Europe Day celebrates peace and solidarity since the Schuman Declaration on 9 May 1950. Today, we also celebrate what Europe means to our association, News Media Europe, and its membership.
It is exciting that 16 nationalities manage to work side by side on difficult policy issues. Cooperating in good spirits, despite cultural differences and linguistic inaccuracies, almost sounds like a miracle. We realise how much we can achieve despite fundamentally different Nordic-Latin-Slavic communication styles and contrasting reasonings.
For us, Europe means tirelessly meeting your counterpart halfway, without compromising on core values. Whether we come from sunny coasts or rainy capitals, we try to understand the specificities of each market and their common denominators. We see how European policy can support the business of journalism without erasing legal traditions or cultural differences. This is often a delicate, yet fruitful exercise.
We learnt indeed the European way of achieving things, which is very much the art of finding compromises. And even in the most desperate situations, a compromise is often within reach.
We find genuine value in working together also because some discussions find true meaning at European level. Like the remuneration of news creators on the internet, an equitable tax system, fair competition on digital markets, the financial sustainability of newsrooms during COVID, the protection of news professionals from abusive lawsuits, and more.
In fact, we work with the common belief that Europe is not just a common market but an area of justice. Last week , we celebrated World Press Freedom Day, a policy priority very dear to our association and which should be central to the European agenda. As our membership comes together to discuss common policy priorities, we amplify national efforts at European level. We are proud that collectively, we obtained a legislative proposal to protect news professionals against strategic lawsuits (SLAPPs) and that we contribute to shaping an effective European Media Freedom Act.
Looking more broadly, some wins are quite meaningful, not to say the least: genuine gender equality of the EU political leadership, the largest ever Recovery Plan and investments for the news media sector, coordinated sanctions in support of Ukraine, a regional Action Plan for Democracy, setting global internet standards #GDPR #DSADMA… The list could go on.
Robert Schuman said that Europe “will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity”.
💪 🇪🇺 In diversity we trust and in solidarity we flourish. Happy Europe Day everyone!
The NME team