A while ago I was asked to give classes about EU-journalism at a journalism school in Belgium. “Do remember to tell them, why the EU is so boring,” the coordinator joked. But since when has power been boring?

Still that is one overriding perception. EU? Boring. Avoid even mentioning the word, journalists are advised by editors and others. On newsy sites EU coverage simply does not give clicks by readers – at least that’s the prejudice.

So what to do?

In Flanders a journalist organisation asks citizens to take cameras and go filming the EU. “Whereis.eu is an online competition that challenges everybody to make a movie of 60 seconds about the European Union. What does the EU mean to you? What impact does it have on your daily life? And maybe your one-minute movie will appear on the International Film Festival of Flanders in Ghent,” according to the website waaris.eu.  And there is the tempting option to win up to €2500.

It’ll be interesting to see, how the camera-generation will solve that task.

But the Flemish journalists are not the only ones struggling to find a way of telling the story about this powerful thing called the EU. The European Parliament currently is asked to look at a draft that aims at building a European public sphere put forward by the Danish liberal MEP Morten Løkkegaard. The draft has already stirred a lively debate in Denmark. Thus confirming Løkkegaards assumption, that the national public sphere functions nicely – contrary to the European one.

The stir was caused by one well-placed article published by Løkkegaard and two other Danish MEPs Christel Schaldemose and Emilie Turunen, in the large Danish daily Berlingske Tidende under the headline “TV has to take the EU seriously”. The EP draft supports the idea of stronger obligations for public service broadcasters to cover European affairs and an EU-financed but independent team of high level journalists covering EU affairs in Brussels.

The online Danish journalist magazine Journalisten.dk already at 8.10 am published a news story quoting the article of the three MEPs under a headline claiming, that Danish public service broadcasters would be “forced” to cover the EU more. National public sphere of debate when it gets up early.

Later the same day Morten Løkkegaard appeared in a radio report covering media questions on national public radio DR  explaining and defending the draft.

Most interesting for a Brussels audience is probably the drafts suggestion to find EU funding for the Brussels based team of journalists covering European affairs. They should have a contract of editorial independence and the team should consist of an elite of top-level journalists, Løkkegaard explained on Danish Radio. “This is both provocation and experiment from my side,” the MEP explained. “It would be a fantastic step ahead, if they dare do it,” he said.

But creating a European Public Sphere also consists of a lot of small steps, Løkkegaard admits. The next steps for his draft report will be a committee vote expected on June 2^nd and a plenary vote expected on July 5^th.