Brussels, 29/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission sent reasoned opinions to Belgium and the UK on 29 September calling on them to implement outstanding provisions of the EU's Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive in Brussels and Gibraltar respectively. This is the second stage in EU infringement procedures.
Belgium has informed the Commission of measures to implement the AVMS Directive as regards all audiovisual media services that are established in all three linguistic communities: French, Flemish and German. However, audiovisual media services established in Brussels, a bilingual French-Dutch region, fall outside the competence of the linguistic Communities and remain within the remit of the federal authorities. The Belgian federal state has not yet adopted the laws governing these services. As a consequence, on-demand services provided in Brussels in other languages than French and Dutch are not yet regulated. The Belgian authorities have informed the Commission that a draft law is being prepared but is still in a preliminary phase.
The United Kingdom has also informed the Commission of measures to incorporate the AVMS Directive into national law. However, this law does not cover audiovisual services provided in Gibraltar. A Bill is under preparation, but the adoption process is still underway.
The Commission sent letters of formal notice to 16 member states on 29 March of this year seeking information on the implementation of the directive which had to be transposed into national law by 19 December 2009 (see EUROPE 10347). (IL/transl.rt)