The European Commission on Monday announced the creation of the European Newsroom that will be financed with European funds and will incorporate 16 national press agencies from all over Europe, including Croatia's state agency Hina.

The project should begin in January and the European Newsroom should be up and operating by mid-2022.

“We are creating a European newsroom space and increasing citizens’ access to quality information. The first-ever pan-European newsroom will allow journalists to report jointly on EU affairs and promote a spirit of collaboration back at home,” European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said addressing the European News Media Forum.

The project, to be coordinated by Germany’s dpa, brings together 16 agencies: AFP (France), ANSA (Italy), Agerpres (Romania), APA (Austria), ATA (Albania), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), EFE (Spain), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), MIA (North Macedonia), STA (Slovenia), Tanjug (Serbia), TASR (Slovakia) and Hina (Croatia).

“Hina is proud to have been involved in the project from the very beginning, together with dpa, AFP and ANSA. Apart from making us more recognisable and enabling us to work on bringing European citizens better, more precise and more accurate information, the project will enable additional education for our young colleagues and a more effective exchange of information and topics between correspondents in Brussels,” said Hina’s director Branka-Gabriela Vojvodić, who will be on the steering board of the European Newsroom.

She added that Europe had recognised the need to communicate its goals more clearly and that press agencies in fact were the medium that could do it in the best possible way.

The Newsroom will be a central point for agency correspondents who report on the work of European institutions.

“By working together across borders, media are stronger. Cross-border investigations bring incredible results, see Pandora papers. We support such cooperation,” Věra Jourová, the Commissioner for Values and Transparency, tweeted on Monday.

The project was selected for co-financing valued at €1.76 million.

European funds will be used to finance training for journalists and for a new multi-language website for selected articles by the participating European agencies that deal with the European Union.