The European Commission and a consortium of several European publications launched today PRESSEUROP.EU, the first multilingual website containing press articles on EU affairs.

PRESSEUROP will offer, in at least 10 languages (up to 23), a multilingual selection of articles published on the same day or the day before. These articles will be complemented with analyses, comments and illustrations.

PRESSEUROP.EU presents:

• Articles from the European and international press (newspapers, magazines and online), selected according to pertinence and liability criteria, and covering various domains of EU news: politics, economy, society, world, environment, sciences, culture, ideas etc.
• Press reviews, summaries and news syntheses.
• Illustrations (graphic, pictures, videos, cartoons etc.).
• A daily newsletter on the most recent news.
• Press archives.

The website will be fully interactive, with thematic forums, online surveys and the possibility for visitors to comment on published articles. This service will be offered in 10 languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Czech) and, progressively, in all of the 23 EU official languages.

The PRESSEUROP consortium is therefore bound to expand and include new members. Partnerships are already foreseen, notably with the European Radio Network – EuRaNet – and the future EU TV Net.

Presseurop will monitor almost 250 titles everyday, including Le Monde, Le Figaro, Financial Times, The Economist, Washington Post, Corriere della Sera, FAZ, etc... Only papers covered by a copyright agreement will be published or archived. The possibility of archiving may vary from newspaper/magazine to newspaper/magazine following the copyright agreements.There are 2 different types of copyright agreements: around 50 yearly agreements, the rest on demand.

There is a network of freelance journalists in many countries that monitor the 250 titles, and 10 journalists full time (7 in Paris, 1 in each of Warsaw, Lisbon and Rome). Each full time journalist is responsible for 1 of the 10 languages of the site. Translations are made by professionals and revised by the journalists, who also can make comments, etc. The chief editor and his deputy have the last word on the selection. They usually write the editorials.