LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Date: 05/10/1995

Welcome to European Voice, the weekly newspaper devoted entirely to the European Union. This first issue is the culmination of 18 months of research into the kind of newspaper that you as our readers will find useful and entertaining. We hope we have interpreted your requirements correctly.

Our first objective is to bring you unbiased coverage of all the EU's activities, providing in-depth reporting on the issues facing the Union and detailed analysis of the most important stories of the week.

To that end we are situated in Rue Montoyer in the heart of Brussels. We believe that by covering the European Union from its epicentre we will be able to avoid adopting the national perspective that frequently colours reporting by the national press around Europe

Our second objective is to encourage openness, between the EU's institutions, its member states and the rest of the world. European Voice will carry profiles of the key personalities who are making the news and of the less celebrated politicians and officials who play such an important part in shaping EU policy behind the scenes; developments in the European Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice will be reported and analysed on a regular basis; and our Around the Capitals and World Focus pages will provide both news and analysis of the inter-action between the EU's 15 member states and the Union's relationship with the outside world.

Thirdly, we intend to explore the impact that decisions taken in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg will have on the business world. European Voice therefore contains a section devoted entirely to business news which will cover everything from the continuing debate on how to manage the transition to a single currency to the impact of decisions taken by the European Commission in key competition cases. Here, and in our regular survey section, we will be taking an in-depth look at individual industries, how they are reacting to EU rulings and what the future holds for them.

We fourthly aim to entertain. Each week the back page of European Voice will be dedicated to Entre Nous, a light-hearted look at the personalities in the Commission, Council and Parliament, their foibles and the inconsistencies between their public statements and private actions. We hope this will amuse without causing undue offence.

Our final objective is to provoke a lively debate about the key issues facing the Union both in its day-to-day workings and in its longer-term goals. While we will be providing provocative comment and analysis of our own and will be inviting influential players on the European stage to give their personal views we would also like to hear from you.

In future issues this space will be devoted to your letters, so please let us know what you think of our newspaper.