Slovak EU Presidency Stubborn On Denying Late Accreditation For Journalists
API STRONGLY PROTESTS AGAINST UNPRECEDENTED PROCEDURE
BRUSSELS – API has received many complaints from Brussels correspondents about the procedure applied by the Slovak EU presidency for the accreditation for (informal) ministerial meetings in Bratislava. This procedure makes late accreditation all but impossible, contrary to practices followed by all previous EU presidencies.
“Late accreditation is essential for journalists, who cannot always plan their activities weeks in advance”, states API-president Tom Weingärtner. “This is not feasible nor acceptable to us”. Last week some journalists were even denied access to the media-/conference center in Bratislava, where they had traveled to on a very short notice without accreditation. This has never happened before.
The Slovak authorities demand that journalists who want to attend meetings in Bratislava apply for general accreditation three weeks in advance, in order to allow their security forces enough time to perform security checks. Only after this, journalists can register for specific meetings. They have to do that at least ten days before such a meeting.
Earlier EU presidencies have always allowed for late accreditation, so that correspondents could decide at the very last moment to travel to the capital concerned, depending on news developments, even if they had not applied for accreditation beforehand. Accreditation was always possible ‘on the spot’, as is also the case at European Council summit meetings in Brussels.
In a meeting with representatives of the Slovak mission in Brussels, API has in the strongest possible terms protested against this new procedure, but to no avail. The three week period will not be changed. The Slovaks may be willing to reduce the ten day limit for registration for specific meetings though, but details of that have not been provided yet.
API does not understand why the Slovak security services need so much time to clear journalists, who – especially when they are in possession of the European Council’s 6-month badge – have already been thoroughly checked by the Belgian security services. We are also completely flabbergasted by statements from Slovak officials that the security clearance depends, among other things, on “how many countries a person has lived in, how many jobs a person has had, etc.”
API deplores the unwillingness of the Slovak authorities to adhere to long-established procedures. “They want to re-invent the wheel”, Tom Weingärtner says. “Experiences shows that EU presidencies cope best with organisational matters when they closely co-operate with preceeding presidencies and the Council´s secretariat general.”
API will file a formal protest to the Slovak government. But if nothing changes, as it looks now, API can only advise ALL one thousand Brussels correspondents to apply for accreditation now, in order not to be refused access when unforeseen developments make a sudden attendance of a meeting in Bratislava necessary. This should also be advised to colleagues at the media headquarters of the correspondents in their home countries, who might sometime this semester be dispatched to Bratislava.
Brussels, 18 July 2016
For more information:
Tom Weingärtner, API-president – 0486-505397
Lorenzo Consoli, former API president – 0473-746651
Michael Stabenow, former API-president – 0479-9090995
Hans de Bruijn, API secretary-general – 0476-911451
