Seven national media seek to counter apathy in Central Europe Policy Section

Average turnout for the European Parliament elections was only 26.4 per cent in the new Member States, including a high number of votes for eurosceptic parties, so there has never been a more urgent need for independent, fact-based information to be relayed by national media to opinion leaders.

Seven portal sites are published by local media in national languages under the 'CrossLingual' scheme co-funded by the European Commission, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the IT companies Systran and Telelingua. Policy reporting from EurActiv will be adapted in the seven national languages of new EU countries and candidate countries. Microsoft is the first CrossLingual sponsor.

Under a franchising and syndication scheme, Zaman has become EurActiv's seventh national partner. This will contribute to the debate and to the possible opening of negotiations with Turkey, a major policy issue for 2004.

Christophe Leclercq, Publisher of EurActiv, said: "The poor EP election turnout in Central Europe shows that, despite enlargement information campaigns, national opinion leaders are not sufficiently engaged in EU policy debates. On the other hand, the first readership figures of our franchised portals are above expectations. So there is a demand for a lot more information about 'decisions from Brussels'. Our national media partners deserve support in order to contribute to this democratic process."

EurActiv.com's seven CrossLingual network partners are:

- www.zaman.com.tr in Turkey   (cooperation agreement signed in late May 2004)

"Turkey has never been this close to integration with Europe. 2004 will be a turning point in crystallizing Turkish-European Union relations. At this time, synergy between Zaman daily newspaper and EurActiv will fill a significant gap",  said Ekrem Dumanli, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Zaman daily.  

- www.euractiv.cz in the Czech Republic (opened in May 2004 and published by Slovakia's i-Europa media and the Czech think-tank website Integrace)

"We are happy to be a part of such a dynamic evolving network. EurActiv.cz covers primarily the Czech views on the EU agenda and politics. The Euractiv.cz team, combining academic knowledge with practical journalist experience, has a great potential to fulfill the highest expectations of its readers",  said Vera Rihackova, Editor of EurActiv.cz.

- www.euractiv.hu in Hungary (online since January 2004, the portal is published by Bruxinfo, the leading EU information source to governmental circles in Hungary)

-  www.euractiv.sk in Slovakia (published by the i-Europa media since September 2003)

- www.euractiv.ro in Romania (online since May 2004, published by the Bucharest-based  Asociatia Actori Europeni)

- www.dnevnik.bg/evropa in Bulgaria (partnership with EurActiv started in May 2004 under an agreement with Dnevnik Online European Perspectives, a division of the main Bulgarian business daily)

- www.gzs.si/euractiv in Slovenia (produced in co-operation with the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

EurActiv extended its CrossLingual network of EU policy portals to the EU's new Member States. EurActiv.com expects to conclude soon a similar co-operation agreement with a media in Poland. 

Note to the editor:  

EurActiv.com is the leading independent portal on EU Affairs. The site is an important working instrument for the majority of EU Actors (institutions, industry federations, NGO's, think tanks, the press and others) involved in defining or influencing EU policies. It has 67,000 readers for its central versions in English, French and German (CIM-certified) and more than one million page views per month.

General sponsors of the EurActiv portal are: the European Commission's eContent and IST programmes, CEPS, Microsoft, Toyota, DuPont, Honeywell and  ABIG (Turkey in Europe) . Section sponsors of EurActiv are:  BP, Edelman , EDF,  Eucomed,  ExxonMobil,  Gallup Europe, Hydro ,  Lockheed Martin, Nike, Pfizer , Solvay, US Mission to the EU . Plus special support from DG Education and Culture, and ERT - The European Round Table of Industrialists.

EurActiv also has 60 "content partners" (NGOs & think tanks) as well as ca. 500 "contributors", providing their policy positions for free publication, up to the editorial team. Input welcome: editor-in-chief@euractiv.com.  

Within the CrossLingual project, EurActiv's content in three languages (English, French, German) is available for syndication to "EU Actors"' websites and intranets. Central and Eastern European partners have also started translating and localising EurActiv news for their national audiences. The CrossLingual project is supported by the eContent programme of the European Commission, DG Information Society, and by Microsoft Europe. It is prepared in cooperation with Systran, DB Scape, Telelingua, the Centre of European Policy Studies, the International Federation of Journalists and seven media in Central and Eastern Europe.  

EurActiv policy sections are open to further sponsoring, either by corporations wishing to enhance their reputation as constructive EU Actors, or by service providers conveying their specific expertise. For more, see  www.euractiv.com/en/sponsors .  

Editorial independence of EurActiv.com is underpinned by the Fondation EurActiv, which has a high level Advisory Council of independent experts. The Fondation EurActiv has the guarantee of media independence as one of its primary objectives.

Media contacts:

Christophe Leclercq: Publisher T +32 2 226 5813 E publisher@euractiv.com 

Willy De Backer: Editor in Chief T +32 2 788 3664 E editor-in-chief@euractiv.com

Julian Oliver: Secretary General T + 322 226 5825 E   secgen@euractiv.com   

Tibor Szendrei: CrossLingual network coordinator T + 322 226 5816 E news@euractiv.com