On the occasion of Europe’s Day, The President of the European Commission addressed at BOZAR Brussels a crowd of citizens, NGOs leaders and MEP’s, some of them members of the organiser, the one year old Civico-Europa platform. I seized the occasion to ask him about ways to accompany Europe’s media evolution, via two measures: a) on the policy side, using the upcoming review of the Digital Single Market and b) regarding skills and innovation projects, notably the proposed Eramus4Media / Stars4Media pilot project.
Several current or former MEPs echoed my suggestions, including Danuta Hubner (EPP), Maria-Joao Rodriguez (S&D), Mercedes Bresso (S&D), and also Sylvie Durant (ex Green MEP). No surprise, since the pilot project has been co-signed by 11 MEPs.
Juncker’s own support is also not a surprise:
– the Digital Single Market is one of his 10 priorities, and media competences have been regouped at one Commisison dpt: DG CONNECT
— here is what his recent White Paper has to say on this (after calling for ‘honest and wide-ranging debates with citizens’ ):
‘We want to live in a democracy with a diversity of views and a critical, independent and free press’.
Here are some related tweets, straight from the event (video recordings may be available later):
‘The proposal I prefer from @civico_europa report on the Future of the #EU is #erasmus for all, even journalists’–@JunckerEU at #civicoforum
– gian paolo accardo (@gpaccardo) 9 mai 2017
@DanutaHubner and @JunckerEU both support #Erasmus4media, for democracy, and as part of ‘Erasmus for all’#civicoforum #Media4EU
– Christophe Leclercq (@LeclercqEU) 9 mai 2017
.@MercedesBresso soutient politiques euro des media et multilinguisme: les deux ensembles! #Erasmus4media #CivicoForum #Media4EU