Why summits need rethinking, redesigning and reworking to make reporting them easier

Date: 21/03/02

THE immaculately dressed British TV reporter and her crew were not happy with the shuttle-bus arrangements outside the Barcelona summit press centre, and were making it known.

'Everything seemed so organised before and now it isn't,' she huffed to the driver. With that, the journalist - whose coverage of EU affairs apparently is limited to those events attended by Tony Blair - stormed off the bus and into the night.

And then right into a considerable pile of horse-droppings.

It's only a slight overstatement to say her misstep symbolises what it's like at EU summits - from the media star-power to the mind-boggling logistical arrangements to an admittedly organic reminder of the high security needed at international gatherings these days.

But even more maddening than a dirty pair of dress shoes is the way European Councils have been designed, it seems, to discourage coverage of them with any kind of pan-EU perspective.

It works like this: Hundreds of reporters travel en masse from Brussels to the summit city, where they are corralled in a convention centre or sporting arena or the like. There, impressive facilities have been set up to serve their every need. Thousands of phone lines and hundreds of internet-ready computer terminals, along with several information desks and tourist booths await behind the metal detectors at the secure entrance.

Reporters find a vacant spot in a sea of workstations and watch as huge television screens flash important announcements - the Danish finance minister will give a briefing in 15 minutes, or the cafeteria is now open. There is also usually a healthy amount of video footage of beautiful host-country landscapes.

Everybody sits around writing or waiting for the next 'event'. Occasionally a spokesman will circulate, attracting a crowd of hacks who must strain to hear whether news has been committed. Sometimes a Commissioner or a diplomat can be glimpsed huddling with members of his or her national press corps for a special background briefing. MEPs circulate, hoping to be noticed.

Meanwhile, somewhere far, far away, Union leaders are meeting. Occasionally the screens will show them getting out of a limo, or walking down a hall, or chatting amiably to each other during a break in the 'action'. The discussions themselves are never shown.

Then, seemingly all at once, press briefings begin, with each member state in its own room where reporters and cameras gather for updates. But here's the catch: all of the conferences happen at about the same time, producing a mad scramble as reporters dash to get the scoop from their country's leaders.

This results, naturally, in most of them spending a lot of time hearing one spin on the summit. France even provides special workstations for its press corps right inside the briefing room. Why would anybody want to leave these cosy confines and hear another point of view?

Making matters trickier for reporters who do want more than one side of the story - and who have good running shoes - is the lack of translation in the national briefing rooms. Hacks can scoot from one conference to another, but unless they're tri- or quad-lingual they aren't going to get much out of them.

In fact, the only briefing room in which translation is provided is the one controlled by the country holding the EU presidency. So last weekend, for instance, the summit hosts spoke in Spanish and reporters could listen in French, English or German. But that's assuming a journalist has the ability to be in more than one place at a time.

After the summit ends, the presidency briefs reporters at precisely the same time as all the other countries do - making it nearly impossible to get a multi-national interpretation of the conclusions. The Spaniards took this maddening tradition a step further by staging their final press conference in a different location. They provided shuttle buses to it. So it was decision time: go hear what Messrs Aznar, Piqué, Prodi and Solana have to say or stick to the home front. Most chose the latter.

This compartmentalisation of the news may seem like a relatively minor gripe, but it certainly does not help the effort to sell the EU as something that matters for all of Europe - not just each individual member state.

As much as it pains a journalist to say this, perhaps summit hosts should spend less money on pampering the press (with catered food and free tote bags and pens and coffee-table books) and more on making it easier to get the news. Provide translation in French and English at the various national briefings. Stagger them so that it is possible to attend more than one.

Or better yet, make the meetings themselves open. Oops, now I've really stepped in it.