The European Commission is considering a reduction in the annual grant it pays to Euronews.
The four-year settlement that has been in place since 2017 is due to expire this month, and according to La Letre, there is still no agreement on its renewal.
Already the Commission has told the channel’s management that the grant will be lower than the present €25 million a year and will extend for just three years.
The Commission has been slowly reducing the amount of subsidy paid to the channel, which is 88% owned by Egyptian telecoms billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Media Globe Networks (MGN).
Established in 1993 by the European Broadcasting Union and a consortium of national broadcasters, the channel has gone through a number of shareholders including the UK’s ITN and NBC News, which withdrew last year.
On Tuesday, staff at Euronews’ Lyon headquarters walked out in protest at a proposed reduction in staff and the number of broadcast languages.
Around 40 jobs are under threat as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme, including the loss of around 30 journalists out of the 202 currently employed on permanent contracts.
