Bratislava, 11/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Agence Europe's coverage of the informal ministerial meeting on the Environment and Climate held by the Slovakian Presidency of the Council of the European in Bratislava on Monday 11 July ran into a security wall - which turned out to be insurmountable.
In the memory of Agence Europe, this refusal to allow one of its journalists, who has held accreditation with the European institutions for many years, to cover an event taking place in the country holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU is a veritable first.
On the website of the Slovakian Presidency, which took over the reins of the Council on 1 July, it was possible, on Monday 4 July, to fill in a form to apply for accreditation. However, it was not possible to register for this informal meeting, which opened on Monday and continued on Tuesday (EUROPE 11590).
The reason for this is that the authorisation procedure of the Slovakian security authorities takes up to 21 days. According to International Press Association (API), this rule is at odds with the possibility for journalists to be accredited for events held by the six-monthly Presidency of the Council, even at the very last minute. Yet the constraints of professional journalism make it impossible to be able to plan which event will be covered sufficiently far in advance.
Efforts were made by the Permanent Representation of Slovakia to the EU to obtain a bit of flexibility from Bratislava. A letter signed by the Foreign Minister, Miroslav Lajcak, was even sent, calling for the security procedures to be accelerated.
When asked on Monday about the reasons for the accreditation refusal, the Slovakian Permanent Representation stressed that the website of the Slovakian Presidency of the Council had been up and running since May. It said that it had informed API of the matter. Indeed, an electronic message to the representatives of the international press in Brussels stresses the importance of seeking accreditation “quite well in advance”.
Last week, the Slovakian administration made an exception. In a similar situation, a journalist from Agence Europe was authorised to cover the informal meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs ministers (EUROPE 11589, EUROPE 11590).
On Monday, however, there was a question mark hanging over Agence Europe's ability to cover the informal Energy, Social Affairs and Competitiveness ministerials to be held in Bratislava in the course of the month of July. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Mathieu Bion)