The official launch of the European Newsroom, a cooperation project between 18 European news agencies, takes place on Tuesday in Brussels, in the presence of two Vice-Presidents of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, in charge of the Values and Transparency portfolio, and Margaritis Schinas, responsible for Promoting our European Way of Life, according to Agerpres.

European Newsroom is a cooperation project between news agencies from all over Europe – dpa (Germany), AFP (France), AGERPRES (Romania), ANSA (Italy), APA (Austria), ATA (Albania), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), EFE (Spain), Europa Press (Spain), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), HINA (Croatia), MIA (North Macedonia), STA (Slovenia), Tanjug (Serbia) and TASR (Slovakia). To these are added PAP (Poland) and Ukrinform (Ukraine) which have the status of partner news agencies.

According to the project’s description at https://europeannewsroom.com, „this is about European agencies working together – at eye level and across borders. That is not just the idea behind the newsroom, but the idea behind a united Europe as well.”

European Newsroom (enr) has become operational in Brussels on 1 July and it aims to promote and strengthen cooperation and exchanges among the correspondents of the participating news agencies. It is a new, genuine concept, characterized by the exchange of objective and precise information among the news agencies from and about Europe, mutual understanding and diversity. The platform offers the agencies fact checks and access to statements and sources beyond propaganda and fake news, which contributes to upholding quality journalism by countering the increasing dissemination of disinformation.

For individual users, checking the multitude of information available on the Internet is often difficult to achieve, particularly when it comes to events taking place in other countries or to the complex European policy. That is why fact-checks are an integral part of the European Newsroom, which aims to be a hub of quality and journalistic integrity in the heart of the EU.

This would be ‘the first ever pan-European newsroom space and will allow journalists to report jointly on EU affairs and promote, let’s say, a spirit of collaboration,” the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said on 29 November, when heralding this initiative.

Agerpres