Bridging the EU’s Communication Gap

Europarl TV goes online September 17 with four channels

Strasbourg. You read about it all the time: millions and millions of EU citizens out there feel a deep and distressing sense of emptiness and detachment from the EU legislative machine. Such citizens are just gagging to learn about the enthralling political dealings that occur in Brussels and Strasbourg. It seems that their wish comes true! Europarl TV, a new web streaming service goes live on the September 17 after a short ceremony in the European Parliament hosted by EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering.

EuroparlTV is a sophisticated web TV platform that will stream both live and archived programming in 22 EU languages (voice over and subtitles) ensuring that viewers can follow the latest hot topics as well past political debates. The site has four channels:

• Your Parliament, aimed at those with a particular interest in politics at the EU level: informed citizens, industry groups, social partners, lobbyists, academics as well as those working in the EU institutions.
• Your Voice, conceived for the general public and providing the possibility of featuring user-generated content.
• Young Europe, aimed particularly at school-aged children, high users of the Internet and the European electorate of the future.
• Parliament Live provides continuous coverage of live events in the Parliament, notably debates in the plenary sessions, with a link to the audiovisual archives of previous sessions, as well as in the coming months, the activities of the committees.

The platform was built by UK broadcast group TwoFour, content comes from Brussels-based Mostra, while there’s a € 9 million annual budget.