (GR), Le Soir (BE), Telex (HU). Associating for ‘The European Collection’ ARD (DE), ZDF (DE), FTV (FR), and the Swiss SSR/SRG.
EU funding: €2.5 million
A European Perspective
‘A European perspective’ is a joint project by several European leading public broadcasters and media outlets. The partners will prepare and curate news and publish them through a recommendation box placed on their websites. The project relies on a decentralised newsroom anchored in public service and constructive values and focuses on European topics. The project objective is to forge a better understanding between Europeans.
The consortium will explore new areas of technical innovation, such as developing recommendation systems based on “public service algorithms”. The project also aims to create distribution partnerships with institutions that share a public service ethos, such as universities, research institutes, etc.
The consortium led by EBU-UER (BE), comprises Agence France-Presse (FR), Constructive Institute (DK), Eurovision Italy (IT), FTV (FR), RTE (IRE), RTBF (BE), RTVE (ES). Associated broadcasters are ERR (ET), Yle (FI), ARTE (FR-DE), BR (DE), RAI (IT), RTP (PO), SR (SWE), and SWI swissinfo.ch (Switzerland).
EU funding: €2.2 million
EVANews: the European Video Alliance
EVAnews is a project run by six leading news agencies and news production outlets that will produce hundreds of original news items from across the EU in the form of video reportages. The content will be translated by the consortium members through a video exchange platform and offered through a public-facing news portal. The eight languages covered are English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Czech.
EVANews will result in the creation of a vast 'web' of multilingual video news content, supplemented by other existing materials. Such content will also be available via the participant agencies' own video portals.
Consortium formed by Instant News Services (BE), Deutsche Presse Agentur (DE), ADNKRONOS (IT), Belga (BE), CTK (CZ), Europa Press (ES).
EU funding: €1.2 million
Background
Support to media platforms is part of the NEWS initiative in the Commission’s Media and Audiovisual Action Plan. For an overview of these and other grants for news media collaboration and innovation, see updates on this page.