EurActiv Appoints Director of CrossLingual Network of Policy Portals

EurActiv, a freely accessible policy portal, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ivan Stefunko as director of the CrossLingual network of policy portals. The CrossLingual network comprises eight national publications in Central and Eastern Europe, which use content translated from EurActiv.com alongside their original local coverage. Together with its French and German versions, EurActiv content is now available in 11 languages for 250 000 readers..

Ivan Stefunko is a Slovak citizen who was the launch publisher of EurActiv Slovakia and EurActiv Czech Republic, which now have a combined total of 35,000 readers. Previously, he also worked as publisher of Slovo, a weekly political magazine in Slovakia. Ivan holds degrees from the Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, and the Institut des Etudes Politiques-Sciences Po in Paris. He speaks English, French and Slovak.

Christophe Leclercq, EurActiv’s publisher, said: “Through his three-year track record and his hands-on experience in managing two of our eight partner sites, Ivan brings to EurActiv.com valuable knowledge in network development and business operations.”

“People across Europe are very interested to learn more about Central European countries. The consolidation of the EurActiv network, under the leadership of Ivan Stefunko, aims to meet that need,” said Manuela Preoteasa, managing director of EurActiv Romania.

EurActiv will be available for comment:

“The CrossLingual network is a perfect example of a functioning decentralised but harmonised information and public affairs tool,” said Ivan Stefunko. “Not many things in the EU are like that.”

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Note to the editor:

Media contact

Ivan Stefunko: Network Director – Tel. +32 2 788 36 94, E-mail: stefunko@euractiv.com
Christophe Leclercq: Publisher – Tel. +32 2 226 58 13, E-mail: publisher@euractiv.com

EurActiv is a freely accessible independent portal on EU affairs. With more than 1.4 million page views per month and over 140,000* unique visitors (CIM certified figures – April 2005), the site is an important working instrument for the majority of EU Actors (institutions, industry federations, NGOs, think tanks, the press and others) involved in defining or influencing EU policies.

Via its CrossLingual network of affiliated policy portals, EurActiv’s original content in English, French and German is available in eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe, who translate and localise EurActiv news for their national audiences. Together with the CrossLingual network, EurActiv has a total readership of over 250,000 unique visitors (CIM certified figures – May 2005).

The following are general sponsors of EurActiv’s portal: the European Commission, Toyota Motor Europe, Banca Intesa, Microsoft, DuPont, Honeywell, Visa Europe, Sagem, Manpower and Shell. Section sponsors of EurActiv include: BP, EDF, Eucomed, ExxonMobil, Cefic, Gallup Europe, Nike, Pfizer, Kellen Europe and US Mission to the EU.

EurActiv also has 60 “content partners” (NGOs & think tanks) as well as ca. 500 “contributors”, providing their policy positions for free publication, up to the editorial team. Input welcome: editor@euractiv.com.