France Médias Monde kicks off the road to the European elections 2024

16 January 2024

Special programmes aire on RFI, France 24, MCD and ENTR

In the run-up to the European elections, and as Belgium takes over the rotating presidency of the European Council, RFI, France 24, MCD and ENTR are launching a major editorial programme to give more space to European issues, institutions, and the daily lives of Europeans, against a complicated geopolitical backdrop of war on the Union’s borders. Entirely devoted to Europe throughout the year, and recognised for this work, the channels place Europe at the forefront of their on-air and digital coverage, debating with those who are building Europe in Brussels and in Strasbourg. It will also be an opportunity to speak with those who live in Europe, through more than 30 hours of programming every week in some 20 languages. New programmes will be added in the run-up to the European election campaign and the vote, highlighting the expectations of Europeans, especially young people, to fight disinformation and to debate Europe’s place in the world, with reactivity and perspective.

From January 16 until the European elections in June, « Talking Europe » (En) and « Ici l’Europe »  magazine teams on France 24, (the leading 24-hour international news channel in terms of its coverage of European issues according to the Foundation Jean Jaurès) are focusing on these crucial elections for the future of Europe, with a series of exclusive and special programmes. All of them will be aired on France 24 in English and in French and can be found in dedicated online specials and on social media. France 24 in Arabic and in Spanish also offers daily coverage of European news, electoral issues, and the upcoming June elections.

600th edition of the show “Talking Europe” on France 24

To be aired on Saturday January 20th at 1.15pm * on France 24 in English

In a special show presented by Armen Georgian, Talking Europe heads to the European Parliament for an exclusive interview with Slovakian Maros Sefcovic, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission.

As part of the campaign for the European elections, Armen Georgian (En) and Caroline de Camaret (Fr) are offering a series of debates on two Saturdays a month until June in « Talking Europe » and  « Ici l’Europe »  to analyse the main topics of the 2024 European elections. In partnership with Public Senat, a focus on a member state or group of states will be proposed.

To be followed until the European elections on France 24 :

> Saturday February 24th 24 at 1.10 pm* : To mark the 2nd year of the war in Ukraine, « Talking Europe » and « Ici l’Europe »  teams travel to Ukraine to meet the ministers in charge of the country’s accession into the European Union, and talk to leading figures and Ukrainians.

> Saturday May 4rd at 1.10 pm*: On the occasion of Europe Day in Paris, in partnership with France 24 and RFI, Caroline de Camaret will be live from the forecourt of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, offering debates with numerous guests. This edition will focus on the Paris Olympic Games, and the personalities will be on hand to answer questions from the public.

> From May 27th: daily column at 1.15 and 7.10 pm*: Each day, Armen Georgian (Ang) and Caroline de Camaret (Fr) offer twelve minutes of news on the European election campaign. The programme includes reports from across Europe by France 24’s special reporters, portraits, and exclusive content.

> Sunday June 9th: European election night on France 24 and RFI.

Every day, European issues are part of RFI’s programme schedule, giving listeners a view of current events on the continent. From 12:00 to 12:30 pm*, the news edition “L’Europe à midi” (Europe at noon) offers listeners daily content on European issues, as well as the news magazine « Accents d’Europe » presented by Juliette Gheerbrandt, Frédérique Lebel and Juliette Rengeval.

Throughout the European election campaign, RFI’s Europe journalists (Anastasia Becchio, Julien Chavanne, Romain Lemaresquier and Daniel Vallot) are mobilising to offer reports, interviews and analysis on the major debates driving the continent’s societies today.

In collaboration with France 24, RFI also hosts a weekly show « Ici l’Europe » at 8.40 pm* on Friday evenings. Reports, exclusive content and guests on European issues can also be found throughout the day, especially in “Reportage international”, “Reportage France” and « Ici l’Europe » .

To be found throughout the 2024 European election campaign:

> A major debate in Brussels in April, jointly organized with France 24, with the heads of the European lists.

> A weekly international guest: « Grand invité international » ” (7.20 am*) with a leading figure in European current affairs.

> A regular report: « Grand reportage » (8.40 pm*) to bring topics about European societies to air on RFI.

To speak to all audiences, in French and in foreign languages, France Médias Monde has also set up a Central and Eastern Europe regional centre in the heart of the continent, in Romania. This includes its subsidiary RFI Romania, RFI’s Ukrainian-language newsroom, and ENTR’s Romanian-language newsroom, all of which offer a variety of programmes and content as close to the ground as possible.

The 14 foreign-language newsrooms (English, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Fulfulde, Hausa, Khmer, Kiswahili, Mandenkan, Persian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Vietnamese) are also dedicated to providing their listeners and web users with expert daily coverage of European news, including the elections and polls in June 2024.

The 100% digital offering dedicated to young Europeans in eight languages, will provide social network coverage of the highlights of the European campaign. The ENTR team will explain the issues of the major European themes in connection with the daily lives of young people, by airing a new podcast format on the YouTube channel. In collaboration with France 24 and the programme « Ici l’Europe » as well as RFI and the programme « Accents d’Europe », it will also produce a series of testimonies posted on Instagram to give a voice to first-time voters on major European issues.

Since 2021, ENTR has been developed by France Médias Monde and Deutsche Welle in partnership with a dozen media outlets and civil society organisations in Europe. It is available in eight languages (French, German, English, Bulgarian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian) on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), and offers content on all the issues that interest young people and make them react. ENTR recorded over 100 million views between January and October 2023.

Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD) brings Europe to life in the Arabic language, through its daily news editions on major European issues, and will be stepping up its coverage in the run-up to the European elections. MCD is one of the few Arabic-language radio stations to offer comprehensive coverage of the highlights of European news, thanks to its correspondents in the capitals of Europe.