Millions for wasting: recession for the rest of us

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As the European economic crisis continues to spiral downwards with jobs lost in almost every sector the European Parliament has ordered the contractors running EuroparlTV to allocate “stupendous sums” buying in professional talent to try to get its viewing figures up from a reported “abysmal 900 viewers”. The report to EU Reporter comes hot on the heels of a report that the EU economic situation will not allow it to help an increasingly ageing population. Also Monday Joaquín Almunia, EU commissioner for economic affairs, revised the Commission’s economic forecast downwards and is forecasting a 4% downturn in the European economy this year.

Together with the European Commission and Council the Parliament is responsible for expenditure on media projects amounting to tens of millions (The Think Tank Open Europe put the spending on “propaganda at €2 billion. See below). EuroparlTV costs taxpayers some €70 million euro if so-called infrastructure contracting is added to the four year budget.

Viewing figures for EuroparlTV are officially “top secret” but contacts say viewers are limited to the institution’s own officials and a dwindling number of “consultants and euro fanatics mainly based in Brussels.

Mostra, the main contractor and a Brussels based television public relations company, has now engaged one well known figure in the parliament for what has been described as “an astronomical figure”. Others are also being hired with a view to “boosting the quality of the programming”.

EuroparlTV is now squarely planning to compete with independent television and media, also hit by the economic recession.

“With elections only four weeks away voters might want to ask candidates who have sat in the parliament for the past five years just what is going on and how much it is costing. Parliament had a highly professional media support team that enabled independent media to cover the parliament but the audio-visual department executives have gone down the road of competing in the media market without any visible success,” and informant told us.

A television executive commented, off the record: “The Parliament is on a hiding to nothing. No one other than someone like a consultant doing research or a political fanatic will ever tune in to it. The entire project is misguided.”

Commission spends €2 billion on propaganda:
http://www.openeurope.org.uk/media-centre/summary.aspx?id=753