On the Side of the News in Brussels

On controversial issues like copyright reform, there are many, many people seeking the time and attention of the members of the European Parliament.

Journalists have a lot to keep them busy in 2017. In Europe alone, there are Brexit, populism, and nationalism, as well as immigration to cover. The rise of so-called fake news and growing skepticism about professional journalism only make matters worse.

The European Publishers Council is a lobby group of chairmen and CEOs from leading European media organizations. Based in Brussels, Belgium, home of the European Commission and numerous European Union government bodies including the European Parliament, the EPC reviews the impact of proposed European legislation on news publishing, newspapers, and journalism, and then expresses its collective opinion to legislators, politicians and opinion leaders. Clearly, that’s not a simple or straightforward task in 2017 either for the EU or the press as an institution.

Angela Mills Wade is the EPC’s Executive Director; it is her charge to take on the notoriously elaborate, even labyrinthine EU on the side of the media business. She outlined the steps required for CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“The European Parliament is a very open organization, so normally speaking, it’s not difficult to meet the members of the European Parliament who are taking decisions about your future through pieces of legislation,” she said recently. “But on very controversial issues like copyright reform, it’s very crowded, so there are many, many people seeking the time and attention of the members of the European Parliament.

“We focus on the people who are either writing the reports or the opinions that are to be taken into account by the various members who are heading up delegations or political parties and who are the most active and the most engaged in the debates, whichever committee they’re involved with,” Mills Wade explained. “We definitely don’t talk at them. We try to have a dialogue.”