European Union government ministers on Tuesday discussed ways to keep Radio Free Europe (RFE) afloat after the Trump administration halted its funding of the pro-democracy Western media outlet over the weekend.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order freezing Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), RFE and other outlets as part of his sweeping cuts to federal government spending.
Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty started broadcasting during the Cold War. Its programs are aired in 27 languages in 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.
It had countered Soviet propaganda before it was banned across the communist bloc, where regimes regularly jammed its signal. The U.S.-funded media have since focused on countries like Russia, China, Iran and Belarus.
Sweden's European Affairs Minister Jessica Rosencrantz insisted on the need to ensure that "Radio Free Europe really continues to be an important voice for freedom and democracy, especially in those places where it is most needed."
"Sweden encourages all countries and the (European) Commission to really look into what we can do in terms of financing, to make sure that we continue to have a strong Radio Free Europe," Rosencrantz told reporters in Brussels ahead of the meeting.
The outlet got caught up as President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America and other government-run, pro-democracy programming.
"The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) grant agreement would be a massive gift to America's enemies," the network's president and CEO, Stephen Capus, said in a statement in reaction to the move.
The EU on Monday also warned Trump's move risked "benefitting our common adversaries."
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas recalled the influence the network had on her as she was growing up in Estonia, which was part of the Soviet Union when she was a child.
"It is sad to hear that the U.S. is withdrawing its funding," Kallas told reporters, after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"Coming from the other side of the Iron Curtain, actually it was (from) the radio that we got a lot of information," she said. "So, it has been a beacon of democracy, very valuable in this regard."
But Kallas said that finding "funding to fill the void that the U.S. is leaving" would not be easy. "The answer to that question is not automatically, because we have a lot of organizations who are coming with the same request," she said.
Czechia, which has hosted RFE for 25 years, although its corporate headquarters is in Washington, is leading the push to keep the network alive.
Kallas said that "there was really a push from the foreign ministers to discuss this and find the way."
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said after the talks Europe should take care of the radio.
"I raised this question to see whether our partners see value in keeping RFE/RL running. We certainly do, and if we see value in it, then it makes sense to consider ways to secure its future, including the possibility of buying it," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Lipavsky said earlier that the costs of running RFE/RL would reach up to $120 million a year.
His Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski said Monday the EU could raise the budget of the European Endowment for Democracy, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) founded to boost democracy in the bloc's neighbors, and thus help finance the radio.
Iran, China and Russia have all invested heavily in state media outlets created to compete with Western narratives and to broadcast their viewpoints to foreign audiences.
