NEWS - JOURNALISM PARTNERSHIPS - PLURALISM

CREA-CROSS is a forthcoming Creative Europe Cross-Sectoral Strand project grant managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency to strengthen media pluralism and support independent journalism through transnational regranting schemes. The topic has an indicative budget of €7 million, a maximum EU grant per project of €2.5 million, a funding rate of 90% of eligible costs and a mandatory allocation of at least 60% of the total grant to financial support for third-party news media. Eligible applicants are legal entities established in Creative Europe participating countries (single applicants or consortia) and activities must cover at least four EU Member States; submissions are via the Funding & Tenders Portal with a deadline of 4 February 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time.

High-level summary

Essential facts

Footnotes

1. 1Call documentation, templates and detailed rules are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: Call fiche (CREA-CROSS-2027-JOURPART-PLURALISM).

Call summary

Call for proposals under the Creative Europe Programme (Cross-sectoral strand). Topic identifier CREA-CROSS. Opening date 22 October 2026. Deadline 4 February 2027, 17:00 Brussels time. Single-stage submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Type of action: CREA Project Grants (CREA-PJG). Type of Model Grant Agreement: CREA Action Grant Budget-Based (CREA-AG). Estimated topic budget €7,000,000. Total call budget for Journalism Partnerships topics €14,000,000 (Topic 1 Collaborations €7,000,000; Topic 2 Pluralism €7,000,000). Planned evaluation: February–July 2027. Information to applicants: August 2027. Signature of grant agreement: November 2027.

Key requirements and priorities

This topic (Journalism Partnerships - Pluralism) requires applicants to present, develop and implement a compulsory funding scheme (cascading grants / regranting / support to third parties). At least 60% of the total grant must be allocated to financial support to news media entities and independent journalism. Complementary accompanying activities may be included based on a needs analysis. Projects should prioritise areas in the EU with low provision of the specified news types or where media pluralism is strained, and may address the needs of smaller newsrooms.

Eligibility: applicants and consortium requirement

Legal entities (public or private) established in eligible countries (Creative Europe participating countries: EU Member States including OCTs, EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme). Natural persons are not eligible except self-employed persons (sole traders). International organisations are eligible. Register in the Participant Register (PIC) and be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA).

Eligible applicant types (detailed)

Funding type and financial details

Beneficiary scope and geographic eligibility

Target sectors and project maturity

Application process and documents

Evaluation, award criteria and timeline

Financial capacity, reporting and implementation rules

Financial and operational capacity checks apply. Financial capacity documentation required in the Participant Register for validation; checks typically requested for coordinators unless exempt (public bodies, organisations with >50% public revenue, or small grants under €60,000). Grants are budget-based actual-cost with possible unit-cost, flat-rate and contribution elements and an indirect cost flat-rate of 7% of eligible direct costs (A-D except volunteers and exempted categories). Travel and subsistence may be declared via unit costs per Commission Decision or actual costs in line with applicant practices. Equipment eligible as depreciation. Financial support to third parties subject to transparent open calls, minimum two months open, published outcomes on participant websites and maximum per-third-party amounts rule (default €60,000 unless higher amount justified and announced in the call).

Legal, ethics and independence safeguards

All projects must respect widely accepted professional media standards. The chosen standards and mechanisms to ensure them must be indicated in the proposal and confirmed with a signed Declaration on Standards & Independence annexed to the Application Form. In cases where support is given to editorial work, third parties must operate with full editorial independence. Projects must respect EU values (Article 2 TEU) and the highest ethical standards; proposals containing pornographic or racist material or advocating violence are not acceptable.

Project implementation, deliverables and duration

Support, Q&A and info sessions

Evaluation outcomes, success rates and co-funding

Templates and application form structure

Risks, exclusions and compliance

Exclusion grounds, financial and operational capacity checks and legal entity validation apply. Entities subject to EU restrictive or conditionality measures are not eligible. The granting authority may require prefinancing guarantees, enhanced financial responsibility regimes (joint and several liability) or other measures if financial capacity is insufficient. Double funding is prohibited. Projects must comply with ethics, data protection, confidentiality and security requirements set out in the Call and Model Grant Agreement.

Mentioned countries

Success metrics and impact expectations

Expected impact includes increased resilience, pluralism and editorial independence of local, regional, community and investigative media; improved uptake of technologies that contribute to pluralism; increased innovation in editorial production, distribution and revenue models; increased audience engagement with high-quality journalism; knowledge repositories about state of local media and areas with low provision of public interest news.

Summary — What is this opportunity about and why apply?

