The EU has created and pays for its own magazine, TV and radio stations and programmes.

EuroparlTV was the European Parliament’s own webTV channel. It started in 2008 and broadcasts in 22 languages. It costs €10 million a year for 4 years (to start with). Its viewing figures are carefully kept secret because they are so low: ‘We have the analysis (viewing figures) of the website, but we do not make them publicly available…’ said the man who runs the €40 million site. It is said to have only around 1,600 viewers a day: ‘The only people who watch it are in Brussels, and they are MEPs or their office staff’ said one observer. It was shut down in 2019.

A consortium of radio stations 16 radio stations from 13 countries are paid €5.8 million per year to broadcast programmes about EU affairs consists mostly of stare-owned stations like Deutsche Welle, Radio France, and Radio Netherlands.

Europe by Satellite is the EU’s audiovisual service that provides thousands of hours of video and live footage of EU events to television and radio stations. The Europe by Satellite service cost at least €15 million every year.

The European Parliament Magazine is owned by a private publishing company but positions itself as the European Parliament’s magazine.

Two other PR ideas were seriously considered.  The Commission planned to set up its own EU press agency dubbed ‘Made in Europe’. The other idea was a 24-hour EU TV channel that would broadcast news, documentaries, quiz shows and even a soap opera. Journalists nicknamed it the ‘Brussels Broadcasting Corporation’.