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EuroActiv.fr: a French branch of an European net

Jean-Christophe Boulanger, EurActiv.fr Director

1/ As a director, could you describe EurActiv.fr actions?

EurActiv.fr is an online media, completely free and specialised on European policies. In France and ten other countries in Europe, teams of journalists follow the progress of European legislations. In France, the search for information begins with French positioning on European legislation project (State, enterprise, NGO) and then they pay attention to its translation in French law. Depending on national teams, several news are published everyday: 4 to 5 in France, and up to 15 in Brussels, the most numerous team with 15 journalists.

2/ Your network in Europe, and even beyond, seems to be well developed. Could you give us some information about its forming and its nature?

Actually, this is a story of opportunities. EurActiv was created 10 years ago by Christophe Leclercq who is now EurActiv Editor in Brussels. Five years later, he noticed a great interest about European question on a local level in Slovakia, and Europe in general. Small countries are often influenced by the preparation and entry in European Union and are therefore very grateful. Since then, businessmen, press firms joined a project born to create a real network. The latter consists in ten firms separated into 10 countries, each one dealing with information with a national point of view.




3/ What do you expect from the new partnerships you are implementing (Germany, United Kingdom, Italia, Spain)?




The firm in Germany, EurActiv.de, was recently created four months ago. Concerning the others, it is too soon to say something about it. The main advantage of the new partnerships is to get firsthand information. We can also perform cross interviews or even republish news we found on our other websites. Each website is independent but we clearly find interest in working together.



4/ What kind of major issues are you working on? Do you have to follow the European Union news to develop your own subjects or do you have a broader breathing space?



The answer directly results from our economic model. Our website is totally free, and so financed by enterprises or public institutions, precisely to follow their business line. Only 20% of our incomes come from public funds (tender for instance). On our website one can find different information parts, each part is financed by one or many partners.


At the moment we deal with major issues such as:





- Energy-climate, because of a partnership with EDF and RTE. Thanks to their support we try to stay informed about the European legislation and climatic problems.
- Financial services, in particular on payment services reforms, with Visa as a partner.
- Three partnerships also with the European Commission:
- to stay informed about assistance projects under the Innovation and creativity European year
- entreprise and employment, to be aware of news about SMEs and the public answer to economic crisis.
- and finally, a new partnership about European enlargement. Each of the ten countries follow national debate on the last countries to enter the European Union or the candidate countries.





5/ Do you see a complementarity of your actions with those conducted by Welcomeurope?




Yes, Welcomeurope accomplishes a huge amount of work to organise tenders and European markets to help enterprises. We can help in a different way but it is a complement. We disseminate free information to keep posted on the European framework progress. On which subject the European Commission or MEPs will work? What are the issues of high importance at that time, and thus likely to be financed? We are helpful for who wants to get an idea of the European environment. So yes, Welcomeurope and Euractiv are complementary.