Here is how the Council would change the EU's most important journalism funding program
The first leaks from MFF negotiations are in. Four amendments that worry us, one that doesn't, and what comes next.
I know you have all been waiting for this for months: we are back on EU budget negotiations, and unfortunately, I’m not bringing very good news.
I’m writing this edition from my glorious room at Motel One on Rue de la Royale. I’m in town for actual MFF related work with our excellent advocacy director (and co-author of this edition) David Kardos but instead of planning a bright future of the European information ecosystem, a lot of our day was spent anxiously sifting through the “compromise text”, the newest version of the Agora program.
Since last July, we’ve been operating in a bit of a honeymoon phase with the initial budget proposal which was very favorable to the news sector. But now, the other shoe is beginning to drop.
The Council’s consensus amendments to AgoraEU leaked (you can read the document on Contexte) as my plane touched down, and while nobody should be shocked that nation states have opinions about how their billions should be spent, the proposed adjustments are not all good.
In this edition we are going to look at
Where the MFF negotiations stand
What the Council wants to change
What it means for the sector
Media Finance Monitor is where newsroom leaders, funders, and media entrepreneurs come to understand how money really moves through the information ecosystem.
We decode funding, business models, policy, and platform shifts and turn them into strategies you can actually use.
Paid subscribers get premium editions, full access to the archive and all our research reports, for about the cost of a pistachio éclair and a good espresso a month.
For deeper engagement, our Partnership Program offers one-on-one strategic advisory, curated briefings, and access to our internal databases and invite-only events.
Join as a free or paid subscriber.
This is where we are in the negotiations process
The Multiannual Financial Framework, the MFF is the EU’s 7-year budget, with the current cycle ending in 2027. Negotiations for the next 2028-34 period already began in 2024 and last summer, the European Commission (EC) presented its first draft, with AgoraEU, the Global Europe instrument and the European Competitiveness Fund being the three most important programs for the information ecosystem. The first proposal actually looked very promising for journalism support.
After the Commission’s first draft three parallel sets of processes started.
On one hand officials within the EC started stakeholder consultations and began planning out what actual support programs could look like. While everything in Brussels is at least somewhat political, this is largely a technocratic process where various departments (DGs) within the Commission try to find out ways of implementing the will of elected representatives and the member states.
The European Parliament, which, at the end of the 2 year negotiations process will have to vote for the MFF also expressed opinions about the initial draft of the Commission, but none of these were directly related to the 3 important funding envelopes.
At the same time, in the European Council, member states also started negotiating around topline allocations and the top level priorities of the programs. While implementation and the granular design of the programs are mostly the responsibility of the Commission, the member states have a lot of influence over the broad directions and priorities. We now have the first leaks from how the Council would change the initial proposal, this is what we are going to be discussing today.