The enr project has been initiated with the aim of promoting cooperation and the exchange of experience between correspondents of the 18 participating agencies from all over Europe – dpa, AFP, AGERPRES, ANSA, APA, ATA, Belga, BTA, EFE, Europa Press, FENA, HINA, MIA, STA, Tanjug and TASR.
The enr premises with the state-of-the-art equipment for media workers opened its doors to correspondents on 1 July.
The European Commission has disbursed €1.76 million for operating costs of the project until the end of 2023.
"The participating agencies have opportunities for training, further education and the joint development of journalistic standards. Tools such as fact checks and verification help to uphold quality journalism by counteracting the growing dissemination of disinformation and propaganda. Through the enr, the European agencies are given equal access to information, paving the way for comprehensive and diverse reporting across national borders," according to the information on the enr website.
The enr project intends to help promoting trustworthy reporting on European topics and on the activities of European institutions as well as improving their perception in the EU member-states and wider.
During the ceremony, the EC Vice President for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, spoke about the importance of the accurate and fact-based reporting and added that this project should contribute to such efforts.
We must have proven facts in order to fight disinformation and evil, Jourova said adding that the evil is what is going on in Ukraine and Russia's aggression against that country.
Jourova announced that next week the European Council would unveil a draft law on media freedoms, which should enable the EC to obtain some tools for the struggle against unjustified revocation of broadcasting licences.
The enr project is coordinated by the German dpa news agency and the steering board of the enr has representatives of five agencies: dpa, AFP, Ansa, Agerpress and Hina.
Hina's director-general Branka-Gabriela Vojvodić said today that the enr "is one more proof of HINA's commitment to the European values, particularly in the current tough times."
The project makes the participating agencies stronger in the professional sense, and this particularly holds for the agencies from smaller countries, she added.
The project also facilitates a faster flow of news items, and access to information and interlocutors. It helps prevent the dissemination of fake news, Vojvodić said, highlighting the project's contribution to the European unity.
President and CEO of the German dpa news agency, Peter Kropsch, also pointed out the idea of the European unity.
The quality of journalism will be upgraded when each of those 18 news agencies with their respective national perspective on Europe, uses the enr in Brussels, he said underscoring the importance of networking.
"Through the cooperation project of a newsroom with a joint technical infrastructure and a collective network, the journalistic power in Brussels and thus the diversity of European agency reporting will be strengthened," the enr says on its website.
"Smaller agencies, which otherwise cannot afford their own correspondents in Brussels, will have easier access to EU and European coverage. By permitting different perspectives on Europe to coexist, the enr can also help to improve the journalistic quality of reporting. This means the participating news agencies can all benefit from the mutual exchange."
The enr publishes, on a weekly basis, the summaries of selected news items which all the participating agencies have already published. Each news agency prepares the summary of ts news items in its language. This serves as a pool for the selection of the news items that are translated into English, French and German.
The enr also publishes, once a week, a report on the topic which can previously be agreed upon by the participating news agencies.
In the meantime, Ukraine's Ukrinform and Poland's PAP have joined the project.