Brussels, 22/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 July, the European Commission approved the new tax-based funding system for the Spanish public broadcaster, RTVE, on which it had opened a formal investigation under EU state aid rules in December 2009. Spain abolished advertising and other commercial activities of RTVE and replaced this source of income by new taxes on TV and telecommunications operators.
The new Spanish law (Law 8/2009) of 1 September 2009 provides for advertising, teleshopping, merchandising and pay-per-view services at RTVE to be discontinued with immediate effect. Spain intends to compensate RTVE for the abolition of this revenue with specifically dedicated income generated from two new fiscal measures and one existing measure, in addition to the existing state financing of RTVE. These measures are: - a tax on the revenues of free to air commercial broadcasters (3%) and pay-TV broadcasters (1.5%); - a 0.9% tax on the revenues of electronic communications operators; - and a share of 80% of the already existing levy on radio spectrum use, up to a maximum amount of €330 million.
The Commission hoped to ensure that the new RTVE funding mechanism would rule out the possibility of overcompensation. It also had to verify that the newly created taxes were an integral part of the aid scheme. Aid compatibility could in fact be affected by whether or not such taxes are lawful. In a separate procedure initiated by Commission services responsible for the information society, the Commission had expressed doubts concerning the compatibility of the new taxes with EU law, in particular the rules on electronic communications networks and services (Directive 2002/20/EC of 7 March 2002).
The Commission's inquiry showed that the amount of aid to RTVE does not depend on the revenue generated by these taxes but is only determined by the net operation costs of the broadcaster. Therefore, the compatibility of the aid is not dependent on the question of whether the taxes are legal or not, which is being examined in the separate procedure, Spain, moreover, has demonstrated that safeguards to avoid overcompensation were in place, in particular external auditing of RTVE's annual accounts. (L.C./transl.jl)