Greek PM Alexis Tsipras brings the EU to its knees

Upload yours, Delors! Live streaming banjaxed during EP debate

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras managed to bring the European Parliament’s live streaming service to a standstill this morning.

The Greek leader was giving an unusual speech to MEPs in Strasbourg following Sunday’s referendum, but despite much crowing from the EU Parliament press department about how everyone would be able to follow the oratory and subsequent debate online, the service proved to be a slo-mo and stop affair.

The screw-up prompted angry reactions from journalists on Twitter, with Bruno Waterfield, Brussels correspondent for The Times, wondering how well-funded EU servers could fail due to “unforeseen public interest”.

"The failure of the live feed deprived citizens of seeing the democracy in action," thundered one-time Brussels Correspondent for NewEurope, Andy Carling. "This keeps happening, no wonder they're getting fed up. It was important for Greeks to see the debate in the European Parliament.

Despite the huge amounts of money the parliament spends on its streaming service, both the BBC and France24 did a better job.

“Money is not the reason the EU AV services can't do a live broadcast from the EP, so what is it? This live broadcast cock-up is a failure of democracy by the EU. They should be ashamed,” said Carling.

Tsipras’s appearance was unusual and organised at short notice, which may be some justification, but neither the Parliament’s tech department nor Europarl TV had responded to requests for comment at the time of publishing. ®