This Creative Europe Cross-sectoral call (Topic 2 — Journalism Partnerships - Pluralism) funds projects that set up regranting schemes and accompanying activities to strengthen media pluralism across the EU. It targets sectors essential to democracy: local and regional media, independent and investigative journalism, and organisations producing public interest news. Applicants should be able to implement funding schemes, allocate at least 60% of the grant to third-party support, and demonstrate how the funding and accompanying measures will sustain, improve or transform the capacity of targeted media actors. Projects must be EU-focused, measurable, adhere to professional media standards and ensure editorial independence. Grants reimburse eligible costs (90% funding rate for Topic 2) and can reach up to €2,500,000 per project. Full application details, templates, mandatory Declaration on Standards & Independence and the Model Grant Agreement are available in the Submission System and the Call Document. The call supports resilient, pluralistic and democratic media ecosystems and encourages applications especially from non-profit and civil society organisations.

Footnotes

1. 1Declaration on Standards and Independence template and instructions available in the Submission System and at ec.europa.eu. The Declaration must be completed and signed by the coordinator and each partner and uploaded as a mandatory annex to the application.

NEWS, Journalism Partnerships, Pluralism

Executive assessment

This is a highly specialised regranting opportunity. A successful applicant must design and operate a European funding scheme that cascades financial support to independent media and journalism organisations. The project is not primarily intended to fund the applicant’s own newsroom, media production or general operations. At least 60% of the total EU grant must be dedicated to funding schemes for news media entities and independent journalism.

The strongest applications are likely to combine a well evidenced analysis of media pluralism problems with a transparent and credible regranting mechanism, broad geographical coverage, access to underserved media markets, clear safeguards for editorial independence, measurable impact and a strong outreach plan.

Key opportunity facts

The principal parameters are set out below.

Policy purpose and strategic context

The opportunity responds to economic, technological and structural pressures affecting professional journalism. These include declining advertising revenues, changing audience behaviour, digital transformation, shrinking newsrooms, local media decline and the emergence of media deserts. The policy objective is to preserve a diverse, independent and trustworthy information environment that supports democratic debate, accountability and civic participation.

The call aligns with the Creative Europe objective of promoting a diverse, independent and pluralistic media environment and with the European Democracy Shield. It gives particular importance to media sectors that provide public value and democratic benefits rather than projects focused solely on commercial profitability.

Target sectors

Applications should target one or more news media sectors of special relevance to democracy and civic participation.

Who can apply

Eligible applicants must be legal entities established in an eligible Creative Europe participating country. Eligible entities may be public or private bodies and may include media associations, nongovernmental organisations, nonprofit organisations, civil society organisations, public authorities, international organisations, universities, research centres, journalistic funds, training organisations, foundations and profit-making entities active in the relevant media field.

Nonprofit and civil society organisations are particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants must have the legal, financial and operational capacity to manage a substantial European regranting programme, assess applications from third parties, distribute funding, monitor delivery and report results to EACEA.

Natural persons are generally not eligible. Self-employed persons may be eligible where they operate as sole traders without a separate legal personality. International organisations are eligible and are not subject to the ordinary eligible-country rule. Entities without legal personality may participate only in exceptional circumstances where their representatives can undertake legal obligations and provide equivalent protection for the EU financial interests.

Consortium options

A single applicant may apply. Alternatively, the application may be submitted by a consortium of at least two beneficiaries from eligible countries. Affiliated entities do not count towards the minimum consortium requirement. The consortium should add genuine geographical, sectoral, linguistic or operational value rather than being assembled only to satisfy formal eligibility.

A consortium may be useful where one organisation provides grant-management expertise, another provides access to local and regional media networks, and others provide sectoral knowledge, geographic coverage, monitoring, training or communications capacity.

Geographical scope

Activities must take place in eligible Creative Europe countries and must cover at least four EU Member States. The call places particular emphasis on the European Union, areas with low provision of the relevant news services and media markets where pluralism is strained. Proposals should explain why the selected countries and regions need support and how the project will reach smaller or underserved newsrooms.

Eligible countries include EU Member States, including their overseas countries and territories, and non-EU countries associated with or otherwise participating in Creative Europe under the applicable programme arrangements. The final eligibility position for countries whose association is still under negotiation depends on the agreement being concluded and applicable to this call before grant signature.

Core activities and funding scheme

The funding scheme for cascading grants, also described as financial support to third parties or regranting, is compulsory. The scheme must support independent media and organisations primarily active in the eligible democratic news sectors. Applicants must explain the need for third-party funding, the proposed types of support, the selection process, the expected results and the method for monitoring recipients.

