How EU funding reaches public interest information
Support is spread across many programmes. A few lines are dedicated to journalism, but most of the money comes from areas such as research and external aid, where media projects qualify when they serve their goals.
What each one funds
These programmes run until the end of 2027. For the next budget, the Commission proposes merging several of them, such as Creative Europe and CERV, which would become AgoraEU.
Creative Europe
The EU’s support for culture and the creative sectors. Its MEDIA strand supports film and audiovisual work and its Culture strand the other arts, while a cross-sectoral strand works across both and, since 2021, includes news media. It also runs an innovation lab for new tools and ways of working across the creative sectors.
- Budget
- €2.44 billion for 2021–2027, of which €380 million in 2026.
- Who runs it
- The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) manages it in Brussels for the Commission. Creative Europe Desks in the participating countries advise applicants.
In 2026, Journalism Partnerships had €13.8 million across two branches: Collaborations, which supports cooperation between news organisations, including on business models, and Pluralism, which supports organisations that pass funding on to news media important to democracy, such as local, community and investigative outlets. Media literacy projects had another €3 million. The programme also pays for a rapid response mechanism that supports threatened journalists, and for the Media Pluralism Monitor.
Multimedia Actions and other media initiatives
A line in the EU budget, rather than a programme, dedicated to media. Some of it is funded through pilot projects and preparatory actions, which test new activities and possible future EU policies. The European Parliament proposes them in the yearly budget, so the topics change from one year to the next.
- Budget
- About €20 million a year, with €21.1 million in 2026. As a budget line, its amount is set in each yearly budget.
- Who runs it
- DG CONNECT, the Commission’s department for digital and media policy, is in charge of most of it. Multimedia Actions calls are also announced on its website, and each sets the format, such as audio, audiovisual or digital reporting, and the languages to cover.
Multimedia Actions supports independent reporting about EU affairs for the public, often by networks that work across countries and languages. Other initiatives, many of them pilot projects, have covered media freedom, pluralism and journalist safety.
Horizon Europe and Digital Europe
Horizon Europe is the EU’s main source of funding for research and innovation, open to every field. Digital Europe pays for digital technology across the economy, such as AI, cybersecurity and data.
- Budget
- €95.5 billion for Horizon Europe and €7.6 billion for Digital Europe, for 2021–2027.
- Who runs it
- Commission departments write the calls, and executive agencies such as the European Research Executive Agency (REA) and the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) run them. Every country has National Contact Points that advise applicants.
In 2026, a Horizon Europe topic on digital and media literacy had €12 million. Media organisations also take part in calls on media viability, shared tools, data infrastructure or the use of AI, often in large projects over several years with universities and technology companies. Digital Europe funds the EDMO hubs that track disinformation.
CERV
Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values: EU funding for civil society, covering rights, equality and democratic participation, from the fight against discrimination to town twinning and remembrance.
- Budget
- €1.55 billion for 2021–2027.
- Who runs it
- EACEA manages most of it for the Commission’s department for justice (DG JUST), which runs some calls itself. Some strands are passed on through national or regional intermediaries, and many countries have a CERV contact point that helps applicants.
Media projects can apply where they help people understand their rights, engage with the EU or join public debate, and they compete with every other proposal for the same money. How closely a project matches the call decides; being a news organisation is not enough on its own.
Global Europe and pre‑accession support
Global Europe (also known as NDICI) funds the EU’s cooperation with countries outside the Union. IPA, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, supports the Western Balkans and Türkiye as they prepare to join. Much of the money is planned country by country, with priorities that vary by country and region.
- Budget
- €79.5 billion for Global Europe and €14.2 billion for pre-accession support, for 2021–2027.
- Who runs it
- The Commission’s departments for international partnerships and for enlargement plan the money, and the EU delegations in each country manage much of it. Delegations publish their own calls, often with local priorities, so the delegation in a given country is usually the first place to look.
Support for media development sits within wider work on democracy, human rights and civil society, and is not counted separately. IPA includes a dedicated civil society and media programme.
Budgets in current prices.
From application to final report
Much of the work happens outside the project itself: before it, to qualify and win a place, and after it, to account for the money. The steps follow a similar pattern across programmes, though each call adds its own conditions.
Applying
There are two ways to reach this money: apply to the Commission directly, or to an organisation that passes part of it on.
Through an EU call
Organisations go straight to the Commission, one of its agencies or an EU delegation, and compete with other proposals. Most programmes work this way, from Creative Europe and CERV to Horizon Europe and Global Europe, with calls published online and fixed deadlines. Each call sets out its topics, budget and criteria in advance.
Through an intermediary
An EU-funded organisation runs its own scheme and passes smaller grants on to media or journalists, known as regranting. It is common in Journalism Partnerships, parts of CERV and EU media support outside the Union, and some Horizon Europe projects run their own open calls. These are often shorter and local, with grants usually capped at €60,000.
