Create a new employment statute for EU correspondents
Goal
For information on Europe that is rooted in the regions, closer to people
Proposal
Create a new statute for Europe correspondents according to which the correspondents’ social security schemes and payroll charges will now depend on the law in the country where their employers head office is based, and not anymore on the correspondent’s country of residence.
This statute would apply to all journalists covering the European Union, in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Explanatory statement
The number of Europe correspondents is in free-fall. Today one can count barely 1,000 accredited journalists, for 38,000 European civil servants and 15,000 lobbyists working in Brussels.
Several factors seem to explain, to varying degrees, this disappearance. The first would be the lack of ambition and initiative of the current European Commission presidency. The second, the availability on the Internet of all European Commission press conferences and European Parliament debates. As such people often say that sending a journalist to Brussels is pointless. But on the contrary, being in Brussels or Strasbourg is essential to exploring Europe’s political machinery, in which citizens have a part to play, in order to carry out real investigation and analysis. Information on Europe cannot be limited to the “copy paste” of official press releases found on the Internet.
The key factor in the lack of local and national Europe correspondents in newsrooms is the prohibitive cost of Belgian payroll charges (which are, for example, three times higher than in Germany). Media organisations that want to keep a Europe correspondent sometimes have no other choice than an illegal one, which consists in declaring the correspondent’s residence and workplace as being in his country of origin, rather than in Belgium.
The International Press Association has been asking for years for the creation of a specific employment statute for Europe correspondents; it has become urgent to set this up.
Related posts:
There is a long-standing mobilisation for the creation of a new statute for European correspondents. But the main issues are to know by who and how it should be created.
Applying social security schemes and payroll charges of the country of origin is a possibility. There may be alternatives? Do you have any idea?
On November 8 presentation, Marc Gruber alerted us on the fact that this statute would arrive too late, if we take into account that most Euro pean journalists are today self-employed, and no longer wage earners.
Fully right!
But could this new statute and the subsequent payroll charges reduction, lead national and regional media to send again journalists to Brussels?
Fifteen years ago, freelance statute was more a choice. Today, it has become, for many journalists, an imposed and inevitable way. To survive with the crisis, media drastically lowered their expenses. Journalists are the first victims: reduced job security, flexibility, piece rate work… Facing testimonies, this situation tends to reduce journalists’s independance and freedom.
From then on, a new employement statute could lead to new hiring, with more secure work conditions, for Brussels journalists? Couldn’t it?
What do you think?