EU pulls plug on EUR 3.2 m online media tender

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union executive said Monday it had cancelled a plan to plough 3.2 million euros into creating an online media platform for high-brow Brussels coverage.

An invitation to bid for the "development, implementation and management of an online media dedicated to EU affairs" was halted for cost-cutting reasons at a time of political pressure to cut bloc spending.

European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding told AFP that "budgetary restrictions" imposed on planned spending by the 28-state bloc for the rest of the decade meant the tender was "ill-adapted".

In its bid literature, the Commission said media coverage of the EU was "often scarce, irregular, lacks a broader European perspective and citizens do not have any specialized platform where they can find and share quality content on EU affairs."

The Commission did not say what offers it had received since the tender's launch on June 19.