A direct application has to meet a set of conditions before anyone reads the proposal, and then compete for a place. Schemes run by intermediaries set their own conditions, often lighter ones.
Getting started
- Who can apply
- Organisations rather than individuals. Freelance journalists usually take part through an organisation or through an intermediary’s scheme.
- Eligibility
- Organisations legally established in an EU member state or, depending on the programme, an associated country.
- Registration
- Each organisation needs a Participant Identification Code (PIC) from the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, and a legal representative, known as the LEAR, who manages its account.
- Where calls appear
- Most are published on the Funding & Tenders Portal. EU delegations publish their own calls for work outside the Union.
- Partners
- Many calls ask for a consortium: the Collaborations strand of Journalism Partnerships needs at least three organisations from three countries, and most Horizon Europe projects at least three partners. Its Pluralism strand and some Multimedia Actions calls, by contrast, accept a single applicant.
- Register on the Funding & Tenders Portal and get a PIC well before writing starts, as the legal documents have to be checked.
- Leading a consortium is a bigger commitment: for larger grants the EU checks the coordinator’s accounts, and weak finances can mean a smaller advance or a bank guarantee. A first application is often easier as a partner.
- Time spent writing the proposal and the consortium agreement cannot be charged to the grant, so plan it as the organisation’s own investment.
Proposal and selection
- Proposals
- Most calls ask for a full proposal at once, which independent experts score on relevance, quality and impact. Proposals must reach a minimum score, and the budget goes to the best-ranked ones.
- Timing
- Results usually come several months after the deadline, and signing the grant agreement can take a few months more.
- Study the award criteria and their weights: experts score each one separately, so answer them one by one.
- Look up projects funded in earlier rounds, on the Funding & Tenders Portal or Creative Europe’s project results platform, to see what evaluators have backed.
- Build the budget the EU’s way, with staff costs as a daily rate and overheads as a flat percentage, and show where the share the EU does not pay will come from.
- Submit at least two days early, as the deadline is strict and the portal gets busy. If no confirmation email arrives, the proposal was not submitted.
Once a grant is won
The grant agreement sets what the project must deliver, when the money arrives and what has to be proved at the end.
Payment
- Co-financing
- The share of costs the EU covers depends on the call: up to 80% in Journalism Partnerships (90% for its Pluralism strand), from about 70% to 95% in Multimedia Actions and up to 100% in Horizon Europe research projects. Applicants find the rest.
- Cost rules
- Most grants reimburse actual costs against an agreed budget. Some, including a growing number of Horizon Europe topics, pay a fixed lump sum tied to agreed work.
- Instalments
- An advance, called pre‑financing, at the start, sometimes further advances or interim payments tied to reports, and the balance once the final report is approved.
- Payments go to the coordinator, who passes each partner’s share on, so write the timing of those transfers into the consortium agreement.
- Later advances depend on spending: if too little of the previous one has been used, the next one is reduced.
- Grants that reimburse actual costs pay what is spent, up to the amount agreed, not what was budgeted: spending less lowers the final payment, and if the advance was larger, part of it has to be returned. Lump-sum grants pay the agreed amount once the work is done.
Running the project
- Earned income
- A grant should not produce a profit, so income a project earns can be deducted from it.
- Reports and audits
- Projects report on their work and spending, and the EU can audit them after they end.
- Changes
- Budget can usually move between partners and cost categories, but changes to the work itself, the partners or the dates need an amendment to the grant agreement.
- Visibility
- Funded work has to acknowledge EU support, usually with the EU emblem.
- Keep invoices, contracts and proof of results from the first day, filed in the cost categories of the approved budget.
- Staff time is recorded as a monthly declaration of days worked, signed by the worker and a supervisor, rather than hourly timesheets.
- The emblem is not enough: outputs must also carry the disclaimer that views are the authors’ own and not the EU’s, and leaving it out can reduce the grant.
- Keep records for five years after the final payment, or three for grants up to €60,000, and never claim the same cost under two EU grants.
Counting the wait for results and the final payment, the whole cycle can outlast the project itself by the better part of a year. Together, these requirements favour organisations that have applied before and can carry costs while they wait, which is one reason smaller ones usually receive EU money through intermediaries. Our proposals set out how they could change.
Where the money ends up
Our database brings together more than 800 media projects funded by the EU since 2014, worth over €900 million, drawn from the Commission’s own records of who received what. Among the organisations that receive the money directly, a few patterns stand out.
- About 1,900 organisations have received EU media funding, but the fifty largest account for more than half of the money.
- More than 40% pays for work outside the Union, through external aid and the programmes for countries preparing to join.
- International broadcasters such as Euronews and Deutsche Welle are among the largest recipients, alongside development agencies such as GIZ.
- Media development organisations such as the European Endowment for Democracy and Free Press Unlimited are also near the top, and many pass grants on to local newsrooms and journalists.
- Less than a tenth of the money came through Creative Europe, home of Journalism Partnerships.
- More than half of the projects received less than €500,000, while a few large grants make up much of the total.
