Plan to create EU events channel

Date: 14/03/1996

By Rory Watson

TELEVISION viewers in Germany and neighbouring countries may soon be able to follow the latest debates in the European Parliament in the comfort of their own homes.

The notion of being able to tune in to the Union's elected representatives without having to travel to Strasbourg or Brussels will undoubtedly appeal to some. But the prospect of lengthy Euro-speeches invading their living rooms may fill others with dread.

“Just look at the current lack of interest in most parliamentary debates. The public galleries are hardly crowded and the chamber is sometimes almost deserted. Is that going to appeal to a wider audience or help to improve the Union's reputation?” asked one official, expressing incredulity at the thought.

Opening the doors of the Parliament's debating hemicycles to a wider public is one element of an ambitious plan to provide round-the-clock televised broadcasts of major Euro-events and key national parliamentary debates to German viewers.

The same pictures might also be picked up in neighbouring countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of France.

The project has received strong support from two of Germany's public service television channels, ARD and ZDF. They are now actively investigating the possibility and hope it will become a reality on 1 January next year.

The man behind the scheme is WDR's director-general Fritz Pleitgen, who outlined his vision of the future at a recent meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in Brussels.

“Public broadcasting as the great communicator - that is my vision of the European information society. In this spirit, the ARD and ZDF are preparing a European parliaments and special event channel in Germany,” he explained.

The 24-hour channel would give priority coverage to Germany's federal and Länder parliaments, but would also transmit debates from both Strasbourg and Brussels and national legislatures in Europe (the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium) and from further afield (Russia, Israel, Poland and the United States).

This could provide a fascinating insight into contrasting parliamentary styles, from the confrontational approach of Westminister to the more conciliatory tone of the European Parliament's debates.

Major European events would also be broadcast, as would activities of the Council of Ministers and the European Commission.

The practicalities of the scheme - not least the challenge of coping with different languages - still need to be explored, but it is already clear that viewers would not need to pay extra for watching Europe's parliaments at work.

The Parliament itself has been investigating ways of projecting the activities of the Union's institutions to audiences in the 15 member states for several years. That search has resulted in the use of a satellite link to beam press conferences to EU capitals and transmit parliamentary debates in Strasbourg to television screens in Brussels.

WDR officials believe that others may follow the lead being set by Germany.

“I think it could be a model certainly for other public sector broadcasters. If it works, I think other broadcasters will look with interest at our experiment,” claimed one.