On 18 May 2026, the European Parliament published its draft position on the new AgoraEU programme, which constitutes the EU’s support for culture, media, and civil society within the Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2028-2034 – the EU’s long-term budget. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) warns that the proposed budget allocation for journalism does not go far enough to match the scale of ambition outlined in the regulation and is a worrying sign of a lack of political ambition to meaningfully fund European journalism.
The Parliament’s proposal creates a separate ‘Journalism and Information’ strand, which in principle could be positive, but the proposed allocation is insufficient. Under the Parliament’s proposed €10.72 billion envelope for AgoraEU, only 11.7% would be allocated to the new ‘Journalism and Information’ strand. This would amount to approximately €1.25 billion over seven years, weaker than the Commission’s original structure of €3.2bn between audiovisual and news.
“Europe cannot simultaneously declare journalism essential to democracy while allocating only a fraction of the programme to support it. If journalism is recognised as a pillar of democracy, the budget must reflect that political reality,” said EFJ President Maja Sever.
The proposed allocation remains disproportionately low considering the breadth of objectives assigned to the strand and the growing threats facing European journalism. This risks leaving the sector structurally underfunded, despite the repeated political recognition that independent journalism is essential democratic infrastructure.
At the same time, recent cuts and freezes in international democracy and media funding have further exposed the fragility of Europe’s independent media landscape.
The Commission proposed an ambitious structure for the “Media+” strand which consisted of journalism, news, and audiovisual sectors, while the Council of the European Union adopted an even more ambitious position last week, despite not yet allocating a budget to their position. The European Parliament scales back that ambition, by ring-fencing support for only audiovisual that no longer also embraces journalism and news.
The EFJ nonetheless welcomes the Parliament’s inclusion of strong safeguards linking EU support to fair, safe and independent working conditions for journalists, together with adequate and transparent remuneration for journalists.
“Media viability in Europe is facing an existential, historical low, driven by a collapse in traditional advertising models, the dominance of digital platforms, and severe economic pressures that have created an “extinction level” threat for many news organisations, especially at local level. We constantly hear warnings on what this means for our democracies, for European integration and for security. What we need now is a clear commitment from the European Union that public interest journalism, news media will receive additional funding and journalism will be nurtured, protected and empowered also with the help of EU support, of course at arms’ length,” added EFJ Director Renate Schroeder.
As the latest UNESCO World Trend Report 2022/2025 on freedom of expression and media development says: “Without viable solutions in the short, medium and long terms, newsrooms will struggle to keep the lights on while maintaining professional standards and editorial independence, let alone have the resources to meet the growing challenges of protecting journalists and providing pluralistic coverage on politics, technology, equality and climate change.”
The EFJ therefore calls on the European Parliament to ensure that its final AgoraEU position includes:
- Stronger financial allocation for news and journalism;
- Safeguards preventing structural imbalances between sectors;
- Long-term investment in independent public-interest journalism.
The European Parliament is set to finalise its position on the Multiannual Financial Framework this autumn, ahead of inter-institutional talks aimed at securing a final agreement by 2027.
Source: EFJ
