A5: On the management of the multilingual JEF web magazine

JEF Europe | Young European Federalists Federal Committee, Belgrade, April 19th,
2026

JEF Europe,

● Affirming its commitment to disseminate federalist perspectives on European
and international affairs;

● Highlighting the need for a European-wide public sphere as a key building
block of a well functioning European-level democracy;

● Honouring the long history of JEF’s magazine, from paper editions of The New
Federalist published from the 1970s, to the web magazine launched by JEF France
in 2005;
● Proud of the achievements of the JEF web magazines, today available in four
languages;

● Recognising the work of national and local JEF sections which run their own
magazines outside the multilingual JEF web magazine platform;

● Acknowledging that magazines published by JEF offer a platform for aspiring
journalists, and enable JEF volunteers to enhance their journalistic skills and
level of reflection on European affairs;

● Recognising the academic value of the web magazine, as evidenced by citations
of the magazine’s articles in academic papers and research work on EU affairs;

● Convinced that the JEF web magazine is one of the leading and most well-
established youth led platforms for commentary and journalism on EU affairs;

● Committed to ensuring a prominent role for the JEF web magazine in the
organisation’s work and external communications;

● Recognising the need for a clear organisational framework and allocation of
responsibilities between JEF Europe and the national sections regarding the
management of the web magazine;

● Noting that the management of a language edition of the web magazine involves
tasks such as ensuring that the edition has one or more active Editors, assuming
legal responsibility for the contents published by the edition, and offering
capacity-building support for the edition;

● Recognising that JEF Europe has particularly exercised leadership in managing
the English language edition of the web magazine, whereas other language
editions might have different kinds of relations with their JEF section of
reference;

● Committed to preserving the editorial independence of all editions of the web
magazine;

● Convinced of the benefits of close cooperation between the language editions
of the web magazine, taking forms such as mutual translation of articles,
sharing of resources, and joint editorial initiatives; English (The New
Federalist), French (Le Taurillon), German (Treffpunkteuropa), and Italian
(Eurobull).

JEF Europe therefore,

1. Assumes the responsibility for providing organisational and management
support for the English language edition of the web magazine;

2. Recognises that every other language edition has an editorial board which
holds responsibility for the functioning of the edition, and that this board
might be linked, with different rules or practices, to a national or local JEF
section of reference. Where needed, JEF Europe may exchange with these sections
on issues related to the editions;

3. Encourages the participation of national and candidate JEF sections in
countries where the language of an existing language edition is widely spoken in
the management of the language editions, subject to an agreement between the
sections concerned;

4. Recognises that the JEF Europe President should act as the responsible party
regarding the English language edition of the web magazine, thereby holding
legal responsibility for the publication;

5. Tasks each language edition to define and publicly communicate its policy for
the assignment of legal responsibility for the contents published in the
editions, where appropriate with the support of the national sections supporting
the editions and in line with the jurisdiction applying to the language edition;

6. Requests that at the beginning of every even year, a meeting of all the
representatives of the language editions will review the status of the
publishing software and the social media platforms, discussing possible changes,
and working in partnership with the JEF Europe Executive Board - and in
particular, the Treasurer - to implement said changes.;

7. Agrees that a section or group responsible for the management of a language
edition may, after giving reasonable advance notice, delegate the responsibility
to JEF Europe;

8. Acknowledges that JEF France currently holds the technical management of the
web platform and that, due to being out of date and difficult to update, JEF
Europe will investigate the feasibility of moving to a new web platform;

9. Resolves that the decisions on the appointment and dismissal of the Editorial
Board of the English language edition should be made by the JEF Europe Executive
Board, acting in consultation with the Editor(s)-in-Chief of the English
language edition and, where appropriate, the JEF Europe Secretariat;

10. Specifies that the selection of the Editor(s)-in-Chief of the English
language edition should follow an open and transparent application process;

11. Tasks the Editor(s)-in-Chief of the English language edition with
interviewing for the Editorial Board of the edition;

12. Acknowledges that the Editor(s)-in-Chief of the English language edition
possess editorial independence and responsibility regarding the management of
the day-to-day affairs of the edition;

13. Commits to appoint a point of contact from within the Executive Board of JEF
Europe which will be responsible for communication and coordination between JEF
Europe and the English language edition;

14. Advises the sections or groups responsible for the other language editions
to define the procedures for appointing and dismissing the Editor(s)-in-Chief
and the editorial boards of their respective language editions, in cases where
such a procedure is not already in place;

15. Requests the sections responsible for the other language editions to inform
JEF Europe of the contact details of their edition’s Editor(s)-in-Chief;

16. Calls for Editors-in-Chief of the language editions to maintain consistent
lines of communication, and to organise periodical meetings to discuss the
cooperation between the language editions, facilitated by JEF Europe where
appropriate;

17. Resolves that decisions on includinga new language edition on the publishing
software should be made by JEF Europe, taking into consideration the views of
the Editors-in-Chief of all the language editions;

21. Decides that where the section responsible for the edition is unable to
carry out the tasks related to the management of the language edition, JEF
Europe may take on the tasks, while keeping the section informed, or agree to
close it down;

22. Commits to continuing its work to identify and offer capacity-building
opportunities, including project funding, designed to promote the development of
the web magazine;

23. Notes that the language editions of the web magazine have the possibility to
share announcements via JEF Europe’s internal and external communication
channels, including JEF newsletters and social media communications;

24. Encourages JEF sections to promote the opportunity to read and contribute to
the web magazine, and to foster connections between the editorial team members
of the language editions, the wider JEF membership, and young people at large;

25. Commits to involve the language editions, as appropriate, where JEF Europe
becomes aware of an editorial collaboration opportunity with a partner.