|
|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Notiziario Marketpress di
Martedì 14 Novembre 2006 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER AGREEMENT TODAY IN THE COUNCIL OF AUDIOVISUAL MINISTERS ON THE PROPOSAL TO MODERNISE THE TELEVISION WITHOUT FRONTIERS DIRECTIVE – REMARKS BY COMMISSIONER VIVIANE REDING -
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Bruxelles, 14 novembre 2006 - This is a good day for media convergence. And it is a good day for convergence between the three Eu institutions. Following repeated calls from the European Parliament, the European Commission proposed last December to modernise the Television without Frontiers Directive of 1989. I very much welcome that today, thanks to the tremendous work done by the Finnish presidency and the good collaboration with the European Parliament and the European Commission, the Council could endorse a so-called “general approach” that reaffirms strongly the architecture of the proposal the Commission made a year ago. As regards the main issues of the new Directive – its scope, the country of establishment principle as its cornerstone, the enhanced flexibility for advertising rules and the need for clearly defined public interest rules in particular as regards the protection of minors – there was broad support today around the table. To recall, the Commission proposal to modernise the Television without Frontiers Directive has essentially three main objectives: First of all, to ensure that in the age of media convergence, the European market will also be opened to new audiovisual media services, such as video on demand services. Just as the original Television Without Frontiers Directive has promoted the take-up of satellite television across the Eu, we want now, in the new millennium, promote the emergence of flourishing on-demand services, whether they are delivered via digital Tv technology, the Internet or mobile phones. This is why the Commission proposed, from the beginning, to make the country of establishment principle, that had worked so well for satellite Tv, also the corner-stone of the new Audiovisual Media Services without Frontiers Directive. Because audiovisual media business can be better done under one single jurisdiction than under 27. A second main objective of the new Directive is to take account of the changing technological and economic environment for audiovisual media services. Today, there are many more media service providers than when the original Directive was drafted, there is more competition among different offers and there is increasingly individual consumer control over the time, place and type of audiovisual media consumption. This means for the Eu that there is today less a need for detailed and prescriptive rules for audiovisual media. It is instead time for giving more flexibility to programme makers across Europe. In this sense, the Commission proposal for an Audiovisual Media Services without Frontiers Directive is an important contribution to the “better regulation”-policy of the European Commission: we propose to cut red tape where this is possible and to create legal certainty where necessary. And to leave more room to user choice, self- and co-regulation. The two-tier approach of the new Directive – which includes only minimum rules for “pull”-content, while providing for more detailed rules as regards traditional Tv, or “push”-content – reflects this approach very well. Thirdly, the Commission proposal emphasises clearly the common European values and the specificities of the European audiovisual model. Deliberately, we have not opted for allowing Us-style Tv on European Tv screens, with permanent and isolated advertising breaks that are more prominent than the Tv programme itself. Deliberately, we decided to continue to preserve the upper limit of maximum 12 minutes per hour for advertising, while giving programme makers more flexibility to make use of these 12 minutes. Deliberately, the Commission ensures, in its proposal that today has found wide approval, that the protection of minors is among the guiding public policy interests also in the new media age. And deliberately, we focussed not only on new technologies and services, but made sure in our proposal that cultural diversity, which is where Europe is at its best, continues to be an important yardstick for assessing the success of Europe’s media policies. Today is thus an important milestone, as it shows that there is a broad consensus in Europe among the direction Eu media policy will take in the next decade. Of course, this is not the end of the matter, and further work continues to be needed. I have been a Parliamentarian myself for many years, and I know only too well how busy Meps will be over the next weeks to find good compromise solutions on the news Directive as well. I sincerely hope that they will be similarly successful as we were today here in the Council - already this evening, the vote of the Culture Committee will take place in Strasbourg - and that together, all three institutions will find good solutions for the final text under German Presidency next year. The discussions we had today, and my many talks with the rapporteur in the European Parliament, make me confident that such good solutions are now within reach. Official information of the European Commission is available at any time at http://europa. Eu. Int/rapid/ . |
|
| |
|
|
| |
<<BACK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
