Cafébabel is the first European participatory magazine made for young Europeans across borders. Cafébabel is published in 6 languages - English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish - and relies on a network of 1,500 volunteer authors, translators, photographers and filmmakers in Europe. On cafébabel, they talk about Europe “in Real Life”. Always dynamic with an off-the-wall style, sometimes funny but sometimes serious as well, they cover society, politics, culture and lifestyle topics that suit young Europeans.

Cafébabel is an innovative media project that was born after a bunch of Erasmus students from 12 different countries came together at Sciences Po Strasbourg in 2001.

Their idea? To create the first media organisation that would give a voice to all European citizens no matter what language they speak. Cafébabel’s first edition was published on February 1st, 2001, in 4 languages. Since then, the network of babelians has expanded, reaching out to 20 local teams based all around Europe.

In 2003, Adriano Farano, Alexandre Heully, Simon Loubris, - at the age of 22 - gathered in Paris to launch the professional structure of cafébabel, which today has a full-time staff of 10-12 and co-ordinates a network of 1,500 volunteers.

Thanks to a growing number of authors and a vibrant network of volunteer translators, the website was eventually expanded to publish in 6 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish. Because multilingualism is the only way to address readers across borders.

In 2005, cafébabel launched its “Europe on the ground” sessions, which involve sending between 30 to 80 young citizen journalists every year across Europe to realise feature reports. At the same time, cafébabel also initiated multicultural training sessions for its local team members and network of young journalists.

Launched as a crazy student project, cafébabel is now recognized as one of the first web-only media outlets in Europe, using citizen participation to provide off-beat news about Europe and beyond.

Babel international

Babel international is the association that publishes the magazine cafébabel and carries out its projects including feature reports, seminars and conferences in Europe. While its historical headquarters are in Strasbourg, Babel International’s main address is in Paris where they have their office and permanent staff.

Babel International is a democratic non-for-profit association composed of member organisations of the cafébabel network and individual members. As mentioned in its statutes, it is governed by a steering committee elected for a 2 year mandate. Its philosophical aim is to contribute to the emergence of a European public opinion.

Babel International runs an annual budget of +/- 400,000 euros. While being financed by public and private institutions - with its main partner being the Active citizenship program of the European commission - it upholds its full editorial and political independence as written in its editorial charter.