The EU Media Wallet reconnects citizens with independent journalism and especially young adults through a News Pass free of charge. By promoting media diversity and rebuilding trust, it fosters informed participation and safeguards democracy.
The threat of
disinformation
to democracies
Source: Media Pluralism Monitor 2025
Democratic resilience depends on informed and engaged citizens. But the new era of online platform dominance has transformed the information environment. This has created a chasm for the proliferation of disinformation that threatens the very foundation on which European democracies and their national security rest.
Sustained EU efforts boost media freedom but scaling them up has proven difficult and citizens still often face barriers in accessing high-quality news. Democratic resilience requires an infrastructure that ensures the financial sustainability of news outlets and allows citizens to access accurate news easily. With young adults most likely to disconnect from news outlets, our proposal places their future readership at its core
we
propose:
The EU Media Wallet, a pan-European digital platform connecting citizens directly with high-quality, independent media through an easy-to-use interface, where citizens can pay for news from different outlets on a per-article basis.
As trusted news are least accessible for young adults, the Media Wallet integrates a tool that gives 18-24-year-olds free access to a selection of quality news content: the News Pass.