Baltic States – CIS, Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

The traineeships will take place at the editorial offices of Europe's best newspapers, television channels and radio channels and half a million euros has been set aside for this in the EU budget, Toom's advisor told BNS on Friday.

"MEPs can submit amendments to Europe's general budget in order to ensure the allocation of funds for projects developed by them," Toom said. "During the preparatory period it is important to receive a high assessment from the European Commission, which after that will start handling the implementation of the projects. It is also important to persuade most of the colleagues in the profile committee of the necessity and timeliness of the initiative. The MEPs submit hundreds of amendment proposals, most of which have been rejected at the final vote. I am glad that everything was successful in the end and my proposal to support the journalists was approved."

The idea for the project came into being at a seminar held in November 2014, which was attended by representatives of leading Estonian Russian-language media, and in the framework of the project journalists will be able to undertake a traineeship of up to four months in a foreign country, while their travel and accommodation costs will be covered from the EU budget. The only condition set for the participants is to follow the declaration adopted by the International Federation of Journalists concerning the behavior principles of journalists.

"A lot of people in the EU were carried away by the fight against propaganda, at the same time they themselves change over to the primitive language of the propagandists and agitators. It seems that many people started to forget that the high reputation of European journalism developed thanks to high vocational standards. Russian-language journalists from Estonia in the framework of this project will also receive valuable knowledge and raise their qualification by working at the editorial offices of leading European media outlets. It was confirmed to us at the European Commission that preparations for the implementation of the project should begin already in March," Toom said.

The European Commission after the pilot project will assess its success and if the result is positive, the project will continue. The pan-European student exchange program Erasmus started in the same way, Toom's advisor said.