EU Delegations

European Union Delegations are at the front line of the EU’s external action.

EU delegations are mandated to implement EU policies and programmes in-country, engage with local stakeholders, and provide political reporting and analysis.

In the media sector, this requires delegations to apply the OECD principles to context-specific interventions, balancing diplomatic engagement with support to local media actors and ecosystems.

Do No Harm Carefully assess the local political economy of media before designing or endorsing initiatives. Anticipate risks to journalists and outlets (including surveillance, harassment, or financial pressures) and integrate protective measures into programmes.

In an East African country, a interviewee gave the example of a human rights NGO that faced shutdown after being accused of non-compliance with local NGO laws due its compliance with rigid visibility requirements.

Support Local Ownership Engage regularly with local media organisations, editors, journalists’ unions, and civil society to ensure that programming responds to actual needs. Promote participatory design processes that give local actors a genuine role in shaping EU-funded initiatives.

Promote Diversity and Pluralism Use Delegations’ convening power to encourage inclusive public dialogue. Prioritise funding and advocacy that strengthen independent, community-based, and minority-language outlets, as well as initiatives that amplify women’s and youth voices.

Strengthen Sustainability Where possible, promote partnerships between local media and regional or international actors that enhance financial viability and professional standards. Support enabling environments for media, including legal and policy reforms, while linking media to broader governance and human rights strategies.

Foster Coordination and Coherence Act as a hub for coordination among EU services, Member States, and like-minded donors in-country. Share information on programming and risks, and ensure complementarity between EU actions at country level and global strategies.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Strengthen your delegations’ ability to collect evidence on media sector dynamics through regular consultations, mapping, and political reporting. Feed insights into Brussels-based processes to inform policy, and contribute lessons learned from country-level experience back into global EU frameworks.