On Monday 31 March 2008, Newswatch UK began a twelve-week investigation into Today’s coverage of European Union news and current affairs. Each edition of the programme was recorded, logged and archived in its entirety, and every item of relevance to the European Union or its relationship to the United Kingdom was fully transcribed.
The monitoring interval included the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on 12 June and the EU’s biannual European Council meeting on 19-20 June. Other significant EU issues to arise during the twelve week period included controversy surrounding MEP’s expenses, the re-emergence of a call for an EU-wide army, and the rise in the value of the euro against the pound.