European Parliament launches its own web TV

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 17th Sep 2008

Today, the European Parliament launched its own multilingual online TV service, EuroparlTV, offering a wide range of different and changing set of programmes for all audiences.

Four channels of EuroparlTV, available in over 20 languages and therefore unique in the world, will inform about the Parliament's activities. Whereas the channel Your Parliament will more specifically attract an audience with a keen interest in EU politics and policymaking, the channel Young Europe is dedicated to the young Europeans, offering a wide range of educational programmes for school children and students. The channel Your Voice, conceived for the general public, provides features for user-generated content and offers a variety of documentaries illustrating briefly and clearly different topics. Live and continuous debates, such as Plenary sessions, committee meetings and further activities can be followed online at the Parliament Live channel.

All programmes will be translated in the official 23 languages of the EU and either subtitled or dubbed in each respective language.

Speaking from Brussels, Bill Newton Dunn, MEP for the East Midlands, welcomes the launch of this multilingual web TV: "Having a multilingual, online TV accessible to all of us every day at any time in the EU and worldwide, is the most effective method to raise awareness and make the EU more transparent. Interaction with the public is crucial. Politicians and the European institutions as a whole need to be more transparent and clear on what they are doing. And it is educational too: I particularly welcome its multilinguism which promotes cultural exchange and language learning, bringing different cultures closer together, which is an essential element for living together in peace and harmony".

According to its editorial charter, EuroparlTV reflects and ensures the "plurality of opinion in the European Parliament, with due respect to the relative strengths of the political groups, in accordance with a neutral, non-partisan editorial policy".

You can watch EuroparlTV 24/7 in your language at http://www.europarltv.europa.eu