After Erasmus and Socrates

An on-line magazine published in seven languages (including Polish and Catalan) by the “eurogeneration”, youth aged around 25 who are no longer satisfied with the traditional national media and want to tackle questions with a European approach: that’s the project of Cafebabel.com, which is based in Paris and has a network of 20 local editorial teams that bring together youth from all over Europe. The objective is to contribute to the forming of European public opinion. Cafebabel, founded in 2001 by a small group of young beneficiaries of various Eu programmes (Erasmus, Socrates) for exchanges between universities of various European cities, has already received widespread recognition. It is an open forum for European debate in which any author, who publishes reportages and investigative reports free of charge, is responsible for the opinions expressed. It is composed of a fixed structure of 10 employees, 9 based in Paris and one in Warsaw, who translate and check the news furnished by a network of roughly a thousand correspondents, of whom 300 very active. To support itself, Cafébabel receives project funding from various bodies, including the municipality of Paris, the Region Ile-de-France, the municipality of Brussels, the European Commission and some private foundations. We interviewed ADRIANO FARANO , young managing director of Cafébabel, who calls himself “more Neapolitan than Italian, more European than Neapolitan”. What does Europe mean for a young person of the “eurogeneration”? “Europe means for us discussing concrete issues, for example the entry of Turkey into Europe, or how to develop common strategies in the Middle East. On our website we also speak of services to the citizen, but we are more specialized in reportages and investigations. One example: an accord was recently signed between Morocco and the Eu regarding the licences that Morocco will give to European fishing vessels to enable them to fish in the North African coastal waters most richly stocked with fish. The problem of fishing in the area is felt very strongly in Spain, especially in Andalusia. The other European media wrote a short article on the deal and that’s all. By contrast we conducted a photo-reportage in Barbate, a village in Andalusia, to understand what fishermen thought of it and we discovered that in actual fact they have recycled their activity into the trade of hashish because the EU guarantees only 200/300 licences to fish in the coastal waters of Morocco, a very low figure for the whole of Europe. In this way one realizes, unpeeling the institutional reality bit by bit, that a Europe of common people exists behind it all. The fisherman of Barbate is no less European than the European Commissioner. We are the first generation to experience student exchanges, the single currency and the elimination of frontiers, so we understand Europe better than others. This is the Europe we want to see”. Do adults too read your website? “We have a public that to some extent cuts across the generations: a third below the age of 25; a third between the ages of 25 and 40 and the other third above the age of 40. This may come as a surprise because our journalists have an average age of 25, but we want to open people’s minds to a European perspective. Many read our magazine because they are interested in a European transnational perspective that they don’t find in their national media. Today, ever-more people, young and not so young, are dissatisfied with the national media. In Italy, for example, the editorial offices are composed solely of Italians; they have an exclusively Italian background and the view they have the world outside is Italian. By contrast a medium like our own can have a far wider outlook, given the presence of foreign correspondents”. On your website you are also speaking at the present time of web 2.0, the new vision of Internet that permits citizens to participate more actively in the decisions that concern them. How can this help the construction of Europe? “The innovations of web 2.0 (we too are working on the new version of our website to be launched in 2007) are those of combining this transnational approach with the opportunity for the real participation of users who will be asked to supply the translations themselves and hence participate in the European debate. The new generation of web 2.0 collaborative sites can permit users to join the discussion of these questions and add their views. This is not the usual forums moderated by the European Commission, with a top-down structure, but websites that originate at the bottom and move upwards, i.e. from citizens to civil society. This is a real way of empowering people”.