On
12 March 1953, the first issue of the daily news
bulletin "Europe" was
published, and we are therefore celebrating our fiftieth anniversary.
This is a ripe old age for a press agency, but is not extraordinary
in and of itself: older news agencies exist, some of them much
older. What is unusual about us is that we are exactly as old
as the first European Community, the forerunner of today's European
Union. In July 1952, the Paris Treaty came into force, giving
rise to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and it
was at the beginning of 1953 that the "ECSC levy" started
being applied, the first European tax. In February 1953,
the coal and steel markets were opened up to the six participating
countries. This moment marked the end of prehistory and the
beginning of history for the united Europe, and Agence Europe's
newsletter
took on its role of closely following developments in Europe's
history from one day to the next.
|
|
To
understand the breadth of intuition of the founder of Agence Europe
(Lodovico Riccardi) and its first Director (Emanuele Gazzo), one
has to remember that at the time, nobody knew what went on in Luxembourg
at the headquarters of the ECSC High Authority: a handful of press
releases, very rare articles in a few newspapers, ignorance and lack
of interest in public opinion. A small group of people did, however,
understand the historical significance of the creation of this supranational
authority that had sovereign governance, on behalf of its Member
States, over the two products that underlay arms production at the
time and constituted the true arsenal of industrialised countries.
This event put a definitive end to the possibility of war between
participating countries, changing the history of Europe and of the
world forever. The first supranational institution with decision-making
powers was therefore accompanied by an independent press agency,
making it accountable for its actions and putting its decisions in
the public arena. This was the challenge facing Emanuele Gazzo and
his team. A commentary, in the form of a daily editorial, would soon
be added to the news items.
|
Since
then, the history of Agence Europe has been inseparable from the
history of European integration: the creation of the EEC and Euratom,
the accession of the countries that have gradually joined the initial
core of Six, the series of treaties. Even in terms of information,
the current situation is completely different from back in 1953.
There are now more foreign press associations in Brussels than
anywhere else in the world, and Community documents are available
to all: thousands upon thousands of pages that it is difficult
for anybody to keep up with. If we were to give our Agency slogans,
the slogan in 1953 would have been: "If you want to know what
the European Community does, you should read Agence Europe".
Today, it would be more like: "If you want guidance in the
avalanche of documents produced by the EU institutions every day,
if you want to separate out the essential from the accessory, if
you want to understand the significance of decisions, agreements
and also of disagreements, you should read Agence Europe".
|
|
