The European Council has announced that its so-called 6-months badge for journalists wanting to attend European summit meetings, will be replaced by a badge that will be valid for one year – something that API has long asked for. It saves us the trouble of having to apply every six months: from now on once a year will be enough. Journalists can apply until the end of November.
As previously announced: there will be – at least at this moment – no 50 euro security charge from the Belgian security services to journalists seeking European Council summit accreditation.
For now, the ‘1 year badge’ will have the following features/rules:
– It will give access to the European Council during all summits but can also be used to access the Council buildings on any regular day.
– It will be valid per calendar year (1 Jan – 31 Dec)
– It will for the time being be accessible only for journalists residing in Belgium (EU nationals + non-EU nationals living in Belgium for more than 5 years)
– The 1-year badge accreditation period will run until 30/11/2018 16h00. After that journalists will have to wait until the March European Council before being able to apply again for the 1-year badge.
– The 1-year badge will have to be collected individually
– It will be possible to collect the 1-year badge at any time during working hours from the Council main accreditation desk located at the main reception of the Justus Lipsius building. Before summits, the badge can be collected from the LEX building as usual.