Possible supported activities include the following.

The funding scheme should be accompanied by active communication directed at the maximum practical number of potential stakeholders across the geographical areas covered by the project. Accompanying activities should be based on a demonstrated needs analysis and should not displace the compulsory regranting function.

Third-party grant conditions

Calls for third-party support must be open, widely publicised and compliant with transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality requirements. Each call must remain open for at least two months. The selection methodology should be objective, transparent, non-discriminatory and capable of protecting editorial independence.

The outcome of each third-party call must be published on the participants’ websites, including the selected project descriptions, award dates, project durations, final recipient legal names and countries. Each call must have a clear European dimension.

The maximum amount of financial support to an individual third party is €60,000. A higher amount may be accepted only where necessary to achieve the action objectives or where a lower amount would make the objectives impossible or overly difficult to achieve, and the need must be specifically justified in the application form.

At least 60% of the total EU grant must be dedicated to the funding scheme for news media entities and independent journalism. Applicants should therefore build the budget from the regranting requirement outward and ensure that project management, communications, monitoring, training and other accompanying costs do not reduce the eligible regranting allocation below the threshold.

Editorial standards and independence

All projects must respect widely accepted professional media standards. The application must identify the standards to be applied and the mechanisms that will ensure compliance. A signed Declaration on Standards and Independence is mandatory from the coordinator and all partners and must be assembled and uploaded as one file in the submission system.

The declaration confirms respect for EU values, editorial independence from EU institutions, Member States and other states or institutions, transparency, non-discrimination, impartiality, accuracy, professional reporting and plural viewpoints. It also requires public information about project objectives, journalistic standards, accountability measures, audience complaint mechanisms and third-party selection procedures.

Where third parties receive support for editorial work, they must operate with full editorial independence. The proposal should specify how independence will be protected in eligibility rules, grant agreements, selection panels, conflict of interest procedures, monitoring, complaints handling and publication of results.

Environmental and inclusion requirements

Applicants should consider the ecological footprint of the proposed activities and, where relevant, describe measures supporting a more sustainable and environmentally respectful media sector. Relevant measures may include responsible travel planning, digital delivery of training, sustainable procurement and proportionate environmental monitoring.

The evaluation also considers gender balance, inclusion, diversity and representativeness. These issues should be addressed both in the project’s target groups and in the governance of the funding scheme, including selection panels, outreach, language coverage and support for underserved communities.

Expected results and impact

The expected impact is increased resilience, pluralism and editorial independence at European level in local, regional and community media, investigative journalism and public interest news. Projects should also improve the uptake of relevant technologies where this contributes to a diverse media landscape and should support knowledge about local media provision and areas with insufficient high-quality news.

Applications must define concrete deliverables and objectively verifiable quantitative indicators for the mid-term and end of the project. Impact must be more substantial than simply counting distribution channels. It should be supported by a detailed outreach plan and evidence of interest from target groups, such as letters of support, applicant registrations, stakeholder consultations, pre-existing networks, needs assessments or documented demand.

Potential indicators include the number and profile of third-party recipients, countries and regions reached, languages covered, funding distributed, newsroom jobs or services supported, new products launched, audience or community engagement improvements, training participation, technology adoption, continuation of supported activities and evidence of improved media provision in targeted areas.

Project structure and duration

Projects should normally not exceed 24 months. Extensions may be possible through an amendment where duly justified. The project starting date will normally follow grant signature. A retroactive starting date may be authorised exceptionally, but it cannot be earlier than the proposal submission date.

The required work package structure includes the following.

Funding amount and financing model

The topic has an indicative budget of €7 million. The maximum requested EU grant is €2.5 million per project. The call does not specify a minimum grant amount, so applicants should request an amount proportionate to the proposed geographical coverage, number of recipients, grant-management workload and expected impact.

The EU grant reimburses 90% of total eligible costs for Topic 2. Applicants must therefore provide or secure the remaining 10% through eligible own resources, income generated by the action or other permitted contributions. The grant is budget-based and uses actual costs together with applicable unit-cost and flat-rate elements. Reimbursement is based on eligible costs actually incurred or calculated under the authorised cost methodologies, not simply on the original budget estimate.

Eligible cost categories include personnel, subcontracting, travel and subsistence, equipment, other goods and services, financial support to third parties and indirect costs. Volunteer unit costs are not available for this call. Travel and subsistence costs use applicable unit costs unless the relevant cost is not covered by those unit costs and actual costs are permitted under the grant rules.

Payment and reporting

The coordinator receives payments on behalf of the consortium. A normal initial prefinancing amount is approximately 40% of the maximum grant, although the final amount may be lower or no prefinancing may be provided. Prefinancing is normally paid within 30 days after the grant agreement enters into force or after any required financial guarantee is received, whichever is later.

There are no interim payments in the standard arrangement. One or more additional prefinancing payments may be linked to a prefinancing report. The balance is paid after the final financial and technical assessment. If previous payments exceed the final grant amount, the difference must be repaid.

A prefinancing guarantee may be required, particularly where financial capacity is considered insufficient. It is normally equal to or lower than the prefinancing amount and must be issued by an approved financial institution, subject to the grant agreement conditions.

Financial and operational capacity

Applicants must demonstrate stable and sufficient financial resources to implement the action and contribute their share. Financial capacity checks normally focus on coordinators, subject to exemptions for public bodies, international organisations, certain entities receiving more than 50% of annual revenue from public sources and projects requesting no more than €60,000.

Evidence may include financial statements, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, business plans and audited accounts. The assessment may consider financial indicators, dependency on EU funding, deficits and revenue trends. EACEA may request additional information, impose enhanced financial responsibility, require a guarantee, reduce or withhold prefinancing, require replacement of an applicant or reject the proposal.

Operational capacity is assessed through the experience and qualifications of the project team, the profiles of responsible staff, the capacity of the participating organisations and available human, technical and management resources. Applicants should demonstrate prior experience in grant management, media support, transparent selection, monitoring, financial control, communications and European or multi-country projects.

Evaluation and award criteria

The call uses a one-stage submission and one-step evaluation process. Proposals are first checked for admissibility and eligibility and are then assessed by an evaluation committee assisted by independent experts. Eligible proposals are ranked within the available budget.

There are no individual minimum thresholds for the evaluation criteria. A proposal must reach at least 70 points overall and must remain within the available budget. In case of tied scores, priority is given successively to the relevance score, dissemination score and quality of content and activities score.

Admissibility and submission requirements

Applications must be submitted electronically through the Funding and Tenders Portal. Paper applications are not accepted. All beneficiaries, affiliated entities and associated partners must be registered in the Participant Register before submission, and beneficiaries must obtain validated participant identification codes.

The application consists of Part A, completed online with administrative and budget information, Part B, the technical description uploaded as a PDF, Part C, additional project data and programme indicators, and the required annexes and supporting documents. Part B is limited to 50 pages. Excess pages will not be considered by evaluators.

The mandatory Declaration on Standards and Independence must be completed and signed by the coordinator and all partners. Proposals without full support from the participating applicants may be rejected. Applicants should upload each document in the correct portal category and submit sufficiently before the deadline because the electronic system closes automatically.

Applications may be submitted in any official EU language, but the project abstract or summary should be in English. The call documentation recommends using English for the entire application to improve evaluation efficiency.

Indicative timetable

The call is subject to final adoption of the 2027 EU budget. The European Commission may modify, redistribute or cancel the call if substantial budgetary or legal changes occur. The indicative timetable may also be adjusted through official topic updates.

Key compliance risks

Recommended application strategy

Overall conclusion

This opportunity is well suited to established media support organisations, nonprofit journalism funds, civil society organisations, media associations, foundations, universities, public-interest institutions and other entities able to administer a transparent European regranting programme. It is less suited to an individual newsroom seeking direct production funding or to an organisation without demonstrable grant-management, media-sector and cross-border delivery capacity.

The decisive features will be the credibility of the compulsory cascading funding scheme, the quality of the needs analysis, the ability to reach underserved media sectors in at least four EU Member States, the protection of editorial independence and the precision of the proposed impact measurement. Applicants should treat the 60% regranting requirement, the signed independence declaration, the 50-page limit, the 90% funding rate and the 24-month duration as core design parameters rather than administrative details.

Official documents and support

The official call fiche contains the full eligibility, evaluation, financial and grant-management rules: Official call document, CREA-CROSS-2027-JOURPART.

For non-technical questions, the call identifies EACEA-CREATIVE-EUROPE-JOURNALISM-PARTNERSHIPS@ec.europa.eu as the responsible contact address. Portal and submission-system questions should be handled through the Funding and Tenders Portal support services.

Source note 1

Footnotes

1. 1The report is based on the official 2027 call fiche, the official Funding and Tenders Portal topic information and the mandatory declaration template supplied for this opportunity. The 2027 call remains subject to final adoption of the EU budget and official updates published by the European Commission or EACEA.